Why We Shoot In Black and White

Colour Can Distract

Clothing, busy background and colour objects can take away from the moment of the photo. The black and white images allow your brain to focus only on the main element of the photo and the emotional message is more easily conveyed as our brains become more perceptive and focused on the images core itself. Taking away distractions gives you a focused image that is often more powerful and spectacular.

You’ll See Light Differently

With outdoor lighting in particular, you will miss out on that golden afternoon glow but you will also gain a more focused shot. The shot will lead your eye to focus more on the direction, quantity and quality of light in the black and white shot. As a photographer learning how to read and play with different elements of light in this way is a fantastic skill that helps play up emotion in the shot. The relationship between the starkness of the light and dark can be more interesting to shoot than the regular colour shots. Light and the relationship with my subject (and the shadows that form) as well as other complementary elements of the individual become the focus, rather than the colour of elements in the frame.

It Helps Emphasize Emotion

Looking at someone’s face, or into their eyes, without the distraction of color can provide a stronger emotional connection to the subject. It’s not necessarily always the case, but if like me, you often feel more connected to a person in a black and white image over a color image, this could be the reason why. With color gone, it’s purely about the connection you have with the subject. The color of the trees and shrubs, buildings and lamp posts are all irrelevant as the focus becomes the emotional bond between the embracing family.

Its A Classic
One of the most common reasons people want to shoot in black and white today is because it lends a certain timeless quality to the images. This is because we still think of black and white as being a throwback to the photographic past. Of course, it is in terms of black and white was much more prevalent before color, but this is still a great reason to shoot black and white. Black and white never seems to fade from being fashion forward and its seen as an elegant and sophisticated choice by many of my clients.

It Amplifies Your Use of Space

Negative space – the areas of the frame that have nothing in them, are easier to showcase and highlight when shooting black and white. This relates back to minimizing distractions from not shooting in color. You tend to focus on light and dark areas of the frame – and their inter-relationship. Playing with negative space is also useful in separating your subject nicely from the background and give added depth to the image. Black and white can help to highlight a shape and form or pattern in the image that might be overlooked in a full colour image.

To Highlight Beauty and Skin Tones

It doesn’t matter what race, color or background you happen to be – black and white photography provides wonderful tonal range between the deepest blacks and the whitest whites. Garishly colorful makeup is no longer distracting. Pigments, discoloration and distracting elements of the skin can become less obvious. I particularly love this when I am emphasizing a newborns skin and wrinkles. Its that light bath or glow if you like that separates the baby from everything else and proves to shape our attention directly at the newborn.

Love the black and white look? Give us a call today to discuss what you want from your next photo shoot. TEL: 8858 0088; Whatsapp Us; or email us at info@tomato.sg

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School Holiday Thoughts….

For parents who have children in “big school” as my kids call it… we understand the challenge of waking up in the early morning darkness… and at times dealing with tantrums before school… and many of us feel that it is a groundhog day over and over until the “School Holiday”…

As parents, we thought, YES!!! we have an hour more to sleep and kids will behave themselves and give us, parents, that 1 precious hour of “sleep”.

Guess what?

They wake up earlier than school days and start their “party”…

I am sure many of you can relate…

One thing strike me very hard this morning is, yes, our children may feel “liberated” from school… but for some reason, I felt that I have not done much for them… and understandably the guilt sets in…

Lets face it, as much as we think we want to spend MORE time with them, they have their own things going on… so the time we spend with them actually rather limited.

Yes, we can bring them out for things that makes them happy… however, looking back… what do we have to remember of them? how do they want to remember us when they grow up?

Like investment, it only pays off many years down the road.

Imagine we never take those first steps in investing in their memories… I call it, emotional bank account… How do we bank in those emotion bit by bit and allow them to remember us when they have their own family… in short, what kind of role model are we hoping our children to become?

Lucky for me, I have the skills to capture what I want to remember of them and of course how I want them to remember their childhood as well as with us…

Sure, in the digital age, we have those softcopy which we hold dearly… personally, I don’t remember much of what I shoot a month ago… My answer to my own need is to have them display…

These are some of our memories with our children…

I work so hard every single day and I love to come home and surround myself with happy memories of my children… I don’t think it is too much to ask…

Give me a call if you would like to make use of my skills for your family too…

Regards,

Hart Tan
8858 0088
info@tomato.sg
www.tomato.sg

Treasure the Time through Photography

Parents, Grandparents and elders have stopped me over the years to tell me the same thing: cherish every moment. It goes too fast. One day they are little and the next, they’re not. They say it while staring fondly, wistfully, at my kids. Watching their faces, I can tell that some part of them is replaying a memory of when their own children were small and needed them more. This for me is the reason why I love what I do as a photographer. I am able to help parents capture these moments that fly by in an eternal print and frame. We can savor our memories of our young children by looking loving at an old photograph of them just being themselves. Photographs give you that personal insight into their state of mind and capabilities at that specific time. A photograph inspires our memory, brings back a particular smell or feeling we had in that moment and for every parent that instant insight is priceless.

Parents come back each year for that annual shoot time and time again as they recognize how the fast the special moments of their little ones childhoods fly by. Photos help you treasure and relive these moments as you reflect back on the growth and achievements of your children over the days, months and years.

Perhaps the best quote I have heard this week is that “they are older today than yesterday and time is not slowing down.” All we can do is preserve time and this is what Tomato Photo does best.

Interested in preserving your family memories? Then give us a call to schedule in your annual shoot TEL: 8858 0088

A Mums reflection …

As parents we are caught in this constant mental and emotional state of wanting our children to grow up so that we can see all of their achievements and then on the other hand wanting them to remain small and child like forever needing their parents. Its this constant conundrum that we go back and fourth with that keeps us on our toes as parents.

Its for this reason that I love being a photographer. I recently met with one of my clients who is pregnant for the second time and with this pregnancy she finds herself reflecting over and over again her firsts newborns photos. She uses these images to try and imagine what it will be like welcoming this new baby in the family dynamic and how much she loved those first few months of bonding with her first.

This is how powerful family imagery is, it brings back raw emotions of being a parent to a newborn and it creates the perfect moment of sweet reflection and excitement for the impending future arrival.

The client revealed that reflecting back on those first newborn photos made her proud as a mother, how much she had accomplished and how much more confident she felt for the arrival of this new baby. She even mentioned that she is looking forward to the next newborn shoot as she feels so much more relaxed about the whole experience of motherhood. With a witty joke she comment that “you always have to do for the second what you did for the first.” Another reason that I love my job – just that the returning clients who come back and show me their new and extended family

Happy growing families are my inspiration and I can’t wait to meet this new arrival as I have so many before.” Time flies” I reminded my client, enjoy this second pregnancy and see you soon.

If you are interested to have your newborn photographed, please give us a call on 8858 0088. Make sure to book in early as we only do a limited set of newborn shoots per month

8 years of friendship and memories…

The Morris family started their life in Singapore as a young and happy married couple and over the 8 years… they left with 2 beautiful children, 8 years worth of photographic memories as well as countless friends that they have met in Singapore.

To some, family photography is a service… but for people who know, they are just an activity that create the memories that you will hold onto dearly… It is the story of their family life and I am honored to be part of it.

If you are looking to do it for your family… give us a call on 8858 0088 and see how we can start capture and preserve those memories for you…

This is the 8 years journey of the Morris Family…