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05-02-2022, 12:31 AM - 1 Like   #1
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Black and White vs Monochrome - so there is a difference

ok, so I don't learn something every day, but I learned something today. Black & White is different than monochrome.

The the site linked at the end here:


"...even though you may see these words used interchangeably, they are not identical!
The word monochrome means “of a single color.” So, monochrome photos can have a color tint, assuming it is just one color. Take a look at the photo below. It has a brown hue to enhance the character, but all the other colors have been removed. Although this counts as monochrome, it is not black and white. True black and white photos have no color at all. They are entirely black, gray, and white."




Comments welcome. Just as I was beginning to think that monochrome was the same as b&w.... Also, I guess Sepia is monochrome and not b&w....



Source: https://photographylife.com/black-and-white-photography

05-02-2022, 12:37 AM - 7 Likes   #2
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If anyone has had a wife/girlfriend who owns many shoes - they will know there are many different shades of white.
05-02-2022, 01:30 AM   #3
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AFAIK Henry Ford said any colour as long as it's black. (I could be wrong)😊
05-02-2022, 02:11 AM - 2 Likes   #4
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Prof in grad school was adamant that "Clear speaking leads to clear thinking." In her presence, you were extremely careful to use the proper word/term. Things are, of course, a tad more creative in the real world.

05-02-2022, 03:32 AM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by Michael Piziak Quote
ok, so I don't learn something every day, but I learned something today. Black & White is different than monochrome.
Comments welcome. Just as I was beginning to think that monochrome was the same as b&w.... Also, I guess Sepia is monochrome and not b&w....
Similarly various other toning options … platinum, selenium etc. that could be applied to monochrome prints for "effect" and/or to enhance the life of the print.
Indeed, "back in the day", it wasn't unusual to see monochrome photographic paper advertised as having "cool blacks" or "deep warm blacks" or similar phrasing to emphasise characteristics of a particular product.
Paper developers may have also had similar adjectives applied, but I don't remember specifically.
05-02-2022, 03:45 AM   #6
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Today software often offer split toning under the B&W tab. Example: Capture One Pro:

For highlights and shadows you choose a Hue and Saturation. So - a starting and end point like black and white is defined in the image toned according these parameters.
05-02-2022, 03:54 AM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by Digitalis Quote
If anyone has had a wife/girlfriend who owns many shoes - they will know there are many different shades of white.
or owns many purses or been shopping for paint - there are shades of any color, including gradients of 'black'...

05-02-2022, 04:12 AM   #8
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Having worked with computers since early on, I know monochrome can come in any color.
Early computers came with monochrome displays, often green or amber.

In the late 1980s I worked on Ericsson's R&D dep as a trainee where they among other things developed early flat-screens for desktop computers.

During this time the business was sold to Nokia and everyone in the building went on a strike.
So me and a couple of other students were the only ones "working" during a couple of weeks when hundreds of the employees went on strike.

Nokia buys EIS - Ericsson
05-02-2022, 05:08 AM   #9
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"Although this counts as monochrome, it is not black and white. True black and white photos have no color at all. They are entirely black, gray, and white." This last remark is actually describing monochrome: It are all shades of grey! In printing it is referred to as grey scale. A real B&W has no grey in it, but consists only of black and white.
05-02-2022, 05:39 AM   #10
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This person is desperate in seeking material to fill a book and here nitpicking on terms everybody in photography uses interchangeable without making a difference. B&W, monochrome and monotone all have the same meaning; it is not a color photo. All digital camera manufactures are using the term monochrome or monotone 1] to indicate what formerly was known in the film era as B&W. Also, a toning doesn't suddenly change a B&W photo into monochrome, nobody spends any thought about that.

1] As a sidenote, Pentax is even using both words monochrome and monotone in the same user manual for the K3-III, which I think is the result of merging material from the GR-III. So, when you are searching for only one of these terms you are missing features!
05-02-2022, 06:05 AM - 4 Likes   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by pepperberry farm Quote
been shopping for paint
Or taken a photographer like me shopping for light bulbs, unfortunately I have incredibly accurate hue discrimination. At present I have all RGB bulbs in my house so I can tune them to the exact same colour temperature. Few things in this world set my teeth on edge like two light bulbs with white balance values 200 kelvin apart. I've tried slumming it with more energy efficient bulbs*: CFL and advanced LED's but the blasted things can experience inexplicable colour shifts as they age.


* I never thought I'd miss the consistency of tungsten bulbs as energy inefficient as they are.
05-02-2022, 06:50 AM - 2 Likes   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by Digitalis Quote
CFL and advanced LED's but the blasted things can experience inexplicable colour shifts as they age.


* I never thought I'd miss the consistency of tungsten bulbs as energy inefficient as they are.
It's worse than that!

Both CFLs and most LEDs have color shifts within each electrical cycle and as a function of temperature. This is because they rely on one physical phenomenon to convert electrical power into short- wavelength light (CFLs excite mercury vapor and most LEDs have a blue or near-UV LED as the main emitter) and then use various phosphors to convert chromatically-deficient main source light into a spectrum of other colors. But the different phosphors have different time constants and different temperature coefficients.

The obnoxious color shifts with age come from differential aging of the phosphors -- akin the the problem of burn-in on some types of computer monitors. The onslaught of photons damages the chemicals in the phosphor with different color phosphors aging at different rates.

Nothing in life is constant except change.
05-02-2022, 08:03 AM   #13
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And from the original post we finally meandered to poly-chrome
05-02-2022, 08:16 AM - 2 Likes   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by photoptimist Quote
Nothing in life is constant except change.
Nothing in life is constant except Entropy.
05-02-2022, 08:28 AM - 2 Likes   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by photoptimist Quote
The obnoxious color shifts with age come from differential aging of the phosphors -- akin the the problem of burn-in on some types of computer monitors. The onslaught of photons damages the chemicals in the phosphor with different color phosphors aging at different rates.
That may be true as the light ages. However, as the person ages, the color shifts become much less noticeable. I was reading this thinking "color shift?" when I realized that the effects of my age far outweigh any effects of lightbulb age.
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