MONOCHROME VS. BLACK & WHITE

This new age of digital imaging has seemed to cause some confusion on the difference between a monochromatic image and a black & white image.

Monochrome is not Black & White and Black & White is not Monochrome

You may have been told, by a well meaning and very sincere photographer, that a black & white photo is a monochrome photo or that a monochromatic image is black & white. That simply isn't true.

The dictionary defines monochrome as “A picture, especially a painting, done in different shades of a SINGLE COLOR .”

The word "monochrome" or "monochromatic" means ONE COLOR.

The word "dichromatic" means having two colors.

The word "polychromatic" means having many colors.

Black and white images have ONLY shades of gray with absolutely no color.

A black & white photograph or image, is made up of varying shades of gray (grey, if you are in other English speaking counties other than the USA) from black to white or, anywhere in between.

A monochromatic image, on the other hand, is an image or a print that is made up of varying shades of one color. That color may be very faint, very vibrant or anywhere in between.

When using film and making black & white prints , the prints can be toned with various things to make them have color. I commonly used selenium to make my prints more permanent. The print would be put through a selenium bath and the selenium would replace the silver in the print. Selenium, depending upon the concentration, can cause a print to have varying tones of brown, making it monochromatic. Some people used gold toning which would render a print with blue tones. Dyes and many other things can be used to tone prints and make monochromatic images.

You would not believe how many people have argued with me, telling me their photo or image is a pure black & white image with “no color whatsoever!” But, when I place their image, next to a grayscale copy of their image, they can usually see the difference, and they back down. Once that black & white print is toned, making it have color, it is no longer black & white!

Most photos posted into BLACK & WHITE Photographers Facebook group are RGB files. That, by the very essence of the name, is a color photo. RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue. Every color in our rainbow is made up of varying shades of those colors. Most photographers completely reduce the saturation of their photos which make it appear to be a black & white photo, which is acceptable to post in our group.

A Grayscale image will not contain any color, ONLY SHADES OF GRAY

The ONLY way to make absolutely certain that an image is black & white, is to convert it to a grayscale image. As a grayscale image, it is a true black & white image with varying shades of gray and no color whatsoever. If you want to make absolutely sure that your image has no color whatsoever, save it as a grayscale image, not an RGB or CMYK image.

We have seen several apps that are not properly converting color images to grayscale images. Before you post a photo in BLACK & WHITE Photographers, please check your photo with photo editing software to make sure it has no color or save it as a grayscale image.

Example 1: This is a typical example of so many photos that are posted on BLACK & WHITE Photographers Facebook Group. The photo on the left is NOT a black & white photograph. If you were to see it, by itself, you may argue that it is. But, checking it in Photoshop or other photo editing software, you will see that it has blue tones. Therefore, it is a monochromatic image. The photo on the right is exactly the same as the one on the left, except that it has been converted to a grayscale image, making it a true black & white photograph with no color, whatsoever.

Example 2: Another thing that we can do as we moderate images in BLACK & WHITE Photographers, is take the photo, as in Example 1, and crank up the saturation. The colors will become more obvious, as we do this, in the color photo. The grayscale image, having the exact same saturation change, will never show any color. You can clearly see how the saturation change becomes more evident in the monochrome image and shows no saturation because there is no color whatsoever in the black & white image on the right.

BLACK & WHITE Photographers Facebook group is a group that was established for those who love the art of black & white photography. We do not allow anything other than black & white photos. Many, many posts have been made to the group stating that only black & white images are allowed and we even have web pages you can go to, to show you how to convert your color image to black & white.

I wish I had the time to take each photo that has been deleted for color and show each photographer the color in his/her photo. Unfortunately, I don't have that much time. I already spend 10 to 14 hours a day working on this group and our other moderators are extremely generous in volunteering their time to make sure everyone has a great experience in our group. REMEMBER: No one gets paid to moderate this group. We do it for the love of black & white photography so PLEASE help us out by posting true black & white photographs and don't get mad at us if you don't follow our group rules.

Important Guides

How We Detect Color in Posted Images and How You Can Fix You Image

Why Was My Photo Deleted from BLACK & WHITE Photographers on Facebook?

Monochrome is NOT Black & White and Black & White is Monochrome

Photography Instruction

Mastering the View Camera by Jay S. McMullan in PDF

What Makes a Good Photograph?