Black-and-white

Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey and silver. It is also known as grayscale in technical settings.

A black-and-white photo of a breadfruit plant, c. 1870

Media

The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. However, there are exceptions to this rule, including black-and-white fine art photography, as well as many film motion pictures and art film(s).

Early photographs in the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries were often developed in black and white, as an alternative to sepia due to limitations in film available at the time. Black and white was also prevalent in early television broadcasts, which were displayed by changing the intensity of monochrome phosphors on the inside of the screen, before the introduction of color from the 1950s onwards.

Black and white continues to be used in certain sections of the modern arts field, either stylistically or to invoke the perception of a historic work or setting.

 

McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana – Ansel Adams – Taken between 1933 and 1942

Contemporary use

Since the late 1960s, few mainstream films have been shot in black-and-white. The reasons are frequently commercial, as it is difficult to sell a film for television broadcasting if the film is not in color. 1961 was the last year in which the majority of Hollywood films were released in black and white.

Computing

 

Binary image of a street in Dhaka.

In computing terminology, black-and-white is sometimes used to refer to a binary image consisting solely of pure black pixels and pure white ones; what would normally be called a black-and-white image, that is, an image containing shades of gray, is referred to in this context as grayscale.

See also

• List of black-and-white films produced since 1966
• Monochromatic color
• Panchromatic film
• Selective color