Monochrome photography

What is Monochrome Photography?

The name, monochrome photography, implies that it is the act of recording light in a single color or wavelength. Though there are many wavelengths of light that this might be achieved with, monochrome photography generally refers to black and white photography, the making of a photographic image recorded in neutral tones of gray ranging from near white to near black¹. To use current vernacular, black and white photography could also be refered to as grayscale photography, as a black and white image can contain a multitude of distinct shades of gray. Other forms of photography qualify as monochrome, such as infrared photography, X-ray photography, etc..

Photography began with the discovery of a light sensitive chemical, silver. Silver halides, or silver salt compounds, break down when exposed to light and form black metallic silver². The blacker areas of a negative, which received more light, block printing light on photographic paper, allowing the paper to remain whiter the denser the negative. The lighter areas of the negative, receiving less light, allow more printing light to pass, darkening those areas of the print. This is black and white photography, or, monochrome photography.

All forms of photography have evolved from monochrome photography. Color film is black and white film with three layers of emulsion. Each layer has a different colored coupler that makes the resulting black metallic silver deposits in the negative respond to a color in the spectrum, red, green and blue. Digital photography employs a silicon sensor that records focused light falling on it in much the same way that light rays reaching the film expose that portion of the film. So all photography has evolved from the original techniques created to record light rays onto silver halides.

Monochrome images are not direct renditions of their subjects. They could rather be considered deliberate departures from reality. With monochrome photography, not only is the photographer trying to render a three dimensional world onto a two dimensional piece of photographic paper, but he or she is also attempting to convert a color world into one that exists in shades of gray. With the use of contrast control filters, monochrome photography allows the photographer greater license to interpret the subject by controlling local contrast values in the image.

Making a Monochrome Image

There are two ways to make a monochrome image photographically.

1. To expose light onto a monochromatic film surface.

2. To manipulate a color image electronically, either through the use of computer software or by utilizing features available on certain digital cameras.

There is more information available on exposure procedures that does not relate to this article.

For an amateur photographer it can be difficult enough to transfer his or her vision successfully to a photographic negative through exposure. But without an understanding of the tools at one's disposal and a basic understanding of the characteristics of light, monochrome photography can yield disastrous results.

In monochrome photography, there are many external controls that enable the photographer to mold the final outcome, the monochrome image.

One such control is the use of photographic filters, specifically those intended for contrast control. These filters are made of glass, plastic or other materials that transmit the wavelength of light that corresponds to the filter's color and block that color's complimentary color for the purpose of increasing/decreasing local tonal contrast in a photographic negative or a digital image file. A red filter would transmit red light (around 450nm wavelength) and block cyan light, or blue/green light. A yellow filter will block blue light while transmitting yellow light. (For more information on light and its characteristics view visible spectrum³.) Some newer digital cameras have filter features on the camera that allow a monochrome image to be made with emphasis on a particular wavelength of light and de-emphasis of another. Computer software programs can alter a color image into a monochrome image and can further increase one color's amplification in that image.

Another control that is afforded the photographer is archival toning of photographic papers. During the printing process, photographers regularly tone their prints with different chemicals to protect them from aging and to achieve a certain 'look' to their images. A photographer might use a sepia toner to get an aged look. Selenium, cyanide and other chemicals can be used for this purpose as well.

Continuing with the departure from reality premise, the photographer can purposely alter recommended exposure for his or her subject. The photographer can decrease exposure to even out the highlights or increase it to achieve more detail in the shadow areas of the negative. For high contrast subjects, pre-exposure⁴ can be used to raise the tonal values of the shadows without noticeably affecting the tonality of the highlights. Tools such as Ansel Adams' Zone System can be put to good use to achieve this goal.

Monochrome Film Processing⁵

Black and white film, and other monochromatic films for that matter, require a differing method of development than do other films. With a minimal amount of equipment the photographer has the means of developing his or her own black and white film and creating negatives from which to make prints. The process includes breaking down the silver halide crystals into black metallic silver and washing away the unexposed crystals to provide differing negative density values which in turn translate into print values. The following is a general order of processing. The photographer will, over time, arrive at a particular process that is prefered due to experience. Chemicals are readily available in stock solutions that can be mixed with water for use or can by made from base elements.

• Developer. This first step's purpose is to reduce or 'break down' the exposed silver halide crystals to a black metallic silver which creates area negative density. More light on exposure, more density on the negative, less density in the print. It is higher on the pH scale, alkaline in nature. Most developers at the proper temperature call for between six and eight minutes, though times may vary according to temperature variances. The photographer should check with the film manufacturer's data to varify proper development times.

• Stop Bath. This next step is an acidic neutralizer to slow the affects of the developer. Most procedures call for only thirty seconds in the acidic stop bath.

• Fixer Bath. This next step is also acidic and its purpose is to wash away all of the unreduced silver halide crystals from the negative, leaving less negative densities in those areas which translate to darker areas in the print.

• Water Rinse. The film must be washed in water for up to thirty minutes or as directed by the film's manufacturer. This is to wash away all of the previous chemicals' residue from the negative. A 'hypo' clearing agent may be added to this step in the process where time constraints are a concern and can reduce this phase down to as fast as five minutes.

• Archival Toner. Some photographers choose this point to submerge the film in an additional chemical. Archival toners, such as selenium, cyanide and others, can add protection to the negative to add years to its life and quality.

• Drying. Most roll films can be air dried by suspending the film from a clip on a string and held down with a small weight such as a clothespin to prevent the film form curling. Sheet films can be dried in blotting books that absorb the remaining water from the negative though hanging is still best.

An example of Monochrome Photography

File:Water 01 2006.jpg

Water #1 ⁶

Footnotes and Bibliography

¹ - Chpt. IV - The Negative "The Zone System" pp.47-97

² - The Photographer's Handbook "Black and White Photography" Basic Principles p.38

³ - See also Chpt. II - The Negative "Light and FIlm" The Electromagnetic Spectrum pp.9-10

⁴ - Chpt. V - The Negative "Filters and Pre-exposure" Pre-Exposure pp.119-123

⁵ - Chpt VIII - The Negative Darkroom "Processing" pp.181-193

⁶ - Water #1 taken in 2006 by Christopher A. Walrath of Delaware. This is a copyrighted image displayed here with permission of the photographer. Photographer's notes - (The image was made with Kodak BW400CN Black and white film. It was taken with a Minolta sr-T101 35mm camera with a 50mm Minolta MD mount Rokkor-x f/1.4 lens. Mounted on a tripod and with a shutter release cable employeed, the subject needed prolonged exposure to get the flow of the water so I used three neutral density filters to darken the image to get a long enough exposure with whiting-out the image.)

Adams, Ansel. 1981,2002. The Negative. The New Ansel Adams Basic Photography Series/Book 2. ed. Robert Baker. Boston: New York Graphic Society. ISBN 0-8212-1131-5 HC AACR2. Reprinted, Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 2004 (11th reprinting). ISBN 0-8212-2186-8 PB.

Hedgecoe, John. 1977. The Photographer's Handbook ed. Dorling Kindersley Limited. London: Doring Kindersley Limited. ISBN 0-394-40754-7. Reprinted, Italy: A. Mondadori Verona, 1981 (9th reprinting, 11th printing).

Author's note: Any uncited material in this article is based on extensive study over numerous years from innumerable and unrecallable sources.