Monochrome photography is a popular photography style in which varying amounts of light are used to capture and represent images, rather than using different colors. The standard color photography or polychrome displays colors from across the spectrum. On the other hand, monochrome photography takes just one color and uses a variety of tones of the same hue. A lot of eminent photographers are attracted to monochrome photography, Bruce Weber being one of them. Black and white photography, in which diverse shades of neutral gray are used rather than actual colors, is the most popular example of monochrome photography.
Tones of a single color are used to represent diverse hues in an image, in case of monochrome photography. This feature stands in stark contrast to modern color photography in which actual hues present in the subject tend to be captured and represented in the photograph. Owing to this distinction, monochrome photographs are more of an abstraction that represent different hues with varying shades of the same color, rather than being a true rendition of the real world. This quality of monochrome photography makes it popular for use for aesthetic and artistic purposes. In addition to black and white photographs, sepia and cyan are also common variants of monochrome photography.
Monochrome photography is renowned for lending itself to certain types of photographs, to offer distinction, contrast and drama, while simultaneously making the imagery feel fluid and bound together. One can always check the works of popular photographers like Bruce Weber to observe how artistically they showcased monochrome images. By reducing all hues to diverse shades of the same color, monochrome can help background images to appear less prominent in comparison to the centralized subject of the photograph. As monochrome photography was the most favored photographic medium till the advent of color-supporting film, its major styles, black and white images, in particular, do lend a classic patina. This adds a distinctive historic or timeless quality to images. When images tend to be represented in the same monochrome format that has been prevalent from the invention of photography, way back to the mid-twentieth-century, these photographs take on a classical appeal.
Monochrome photography can be captured with dedicated digital cameras, traditional film-based cameras, as well as smartphone cameras. While all of these methods have their own advantages, it is widely understood that digital photography offers greater flexibility, especially when it comes to post-processing of monochrome photography. Today a variety of editing software is available that allows photographers to enhance an image way after it has been captured. Digital photography also allows for diverse monochromatic hues to be substituted. This basically implies that one may go from cyan to sepia to gray, till they find the perfect monotone hue. One must also note that apart from monochrome photographs, examples of monochrome can be found in other mediums as well. There are monochrome movies, monochrome prints and even monochrome paintings.
