Looking through some old family photos had me thinking about photography in the past. When did you switch from B&W snapshots of family events to color photos? When do you think the average family did so? Did you ever take B&W photos after you got a color camera? And how common were amateur films like 8mm, and how often did it get used?
We were using color photos as far back as the 1950s, though my father shot slides instead of photographs. He used an 8 mm film camera (color) in the 50s, but stopped using it, probably because it was limited in what could be done (hard to use indoors without a bar of lights to illuminate the scene).
We were probably a bit early, but most people were taking color photos by the mid-1960s.
My grandma was a camera-loving, picture nut! She was taking color slides in the 50s. Possibly earlier. I recall pictures of my mom (born in 1940) as a kid being in color. Whether they were actual photographs or prints made from slides, I’m not sure. She also took a lot of movies. As far as I know, all of the family movies we have are in color and they went back to the 50s also. There’s something about slide pictures - they are just beautiful.
Before the advent of the phones with cameras, I used to buy B&W film on occasion. I took prom pictures of my son and his girlfriend and pictures at my daughter’s wedding. I love those pictures. A whole different look. The photographer even took a few B&W grad pics of my son. Those have always been my favorites.
My father started taking color photos since his first camera, back in the 1930s. The difference between black-and-white and color has nothing to do with the camera, but what kind of film is used. It’s not a matter of b/w being old and color being new.
While that’s true, color film (as opposed to slide film) was still a lot more expensive and not widely use, I believe, until the mid-60s. I know my parent’s family photos were BW until about 1965-1968, and I can only surmise that was due to film cost (purchase and/or processing). I think most high school yearbook photos changed from BW to color around 1970, too.
All of our family photos are color, both prints and slides, and they date back to about 1960.
Personally, I still prefer to shoot in black & white. When I shoot film, it is a lot easier to develop. And when I shoot digitally, I still frequently use black & white mode. I just think it looks better for certain types of images.
All my childhood and family photos are B&W going back to my brother in 1947. My (richer) Aunts used color slide film during the same period.
We went to color in the mid 70s when we got our first “modern” 110 instamatic.
I used B&W in the 70s in 35mm so I could learn to process film. I very rarely use B&W these days, unless I’m trying to make a specific type of image. God gave us color vision, and we should use it.
I just checked – I have a color photo of my uncle, who died at Normandy. So this has to be before 1944.
Complete nitpick (and you probably already know it, but mistyped), but in the days of film, nothing kept you from using color and B&W film in the same camera.
My family switched over to color film when it and the processing became cheap in the mid/early 60’s, and never went back. I shot B&W for various reasons up until the last decade. I think I have a few rolls that they still make the chemistry for (with my organizational skills, I might still have a bulk loader filled with it somewhere), should I decide to actually shoot/process some.
I kept on shooting B&W because I could get much faster films I really liked the look of long-lense photographs. Dad switched to Polaraid in the 60’s, and colour slides around '70.
My grandad was using colour slides in the 1950s if not earlier. There are black and white prints of a very young me from 1972-3 - I think this was because b&w was still a bit cheaper then.
My family was using color film since at least the mid-sixites, which is as far back as I can remember. Some of those prints from that era have some funky color – and I don’t mean because of the bad fashion sense and godawful decor.
My first camera was a 110. Had a lot of fun with that. I remember the larger film cartridge that my mother, for example, used, but don’t remember the name of it. My next camera after the 110 went bust used 35 mm.
While working at my college newspaper, I took a flyer at being a photographer, using B&W film. Even learned how to develop it. 