What exactly is black and white film, and what is black and white photography

-- Holly Fasnacht (minnie4805@aol.com), September 05, 2000

Answers

it's a process in which we make cheese...

-- Trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), September 05, 2000.

What exactly are you doing here?

-- Alec (alecj@bellsouth.net), September 05, 2000.

What exactly is cheese?

-- shawn (shawngibson_prophoto@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.

It's a technique, of which some afficionados consider the color red as inpropriate.

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), September 05, 2000.

Black and White Photography is the process of turning salt into silver. In order to do it properly you need a "philosopher's stone". No one can tell you where to get one...you have to find it yourself. Watch out for the Inquisition!

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), September 05, 2000.

Black and White photography is like fishing with a rod and line.
It takes an inordinate amount of time to produce a minimal return, most of which is unpalatable.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), September 06, 2000.

I knew finally my courses in philosophie would pay off:

Black and white photography is an art of turning valuables, like money and time, into something one can nail to the wall as a "silver gelatine print". By doing so it prevents people from spending time and money on alcohol etc. So photography improves your health, well actually, we should apply for coverage of our expenses as health treatment...this would turn b/w films into medicine!

Please be aware that some chemicals release funny fumes....

Wolfram

-- Wolfram Kollig (kollig@ipfdd.de), September 06, 2000.

Close, Wolfram, but please remember you can trade prints for pints...and so are indirectly spending money on alcohol. Indeed, the amount of money you can 'spend' on beer rests in direct proportion to the amount of money you spend making all those beautiful black and white prints!!!

Bar clientelle are the greatest...

-- shawn (shawngibson_prophoto@yahoo.com), September 06, 2000.

I agree with all the above answers, but I've a funny feeling that this might be a genuine question from someone much younger than me. Someone who has perhaps never seen a B&W television, for example.

'Black and white photography' is photography where there are no colours, just shades of grey. B&W film is camera film that records these shades of grey, and no colours. If you go to a library, doubtless many old books there will include B&W photos.

It's the only 'real' form of photography. All this modern colour stuff is just a fashion, it will soon go away.

[That last paragraph was a joke, I'm afraid.]

-- Alan Gibson (Alan@snibgo.com), September 06, 2000.

I am with Shawn: Stripped to its bare essence, black and white photography is a chemical process wherein light is turned into beer, in a safe light illuminated dark room. There is no miracle here, since then the end result would be wine. It's really very simple. Like vinyl records, and tube amps, blanck and white photography will be appreciated by people who are capable of distinguishing the merely immeasurable from the infinite.

-- Paul Oosthoek (pauloosthoek@hotmail.com), September 07, 2000.

Paul's obviously someone who likes to get so drunk he can't hear clicks, hiss, and highly measurable distortion.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), September 07, 2000.

Apologies Paul. On re-reading that, it could be construed as a personal attack, and that wasn't meant at all. Please add a big smiley face to my last posting.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), September 07, 2000.

I was LOL before I read your second message! Otherwise some of those cheese fumes created in the darkroom would have made me forget everything anyways!. This has been a question that stimulated much. We are in Holly's debt!

-- Paul Oosthoek (pauloosthoek@hotmail.com), September 08, 2000.