How Important is Tone with Color Photography?

[Michael Heald]

Hello! As I've thought about tone in B&W, I've started to wonder about the use of tone in color photography.

For those who shoot color, how important is tone? By tone, I am referring to tone in the B&W sense that refelcts light intensity, not the saturation of the particular colors. Best regards.

Michael A. Heald

[Walter Calahan]

Just as important.

[Greg Miller]

Just as important.

Yup.

[Michael Heald]

But a good color photograph doesn't need to have different tones, that is, difference in light levels, while it is mandatory in B&W.
I'm curious how having different colors on different zones affects compositon. For example, how would one's approach to a composition change if some colors were on zone 7, some zone 5, others zone 3? Under different lighting, the same vibrant colors might all be on zones 4 to 6 - not very flattering with B&W (perhaps), but it might still be an excellent color composition. Best regards.

Michael A. Heald

[Bruce Watson]

I'll take the other side. It's not as important.

Before we take this any further, we should define terms. By "tone" I assume you mean variance in (take your pick) lightness, value, or luminosity. All these terms mean something slightly different but are usually used interchangeably.

Communication in 2D art is done by creating some kind of visual contrast. A B&W print is by definition monochrome, so we can't use hue or saturation to create that contrast. The only tool we have to communicate with is luminosity. More accurately, changes in luminosity. Since this is the sole tool available, it is clearly of prime importance.

A color print, by definition, is not monochrome. This implies that we have more tools to use to create visual contrast. In addition to luminosity, we have hue and saturation to play with. I'm not convinced yet that one can communicate much of anything by changing saturation while holding hue and luminosity constant. But one can certainly communicate a great deal through changes in hue while holding saturation and luminosity constant.

With color photography it's possible to use a full range of "tones" in both the luminosity and hue axises. When I've done this I've often found the result to be overwhelming. Too much information. To me it comes across almost as noise and it makes it difficult to see what I'm trying to communicate. I get much better results with my color work by toning down the luminosity axis and working mostly along the hue axis. In other words, by working in the subdued soft light of overcast skies.

And this leads me to my conclusion -- that tonality (a wide range of luminosity levels) is not as important in color photography as it is in B&W.

[Ralph Barker]

I think it is entirely possible to argue either side of the question with similar potential validity. Ultimately, however, I think it (the level of importance) depends on the individual image, composition, and other difficult-to-define aesthetics. Sometimes color is the image, sometimes color simply augments the message of the image, and sometimes color actually gets in the way of the underlying message.

[Brian Ellis]

Different tones create separation in b&w photography. If everything in the scene falls on Zone V for example you'll end up with a photograph containing nothing but slight variations of middle gray (which is fine if that's what you want but that's not what we usually want). In color photography, everything can fall on Zone V but if the colors of the Zone V tones are blue, orange, and pink for example you'll still get plenty of separation. However, it might nevertheless be important to have different degrees of luminance depending on the subject matter.

[David_Senesac]

I think your question ought to be more narrowly posed though I think I understand what you may be trying to ask.

Colors of the same hue, but with added white brightening are tints and of added black darkening are shades both of which necessarily decrease saturation and correspond to relative lightness or luminance. The term tone can be applied to gray scale images as changes in luminance also termed brigtness. Tone applied to color reflects a variation in value of a given color hue whether that is a shade, tint, thus saturation and thus is also a variation of luminance or brightness.

So strickly speaking to your question Michael, such simply affects the ability of an image to differentiate color detail Depending on the subject, that may have considerable importance or little. For instance, reducing an image from 8 bit RGB to 6 bit RGB would still allow all 360 degrees of color hues though the degree of tints, shades, and granularity of hues would decrease. On some subjects that would absolutely cause results to block up. With large format we tend to make a big deal about resolution, however the dimensions of color also bear on image detail, thus also bear on our interest in capturing that detail. ...David

[Gordon Moat]

I tend to define colour by tints, tones, and shades, which is how paint is considered. In that, pure tones are colours straight out of the tube. Translating that to photography works by showing pureness of tones. However, the other aspects I consider often are the psychological impact of colours, and the push or pull of warm and cool tones.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography

[mrladewig]

I'll take the other side. It's not as important.

Before we take this any further, we should define terms. By "tone" I assume you mean variance in (take your pick) lightness, value, or luminosity. All these terms mean something slightly different but are usually used interchangeably.

Communication in 2D art is done by creating some kind of visual contrast. A B&W print is by definition monochrome, so we can't use hue or saturation to create that contrast. The only tool we have to communicate with is luminosity. More accurately, changes in luminosity. Since this is the sole tool available, it is clearly of prime importance.

I agree with Bruce.

A good example is Guy Tal (who I've seen here). He does color work in both LF and digital. Much of his work, especially that focused on details is very even in luminosity. The contrast is in color in these shots. Sometimes subdued pastels, sometimes the almost fluorescent shades of the desert foliage in fall.

Color work can go both ways I think. It can be monochromatic like the blue of ice or the reds of sandstone where the tones are very important, or it can be at one luminosity level and be focused on the contrast in colors.