This is an interesting discovery many fortunate millennial children might have unearthed once in their lifetime. Sneaking into that one treasured and cornered belonging — most often a creaky old cupboard at home — and a few photographs in monochrome tumbling out of it. To see a young granny and grandpa in their wedding attire sporting hard-pressed facial expressions was a moment that tickled a mixed feel of smile and awe in the little ones.
The sepia tint and nostalgia tucked frames that disappeared from the wedding scene for decades, post the revolution of colours are on a revival. Monochrome has become the buzz word in wedding photography now, thanks to the old-world charm that technology has failed to tone down.
As photography is in a transition from capturing stills of induced drama to candid shots, the technique from the yore is regaling in all its glory. One of the most demanding wedding photographers Anu Ommen’s website and Facebook page have its home pages adorned with the D-day moments in black and white. He adopts a style to fill in more than half a space of the wedding album in the shades of grey.
“The thing is, a picture gets more life when caught in monochrome. Most of the clients leave me with the freedom to choose the colour combo and I return them an output in the most elegant way. It’s a most preferred option among those couples from abroad. Church weddings have the possibilities to integrate black and white photography in it. It is majorly tried during solo, couple, make-up and candid shots,” he says.
Still there’s a misconception that these are just photoshopped twins of the colour clicks. The Kochi-based lensman clarifies, “The pictures that underwent a touch-up on Photoshop can easily be identified as they come out in bits of bluish shades. The advanced cameras have straight options to make settings for a black and white image.”
The trend garnered a lot of attention among netizens in recent times when reality star- cum-actor Dimpy Ganguly shared the stunning frames from her D-day with Dubai-based structural engineer Rohit Roy on Instagram. And the predictable happened. The internet was taken by storm for days on end! The girl in plumes of white and the boy in a suit and a dark bow-tie looked stunningly amazing in playful poses and of course the entourage were not back seated and got enough highlight too.
The past three to four years have seen a boom in black and white photography scene, according to Kollam-based Adersh Anilkumar who specialises in wedding photography. “The weddings are getting theme-based in Kerala. Other than the bride and groom, their relatives and friends too jump on the bandwagon. They have got dress codes these days. To capture the essence of the entire party in full vitality, monochrome helps a good deal. People prefer to incorporate an element of vintage into it and they come and demand for it. Then we choose not to go behind Photoshop filters and manage it by setting the option available on camera,” says Adersh.
A wedding being an occasion that demands spontaneity, those zooming in the lens have to keep an extra vigil not to lose the vitality of every movement taking place in a wedding hall. A bigger advantage that hides in the detour from the colourful palette is the ample space for experimentation for the professionals. “An exclusive wedding album in black and white is a possible prediction for future. Or else we can plan a souvenir, a surprise gift album in monochrome for the newlyweds,” Adersh suggests.
