On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 4:20 AM, Jens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello list
> In my camera club we had a discussion:
> What is monochrome? What's the "official" photographic definition?
>
> It seems the original definition is about painting with only one colour.
> Black. For instance - on white paper or canvas.
>
> This gives me a problem: Black & White - that's two colours. Or perhaps just
> one: White, since black is not a colour. White is.
>
> So, B&W is paintning with to colours: Light and no light/light and darkness
> and all shades in between.
>
> So why is "yellow and blue", or "red and green" etc. not acceptable within
> the definition of monochrome? Or is it ?
>
> The only way I seem to be able to understand the monochrome definition is
> this:
>
> In monohrome photography we paint with light in the darkness. With white on
> black. Or with white on any other background. So white on blue, white on
> green. white on red etc.
> Right?
>
> Regards
> Jens
Well, monochrome means one colour. In photographic terms, it's
generally accepted meaning is what we call black and white
photography. It doesn't have to be: sepia is monochrome, and as you
said, "red and white", "blue and white", etc would also be monochrome,
but I'd say that unless it's qualified ("a blue monochrome print"),
the word monochrome alone would normally be taken to mean black and
white.
As for all that other stuff about whether black or white are actually
colours, I'll leave that to others. Monochrome is the application of
a single colour to the printed surface.
cheers,
frank
--
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
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