Every once in awhile I get asked the question "why do you hand-color your photographs?". This is usually followed with "why not just take a color photograph" or "can't you do that in Photoshop?".

Since the earliest days of photography, black and white photographs have been hand-colored, but for different reasons. The main intent then was to add a bit of realism to the black and white photograph. The introduction of color film decreased the demand for hand-coloring, but portrait artists continued to offer this option well into the 1950's and early 1960's.

So why do I hand-color? Once reason is the almost meditative state I experience when I am hand-coloring. In my workshops it's been fun to watch the class become quiet and reflective when they first start coloring. After awhile they start sharing and talking while they work, but the calm usually returns a couple of more times before the class ends.

Once I started hand-coloring I began to shoot differently. I could visualize the possibilities hand-coloring could add to the scene before me. Hand-coloring seemed to add emotion to my photographs, something that I wasn't able to communicate as well with my black and white images.

While I have started to dabble with coloring in Photoshop, I know I will never give up coloring my prints by hand. I love Photoshop and what it can do to help me create the best black and white print possible, but hand-coloring that print with pastels seems to be the perfect marriage between technology and tradition, and this is something I plan to carry on for as long as I can.