If you are looking for black & white photographs from a family photographer in Stourbridge & the West Midlands who can provide you with stunning black & white portraits together with a fantastic service you've come to the right place!

Black & White Portraits

Back in 1958, when William Hart first established the business, almost all of the photography created was in black & white. Some colour photography was available in the form of slides and prints from transparencies but generally colour photographs weren’t light stable. They would fade fairly quickly. So all of the weddings and portraits back then were photographed in black & white.

By the mid 1960’s colour prints were more commonly available but it wasn’t until the 1970’s that colour photography became a real force to compete with black & white photography. Before long colour photography pretty much took over every form of photography we undertook. It wasn’t long before black & white photographs were very much in the minority. By the early 1980’s, the only black & white photographs we were producing were for passport and identity photographs & for commercial photographs.

No one wanted black & white portraits any more & no one wanted their wedding photographed in black & white either. It wasn’t until the early to mid 1990’s that black & white portraits started to make a resurgence. This was due in part to a new generation who were seeing black & white photographs as something new. They had grown up seeing everything in colour! By the early 2000’s black & white photography was truly back in fashion again.

These days black & white portraits account for about half of the portraits we create, in fact these days anything goes! Due to the digital age we are only restricted by our imagination. Black & white portraits with selected areas of colour are also quite popular and look very effective.