Is Your Photo Color or Black & White?
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BLACK & WHITE Photographers Facebook group was created to celebrate the art of black & white photography. It has quickly grown to be one of the premier black & white groups on Facebook. Toned, monochrome images ARE NOT allowed into the group. We appreciate all of the wonderful photos that are posted to the group every day, from all over the world.
WE WANT YOU TO SHARE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS WITH US! |
Unfortunately, we are experiencing a very large number of photos being posted daily that do not meet the criteria to post in the group. These photos take away from the group's vision of being a place for those who love the art of black & white photography.
Dozens of photos are posted every day that are, in fact, color (RGB) images and not black & white (grayscale) even though the colors may be very slight and subdued. Nevertheless, these images are not black & white photos. The majority of the people in BLACK & WHITE Photographers, like me, love the art of black & white photography.
We are strictly a Black & White group, not a "NEARLY" black & white group or a color group.
If you want to post your photo as it is, with some color, feel free to post to our Sister Group - Photographers from Around the World.
I SAVED MY PHOTO AS A BLACK & WHITE IMAGE AND IT WAS STILL DELTED.
We are discovering that some images, especially many of which are saved in cell phones as "black & white," are not truly black & white. Many of them are coming across with tones of blue, green and/or cream colors. Unfortunately, many of the people posting these images believe they are true black & white images because their phone, or another app, made the conversion. Unfortunately, some of these cell phones and apps are not doing a very good job of converting images to a true grayscale image.
WE DO NOT ENJOY DELETING ANYONE'S PHOTO
If you contact the Administrator or Moderators of our group, please be kind. None of us get paid to moderate this room. I literally spend 10 - 12 hours a day moderating the room and our moderators spend a lot of time too. We do this for the love of black & white photography and it is a big investment of our time with no pay so that you can enjoy a group that is made up solely of true black & white images..
HOW WE DOUBLE CHECK YOUR "BLACK & WHITE" IMAGES TO SEE IF THEY ARE TRULY BLACK & WHITE.
The first way we check for color in images is to view an array of images that have been posted to our group in Photoshop, like this.
All photos may look like they are black & white but, in order to check, we import this image into Photoshop and then, turn up the saturation. A photo that is a true black & white image will never show color, no matter how much the saturation is turned up. So, let's do that with this image. Using Photoshop, we turn the saturation up to 300. Below is the result we get.
As you can see, the photo circled in red, has yellowish-brown tones. The other images on the page are true black & white images. The circled image will be deleted and a notification will be sent to the original poster with an explanation of why his/her photo was deleted. There will also be links in that notification to this and/or other pages to help them learn how to convert their image to a true black & white image.
Another Way We Check for Color in an Image
After viewing hundreds and hundreds of black & white images every day, those that have slight color tones pop right out especially when viewing the images as thumbnails in the group. Each photo that appears to have a colored tone is copied into Photoshop so that I can be absolutely positive that my eyes are not deceiving me. If it is a true grayscale image or a color image, Photoshop will tell the truth. How is it done? Follow along as I show you how I use Photoshop to determine if an image has color tones.
First, I will show you an image that has been saved as a "grayscale" image to show that there is no color in the photo.
The following image is a "grayscale image" without any color whatsoever.
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Using the "Eyedropper" tool in Photoshop, I clicked on the center of the church steeple in the area indicated by the red arrow on the left. Now, look at the color swatch (Hue Cube in Adobe Photoshop) above. The yellow arrow points to where that spot of the photo falls in the grayscale. No matter where the eyedropper tool is used, the result on the color swatch will always be on the extreme left side and anywhere vertically along that line. The lighter the tone, the higher it will be. The darker the tone, the lower it will be. It won't matter what color is in the rest of the color swatch, black & white hues will always fall along that vertical line on the extreme left where there is no color. Let's check another spot with the eyedropper. |
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On the left, I looked at the area indicated by the red arrow with the eyedropper tool in Photoshop. Because this area is lighter than the first area we looked at, the yellow arrow shows how the image is higher along the left side of the color swatch. No matter where the eyedropper is used in a true black & white image, it will fall somewhere along the extreme left side of the color swatch (Hue Cube) and will never deviate to the right, not even slightly! If I take a look at a place on an image and it moves horizontally to the right on the color swatch (as we see with the next image, then that image is NOT a black & white photo. |
For educational purposes, let's look at a photo that was posted on the BLACK & WHITE Photographers Facebook group. This photo and many others like it have been rejected and deleted because they are color photographs, not true black & white images. |
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Using the eyedropper tool on the darker spot of the clouds (red arrow on the left) shows that the color reading on the color swatch has moved to the right from the left horizontal edge. It shows that, at that spot in this image, there is a blue tone. This is a color photo, not a black & white photo. But, let's check another spot in the image. |
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At this spot in the image, the light moves to the right, again, from the left side of the color swatch. It also shows us that there is a golden tone in the image. In fact, in this image alone, I have found no less than four colors, blue, green, gold and red (not including the red arrow that I added). |
If your photo is a true Black & White image, it will contain these tones.
This is sepia toned. If your image has any of these tones, it is not a true Black & White image.
This is a green tone. If your image has any tones like this, it is not a true Black & White image. 
This is a blue tone. If your image has any tones like this, it is not a true Black & White image.
This is an example of posts we are having from cell phones. The light tones are a cream color and the darker tones are blue. This is not a true Black & White image. Any other color tone is not allowed in the group. 
