Manual of Photography, 9th Edition

16The Reproduction of Colour

In photography two alternative approaches to the reproduction of colour are open to us: all objects, of any colour, can be reproduced as shades of grey, varying from black to white, or may be reproduced in colours that are acceptably close to those of the original. Black-and-white photography existed for nearly a century before colour photography became common, and it was found very early on that the human visual system would accept a monochrome picture as a true record of coloured objects provided the greys of the reproduction were related to the brightnesses of the original colours. To understand how this is achieved we need to know something about the responses of the eye and of photographic emulsions to different ...