12 ms·

The first couple of photos are black and white. In 1990, everyone used color photographs except newspapers. Are they purposefully black and white to make it fee

The first couple of photos are black and white. In 1990, everyone used color photographs except newspapers. Are they purposefully black and white to make it feel older?

imron 5y ago
> The first couple of photos are black and white. If you look carefully, you'll notice that in the black and white photos the operators are wearing headsets, there are posters on the walls and in one of them there is a SNES on the table. According to the article, this would place them at the same timeframe as the other photos.
tadbit 5y ago
Lots of photographers chose to shoot B&W even when colour was available. Some used it purely for aesthetics. Others chose it because it was less expensive to purchase and easier to self develop. Or maybe it's just what they had in their camera that day.
- rootsudo 5y ago
  Cheaper printer for publications as well. one color instead of four color needed+.
mitigating 5y ago
I always have this thought when seeing black and white photographs from the 70s onwards. Every photo from my family starting in 1977+ is color. Someone in film told me black and white does offer better detail in analog as color saturation can sometimes blur lines. They also told me that as a student they filmed in black and white since in color every object in the scene can mean more because of its. Like if you had a normal 80s bedroom but just one pillow on the bed was red then that could imply something even if you didn't mean to (maybe romance, not sure).
holografix 5y ago
I still shoot b&w today and it’s amazing how more “emotional” a photo can become once you adjust the exposure curve. Look at the work done by the classic photographer Fan Ho https://petapixel.com/2014/08/25/fan-hos-incredible-black-and-white-street-photography-of-1950s-hong-kong/ https://petapixel.com/2014/08/25/fan-hos-incredible-black-an...
- lostgame 5y ago
  Just wanted to say that I sincerely enjoyed those works! I would not have stumbled upon those unless you had shared; and I’m considering making one my iPhone wallpaper, they are so striking. :)
  - holografix 5y ago
    Beautiful isn’t it? Glad you enjoyed it!
abdulmuhaimin 5y ago
but the b&w from the 1st 2 pictures are actually of higher quality compared to the others in colour. Im not sure this is the case here, but from my limited understanding of camera, b&w camera will produce higher resolution picture just because of how the monochrome sensor work vs colour sensor
- Bobylonian 5y ago
  They are not digital photos, but from films. Color films require 4 layers for colors. B&W has only one metalic silver layer and because there are no colors, it can be more granulated. I think, that silver crystals were even smaller than what was from color layer crystals, so B&W films had not 4x times more silver "pixels" but even more, compared to what color films had, hence the reason why those color pictures look so blury, compared to so good B&W pictures. Not to mention, that B&W films and pictures with very good results could develop every amateur and during the development process add various effects - sepia is one of them, but you could get blue tint by mixing some other chemicals.
egypturnash 5y ago
If you were taking a photography class in the nineties, you would have probably been using B&W film: it's easier to learn to develop yourself, which meant it was easy to start playing around in the darkroom with the various ways you could alter a reel of film by playing with how you developed and printed it. Color film's a lot more complex. If not for a hurricane and a few cross-country moves I'd probably still have some prints of B&W photos I took in a college class, using the 35mm camera I inherited from my father. If you were someone who was serious about photography to the extent of "I have a nice camera and know how to use it" - maybe it's your hobby, maybe you're somewhere on the path from "likes to take photos" to "makes a living as A Photographer" - then you would have been aware of working in B&W as a valid artistic choice that changes the overall mood of the imagery. A sharp, crisp B&W photo felt pretty modern versus a faded old one.
- wastedhours 5y ago
  Even in the mid-2000s, photography classes were still teaching through B+W - as you mention, developing is easier (and therefore faster). The film and photo paper were also cheaper.
mmsc 5y ago
Those photos are taken from https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/15457444.photos-remember-when-eastleigh-played-a-vital-part-in-the-gaming-industry/ https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/15457444.photos-remember-wh...
Hamuko 5y ago
Reminds me of that image of counterfeit Game Boy cartridges being destroyed. Despite being taken in 1994, the quality of the photo makes it look like a WWII war crime. https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog/status/1456313815746891782 https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog/status/145631381574689178...
rkangel 5y ago
B&W was much better in low light than colour. You could get high ISO film without too much noise and take 'normal lighting' photos that would come out with a manageable amount of grain. If you did the same with colour you'd get a much worse result or need a lot more flash. Or to put it another way - for photography indoors, B&W gives a much more reliable result.
Bobylonian 5y ago
I think, that people downvoted this because 1990 was not really a time when everyone took color pictures, but more like in late 90s, when photo cameras became cheap and widely available and there was also available reasonably cheap service to develop films and photos in short time on automated machines. So, unless you were able to purchase very expensive equipment, you could not have good color photos to care for what B&W could get you, unless you were paying for professional services. In 1998(or maybe even 1999) I was working on the first and latest Japanese machines that had digital color screen(where you could adjust colors and crop photos), that was bought from Japanese company as one of the earliest in Europe and that was all the rage, when Kodak was killed off because of them, because of FUJI. In most of the 1990s everyone were making photographies on machines with negative screen(sometimes not even zoomed film frame) - they could not see photos the way they would be before they were printed out. The final peak of color photographies on film coincided when digital cameras started to become "bearable". So, looking on my album, it is 2003(Canon Power Shot A70, which came out in 2003), when I had first digital photos(and their quality IMO were getting close to what you could get from film camera), so actually that company that bought that expensive automatic color photo printer had ~5 years to operate it... Though, it was a crapy job - I was making on average 3000 photos per day(if it was a late shift, it was going into very late night, so max 12h) in summer and had a junior salary... with that quality of pictures(cropped and color adjustments) I was giving out with that machine, what other operators did not care that much. So, more or less good color photographies, that were comparable to B&W were only couple of years before first digital cameras appeared(so more like - late 1990s), so it could not be possible, that in 1990 everyone was using color photos. 1990ies were becoming very global very quickly, but at that time, if in Japan everyone had color photos, it did not apply for everyone else outside of Japan for 1-2 years, because market had to catch up(and if you were able to buy equipment and a film, it did not mean, that you were able to develop your film and make photos, if your local photo shop was not able do those). US maybe had shorter time, but by late 1990s it still had a gap what you could get in Japan and what was available in US and here in Europe these things appeared as last. Unless there is a mix-up about Polaroids, that "everyone used" according to MTV - have not owned them, because they were not cheap and most probably their paper was not on cheap side as well. People rarely has photo nowadays, because they have phone. So, the whole era of things has gone - that includes calculators, alarms, radios and music players. Mobile phones killed them all.

The first couple of photos are black and white. In 1990, everyone used color photographs except newspapers. Are they purposefully black and white to make it feel older?

imron 5y ago

> The first couple of photos are black and white. If you look carefully, you'll notice that in the black and white photos the operators are wearing headsets, there are posters on the walls and in one of them there is a SNES on the table. According to the article, this would place them at the same timeframe as the other photos.

tadbit 5y ago

Lots of photographers chose to shoot B&W even when colour was available. Some used it purely for aesthetics. Others chose it because it was less expensive to purchase and easier to self develop. Or maybe it's just what they had in their camera that day.

rootsudo 5y ago
Cheaper printer for publications as well. one color instead of four color needed+.

mitigating 5y ago

I always have this thought when seeing black and white photographs from the 70s onwards. Every photo from my family starting in 1977+ is color. Someone in film told me black and white does offer better detail in analog as color saturation can sometimes blur lines. They also told me that as a student they filmed in black and white since in color every object in the scene can mean more because of its. Like if you had a normal 80s bedroom but just one pillow on the bed was red then that could imply something even if you didn't mean to (maybe romance, not sure).

holografix 5y ago

I still shoot b&w today and it’s amazing how more “emotional” a photo can become once you adjust the exposure curve. Look at the work done by the classic photographer Fan Ho https://petapixel.com/2014/08/25/fan-hos-incredible-black-and-white-street-photography-of-1950s-hong-kong/ https://petapixel.com/2014/08/25/fan-hos-incredible-black-an...

lostgame 5y ago
Just wanted to say that I sincerely enjoyed those works! I would not have stumbled upon those unless you had shared; and I’m considering making one my iPhone wallpaper, they are so striking. :)
- holografix 5y ago
  Beautiful isn’t it? Glad you enjoyed it!

abdulmuhaimin 5y ago

but the b&w from the 1st 2 pictures are actually of higher quality compared to the others in colour. Im not sure this is the case here, but from my limited understanding of camera, b&w camera will produce higher resolution picture just because of how the monochrome sensor work vs colour sensor

Bobylonian 5y ago
They are not digital photos, but from films. Color films require 4 layers for colors. B&W has only one metalic silver layer and because there are no colors, it can be more granulated. I think, that silver crystals were even smaller than what was from color layer crystals, so B&W films had not 4x times more silver "pixels" but even more, compared to what color films had, hence the reason why those color pictures look so blury, compared to so good B&W pictures. Not to mention, that B&W films and pictures with very good results could develop every amateur and during the development process add various effects - sepia is one of them, but you could get blue tint by mixing some other chemicals.

egypturnash 5y ago

If you were taking a photography class in the nineties, you would have probably been using B&W film: it's easier to learn to develop yourself, which meant it was easy to start playing around in the darkroom with the various ways you could alter a reel of film by playing with how you developed and printed it. Color film's a lot more complex. If not for a hurricane and a few cross-country moves I'd probably still have some prints of B&W photos I took in a college class, using the 35mm camera I inherited from my father. If you were someone who was serious about photography to the extent of "I have a nice camera and know how to use it" - maybe it's your hobby, maybe you're somewhere on the path from "likes to take photos" to "makes a living as A Photographer" - then you would have been aware of working in B&W as a valid artistic choice that changes the overall mood of the imagery. A sharp, crisp B&W photo felt pretty modern versus a faded old one.

wastedhours 5y ago
Even in the mid-2000s, photography classes were still teaching through B+W - as you mention, developing is easier (and therefore faster). The film and photo paper were also cheaper.

mmsc 5y ago

Those photos are taken from https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/15457444.photos-remember-when-eastleigh-played-a-vital-part-in-the-gaming-industry/ https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/15457444.photos-remember-wh...

Hamuko 5y ago

Reminds me of that image of counterfeit Game Boy cartridges being destroyed. Despite being taken in 1994, the quality of the photo makes it look like a WWII war crime. https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog/status/1456313815746891782 https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog/status/145631381574689178...

rkangel 5y ago

B&W was much better in low light than colour. You could get high ISO film without too much noise and take 'normal lighting' photos that would come out with a manageable amount of grain. If you did the same with colour you'd get a much worse result or need a lot more flash. Or to put it another way - for photography indoors, B&W gives a much more reliable result.

Bobylonian 5y ago

I think, that people downvoted this because 1990 was not really a time when everyone took color pictures, but more like in late 90s, when photo cameras became cheap and widely available and there was also available reasonably cheap service to develop films and photos in short time on automated machines. So, unless you were able to purchase very expensive equipment, you could not have good color photos to care for what B&W could get you, unless you were paying for professional services. In 1998(or maybe even 1999) I was working on the first and latest Japanese machines that had digital color screen(where you could adjust colors and crop photos), that was bought from Japanese company as one of the earliest in Europe and that was all the rage, when Kodak was killed off because of them, because of FUJI. In most of the 1990s everyone were making photographies on machines with negative screen(sometimes not even zoomed film frame) - they could not see photos the way they would be before they were printed out. The final peak of color photographies on film coincided when digital cameras started to become "bearable". So, looking on my album, it is 2003(Canon Power Shot A70, which came out in 2003), when I had first digital photos(and their quality IMO were getting close to what you could get from film camera), so actually that company that bought that expensive automatic color photo printer had ~5 years to operate it... Though, it was a crapy job - I was making on average 3000 photos per day(if it was a late shift, it was going into very late night, so max 12h) in summer and had a junior salary... with that quality of pictures(cropped and color adjustments) I was giving out with that machine, what other operators did not care that much. So, more or less good color photographies, that were comparable to B&W were only couple of years before first digital cameras appeared(so more like - late 1990s), so it could not be possible, that in 1990 everyone was using color photos. 1990ies were becoming very global very quickly, but at that time, if in Japan everyone had color photos, it did not apply for everyone else outside of Japan for 1-2 years, because market had to catch up(and if you were able to buy equipment and a film, it did not mean, that you were able to develop your film and make photos, if your local photo shop was not able do those). US maybe had shorter time, but by late 1990s it still had a gap what you could get in Japan and what was available in US and here in Europe these things appeared as last. Unless there is a mix-up about Polaroids, that "everyone used" according to MTV - have not owned them, because they were not cheap and most probably their paper was not on cheap side as well. People rarely has photo nowadays, because they have phone. So, the whole era of things has gone - that includes calculators, alarms, radios and music players. Mobile phones killed them all.