What makes a good B&W photo???

Dan, good question, and i have spent some time on this, or on a very similar dilema - the case for B&W over color. Now, if the question was what makes a B&W photo better than the equivalent color i would have had a different and difficult answer from the one here.

For me, being someone who love B&W, i have a few key requirements for a good B&W, here they are :

• Scene needs to be contrasty and/or with enough light sources / areas in. For example a field with cloudy skies at night, the sea at night, etc - are very poor candidates for B&W

• Central strong light(s) creating heavy shadows are very fit for B&W and somehow warranty great / better results

• Portraits and shots of groups of people, the street. In general subjects in which the color is distracting from the real image, the image within the image

• Processing / PP. I personally avoid high key type, grey-flat, grey-whites and grey-black development, with lots of details in shadows, and HDR look

My 2c
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