History Question

[phdgent]

More importantly why don't they call color film "color and white" ?

Actually Black aswel as White are no 'colours'.

Black is nothing, in the sense of that there is no light just absolute darkness and by this there is "nothing to be seen".
On the photographic negative film it is described as "d min" which is 'density minus or minimum' (not taking in account the base fog).
White is the absolute opposite if the above described Black, it is all light in the sense that there is , again, "nothing to be seen".
On the photographic negative film it is nominated as "d max" which is 'density maximum'.
The grey tones are held in-between these two 'limits'.
In colour photography it is actually the same: no light at all and all the light...
All the colour tones are held in-between these two 'limits' (and technically grouped in three 'families' Yellow, Magenta and Cyan' (and sometimes Black designated as 'k')).

So, till a certain extend, in relation with the concept 'colour photography', one could speak of 'grey (-tone) photography' but this sounds rather awkward...

Photography is the recording of an object (or subject) as it is shaped by reflecting the light by which it is enlightened.
By this, till a certain extend, photography is not recording the object (or subject) as such, but as how it reflects the shapes of the light...
The colours are formed by the colour of the the object (or subject) and the colour characteristics of the light.

This is how I understood it when learning photography at the art academy, about 45 years ago...

PS: I am not going to discus 'light and wavelengths', as this would go beyond my knowledge by far!

PS bis: as English is only my third language please do forgive me my clumsy wording...

[Doremus Scudder]

Well, white light, by definition, contains a full spectrum of colors (not always evenly, hence the need to white balance). White light from the sun has a spectrum that peaks in the green, but contains all the other visible wavelengths and then some (think sunburns). White surfaces are those that reflect all wavelengths of visible light fairly evenly.

Black, being the absence of light or a surface that absorbs almost all light falling on it can be thought of as a "negative" white.

Film and silver-gelatin prints (and Pt/Pd) block light with silver grains that absorb most light falling on them. These we could call "black." The paper base on prints is usually more-or-less white, depending on the paper base. All mid-tones in such a print are places where the silver grains only partially block light falling on and being reflected from the paper. Blacks in the print are where the silver grains are dense enough to block almost all light falling on the print; whites in the print are where no, or very few, silver grains block light and most of it is reflected back to our eye.

I think we can justifiably call the process Black-and-White Photography based upon that.

But, I'm not sure when the terminology came into common parlance.

Best,

Doremus

[r_a_feldman]

[Jody_S]

I would have thought the phrase originated in a marketing department. If you want people to go see your color movie, you have to say that it's in color and not in black-and-white. It's a pejorative.

I don't think photographers, whether still or cine, described their work in those words before some marketing campaign popularized the phrase.

[jnantz]

an ad for Autochromes
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/...t?oid=35055591
"color photographs at last".
... you're probably right being a marketing thing color is a lot easier to say than photochromatic

[BrianShaw]

... and what about televisions; were they called black-and-white televisions prior to the advent of readily available color televisions? I remember the transition but only distinguised between the two when there was a choice. Befroe color TVs became readily available I just called it TV. After color TV became the rule I went back to not distinguising anymore and now talk in terms of rsolution, display technology, and size.

[darr]

an ad for Autochromes
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/...t?oid=35055591
"color photographs at last".
... you're probably right being a marketing thing color is a lot easier to say than photochromatic

Thanks for the link!

[r_a_feldman]

Going to an authoritative source, a few date citations from the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition (1989) (https://www.oed.com/oed2/00022922):

"d. Photogr. and Television. Applied to monochrome photographs, photographic reproductions, films, etc., opp. ‘colour’.

1890 Portfolio XXI. Art Chron. xviii/2 In so far as small photographic black-and-white versions can be satisfactory they are very good. 1940 Graves & Hodge Long Week-End xxv. 434 American advertising carried far more photographs than British, both coloured and black and white. 1958 Amateur Photographer 31 Dec. 914/2 A 35-mm camera, with which it is undesirable to use the very fastest black-and-white films unless forced. 1961 Guardian 7 Feb. 6/4 Black-and-white television in cinemas."

[jnantz]

Thanks for the link!

YW, another reason to go to Vermont

[Ron McElroy]

Best answer yet....