Is Black and White photography better?

[tbcass]

Black and White photography does a perfectly good job when you are colorblind.

Henry

Not really. Read this:

Color vision deficiency: MedlinePlus Genetics

 

[Aaron801]

Black and White photography does a perfectly good job when you are colorblind.

Henry

That makes me think of my dad who died years ago. My dad would use his colorblindness to cover his total lack of interest in visual art of any kind. He literally didn't seem to be able to tell the difference between a photo and a not even very realistic painting and if anyone questioned him on it he'd say something like "well, you know that I'm colorblind, right?"

 

[Henry Falkner]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

 

[halvar27]

In my opinion, some black and white photos are better than the current ones

 

[Tom Axford]

In my opinion, some black and white photos are better than the current ones

What on earth does this sentence mean?

Please think before you post.

 

[Hawkypuck]

I think 'current ones' is supposed to mean color photos, which are currently popular and in use.

 

[tbcass]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

Excellent. Admitting to making a mistake is uncommon on DPR with some people going to great lengths to cover up the fact they were wrong about something.

 

[Mackiesback]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

Excellent. Admitting to making a mistake is uncommon on DPR with some people going to great lengths to cover up the fact they were wrong about something.

I look forward to the day in the distant future when I am wrong about something so I can do the same. :-D:-D:-D

 

[Aaron801]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

I don't think that you are wrong in the sense that if one is colorblind and can't reliably tell certain colors apart, I can see that they may prefer to deal with B&W, if only so that they are better able to communicate their aesthetic intent to others. If a colorblind person is working in a color medium they don't necessarily have a very good idea on how they're communicating the color information in the work to other people.

 

[Henry Falkner]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

I don't think that you are wrong in the sense that if one is colorblind and can't reliably tell certain colors apart, I can see that they may prefer to deal with B&W, if only so that they are better able to communicate their aesthetic intent to others. If a colorblind person is working in a color medium they don't necessarily have a very good idea on how they're communicating the color information in the work to other people.

I thought that 'color blind' means 'seeing the world in tones of grey'. This seems to be not what actually happens.

Henry

 

[D Cox]

Fair argument. It's true, black and white prints last forever and never fade.

Kodachrome slides don't do too badly, either...

Aaron

Kodachrome needs to be kept in the dark. I have several Kodachromes that were spoiled by being left out in the light.

Don

 

[D Cox]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

I don't think that you are wrong in the sense that if one is colorblind and can't reliably tell certain colors apart, I can see that they may prefer to deal with B&W, if only so that they are better able to communicate their aesthetic intent to others. If a colorblind person is working in a color medium they don't necessarily have a very good idea on how they're communicating the color information in the work to other people.

True.

Robert Fawcett was a very successful illustrator who was colour blind. He wrote a good book on drawing, and his drawing is superb. But his colours are muddy.





R S Sherriffs is another. The only colour work by him that I've ever seen is an edition of Omar Khayyam, and the use of colour in that is poor. He did a great many illustrations to reviews of movies in the 1950s.





Don

 

[D Cox]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

I don't think that you are wrong in the sense that if one is colorblind and can't reliably tell certain colors apart, I can see that they may prefer to deal with B&W, if only so that they are better able to communicate their aesthetic intent to others. If a colorblind person is working in a color medium they don't necessarily have a very good idea on how they're communicating the color information in the work to other people.

I thought that 'color blind' means 'seeing the world in tones of grey'. This seems to be not what actually happens.

Henry

There are two opponent-colour signals that go from the retina to the brain: red/green and blue/yellow. In color-blind people the red/green signal is weak or occasionally absent, because the peaks of the response curves for their medium- and long-wave receptor cones are too close together.

In old people whose lenses have darkened with age, the blue/yellow signal is weak because little blue light gets through the lens. You can simulate this effect by wearing Ray-Bann sunglasses. A cataract operation will fix this problem.

Don

 

[David Pavlich]

In color-blind people the red/green signal is weak or occasionally absent, because the peaks of the response curves for their medium- and long-wave receptor cones are too close together.

Don

Described my son to a 'T'. ;-) Green is especially a bit wonky.

David

 

[Aaron801]

Thank you all foryour corrections and anecdotes.

I was wrong.

Henry

I don't think that you are wrong in the sense that if one is colorblind and can't reliably tell certain colors apart, I can see that they may prefer to deal with B&W, if only so that they are better able to communicate their aesthetic intent to others. If a colorblind person is working in a color medium they don't necessarily have a very good idea on how they're communicating the color information in the work to other people.

True.

Robert Fawcett was a very successful illustrator who was colour blind. He wrote a good book on drawing, and his drawing is superb. But his colours are muddy.



R S Sherriffs is another. The only colour work by him that I've ever seen is an edition of Omar Khayyam, and the use of colour in that is poor. He did a great many illustrations to reviews of movies in the 1950s.



Don

There was a very well known graphic designer Tibor Kalman who was known to be colorblind. His particular skills certainly weren't for color then and he didn't, as far as I know, have skills in illustration, photography or other media, but had a kind of conceptual genius, which was apprently enough to make him a star in his chosen profession.

--
my flickr:

Aaron Hayman

Explore Aaron Hayman’s 967 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[Chris Noble]

I have loads of black and white family pictures.

That's because in the old days color film was either too expensive or simply not available.

Technical reasons are also why photography started out in black and white only.

Many of the images we consider iconic today were taken in B&W.

Also B&W photography has a certain look about it, that's for sure.

But today color is free and it's not a limiting factor anymore, you can even tweak colors to suit one's taste.

So why do some people still shoot in Black and White? Is it about art or tradition? Is it about being different? Or does it have something to do with focusing on shapes and light rather than color, which is perceived as a distraction from the true meaning of a given image?

Please explain.

Why do you think artists have always drawn in charcoal in addition to painting in colors? If you don't know the answer, an art appreciation course might be interesting for you.