[sdfjkl]

I absolutely hate monochrome. The trend of removing colour from something and calling it an improvement. In photography, in film, everywhere.

Is it just me? Is there something different with my visual perception that makes me prefer colour over monochrome after we worked so hard to evolve the right photoreceptors in our eyes and the colour in photography, film and computer screens? Or is it just my general low tolerance of pretentious bullshit?

[NikolaNovak]

Depends. I can't tell you why you don't like monochrome :).

For me it's situational (and I would never call it "automatic improvement").

Both as consumer and occasional photographer, there are times when B&W feels right and great - it showcases shapes and contrast, and eliminates distraction of colour.

E.g. Recently I dressed my kids for a fun old-school photoshoot at abandoned old gas station I found, and my wife thought I was crazy because nothing matched but went along with me because she loves me :D. Then she saw them finished in 1920's B&W style and they were great - stripes and blocks were obvious, random colours weren't distracting.

I think Ansel Adams is still great. Some street/city photography is great in bw. And some portraiture is awesome in bw. And there are so many decisions and choices and and ways one can turn colour photo into bw! There are a dozen radically different mono shots in a single colour photo. Decisions of contrast and brightness and colour blend can make completely different results, so both the original subject matter and the choice/process have massive impact on result. Which at the end will always be subject to personal preference and impact.

At the same time, I can see a photo on Instagram and it's obvious it's a photo of somebody's breakfast that they pushed the filter button thinking it'll make it more interesting. There's a usage of bw that's clearly with thought of making it "more artsy! More artsy! Dial up the artsy!", always, regardless of nature of photo, possibly with little regard on how to make it bw. I probably have very very similar reaction to it as you do. But I still think some bw stuff is great - e.g. Sin City, when it comes to movies:).

[ghastmaster]

Black and white can be great. For instance, in The Wizard of Oz, it serves as a differentiation between reality and fantasy worlds. Pleasantville uses it as well. There is a large volume of pretentious monochrome. There are some actual good works though. I prefer good art. Good art exists in both color and monochrome.

I had similar thoughts to yours until I read, "So, I got the hi-res footage from the studio, and we graded it into black-and-white. I worked with Cyrus Stowe, who was the colorist on this version. Basically, we went through it scene-by-scene, and he was really great."

They didn't just put a feather in their cap and call it macaroni. They spent the time to get each scene contrasted correctly.

[anta40]

I'm a photography hobbyist, definitely prefer monochrome to color. Nope, won't call it an improvement. And obviously we naturally see in color, so monochrome means deliberately deleting some informations.

But that's how I usually take photographs. I don't care about color, only some very basic elements like light, shadow, shapes, texture, patterns etc. In some (if not a lot) cases, monochrome amplifies those elements. Personally, it actually simplifies my workflow. As long as there's sufficient light and shadows, I can start taking pictures without thinking if the color pallete of the scene is overall interesting or boring. It's rarely my intention to capture the scene as objectively accurate as it is.

You may prefer to "see" in color. That's perfectly fine.

[hotcoffeebear]

If you think film as an art; it’s being colour or monochrome is become just a medium of choice and not improvement.

IMHO It’s even better now since RAW image information gives freedom to translate it in a monochromatic in a way director likes. Each monochromatic films has it’s rendition and contrast different, and you must use filters while filming if you want some different rendition than that (photographic) film intended.

Aside from that, I don’t know many examples films shot in colour film and reverted to monochromatic (schindler list maybe?). Instead saw more film shot in digital but converted into monochromatic (Eva, great polish film comes into my mind). Color grading has its effects so monochromatic conversion as well imho.

[MichaelCollins]

I don't mind monochrome; I haven't watched much that was filmed and color and converted to monochrome but watching old black and white movies doesn't bother me at all.

But what really does bother me is when modern movies have all the colors shifted to make everything look drab, or blue, or green. The blue-shifting is the worst. I've even seen it done to re-releases of old movies that didn't look like that originally, presumably to make it "feel HD" or something.

[sdfjkl]

Yeah, absolutely hated the Ozark (TV Series) look. Heavily desaturated, brightness turned down and shifted heavily into blue. Ruined what looks like pretty scenery in the background on photos.

Compare that to Outlander, a cheesy romance show I mostly just kept watching because of the beautiful (saturated) landscape shots.

[aloe_falsa]

> The trend of removing colour from something and calling it an improvement. In photography, in film, everywhere.

I honestly prefer Greek statues without the (original) paint: https://i.imgur.com/hF5zzp4.jpg

[goto11]

That is not the original paint though. It is a reconstruction based on trace amounts of pigment particles found on the marble.

[poundtown]

same here but im thinking zuck needs that to be his avatar in meta. same colors and all its perfect.

[PainfullyNormal]

I agree in general, but there is one exception and that exception applies here: film noir. Johnny Mnemonic and cyberpunk in general derive a lot of its inspiration from film noir and film noir in color just isn't the same.

[bb88]

A lot of bad photos in color can be improved just by tone-mapping colors to shades of gray. RGB noise turns into grain (e.g.)

Also a lot of "Black and White" television would be better called, "Grey and White" since the television would wash out the true deep blacks, and reduce the total image contrast.

As an aside, a similar effect happened in theaters for a long time where the theater owners would drop the brightness of the projector bulb to get more life out of it. But details in the dark would be lost. It may still happen today, I just don't go to the theaters anymore.

A proper screening of Citizen Kane would be fun to see in a dark theater with a bright DLP projector.

[john-tells-all]

Black and white movies have a number of advantages over color. You immediately know you are in an artificial story, like introducing your film saying "Once upon a time…" :)

Similarly, why do animation? Why take away all the detail of reality? Again, animation highlights the artificiality of the story, which can be a huge advantage. Samurai Jack is incredibly beautiful, and unapologetically make strange choices to heighten the viewer's experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iBU_D36-AA

It's wonderful to have options!

[exitb]

I like monochrome film and photography, but removing color from an already shot movie is troubling. Generally both mediums have their merit, but black and white scenes aren't usually shot in the same way as color ones. For example, go look for color photos by Ansel Adams, who was typically a B&W photographer - he often even used the same subjects and angles, but it's clear that he was shooting for a much more dramatic lighting for his monochrome works. He'd pick the weather and time of day to add as much shadows, contrast and texture, but would avoid all of that for his color scenes.

[digitalsankhara]

Well its you in that you have a preference for colour and that's fine.

Colour has an emotional response of its own - which is why set design, lighting temperatures and colourists are a thing. Colour theory is of course the basis of this. Monochrome takes away that response and values shape, form and light to invoke a visual response.

Different ways of telling a story. Just taking a colour film/video/photograph and removing colour may not work. Shooting in monochrome has deliberate intent.

[wintermutestwin]

When I evaluate one of my "arty" photos, I ask myself if the color adds anything to the composition, if not, make it B&W. Color is additional information and art is more elegant when extraneous elements are stripped out.

[ciupicri]

I feel exactly the same way. We had a joke in my country 20 - 30 years ago which was something like "why are you using black-white [film], don't you have enough money for color?".

[throwaway787544]

Do you like art?