[Tig] instinctive contrast

[Rob Lingelbach]

On Mar 19, 2007, at 11:55 AM, Michael Bittle wrote:

>
> Could it be that what we perceive as contrast is not purely  
> function of black and white?

yes, I think you're beginning to describe what I was at a loss to  
explain, that color adds
something that makes up for a lack of contrast, like your example  
that a 200Hz emphasis will
improve the perception of bass.  Description of this by example may  
be our only recourse,
as the technical/scientific explanation is elusive.

Joe Owens wrote:

 > It is disturbing how casually most black-and-white from colour is  
achieved by simply
 > turning down the saturation dial.

and this depends on what you mean by disturbing, but I agree.  There  
are some other
factors of which Richard Kirk's post hinted, for example the  
interesting halation produced
by vidicon cameras, which is very difficult to replicate with modern  
equipment; the
interesting grayscale (with low contrast!) of kinescope images.   As  
a child I too was
prevented from watching TV with the room lights down; the patriarch  
said "it will ruin
your eyes!"  of course he also thought reading in bed would ruin my  
eyes, when actually
it just ruined my sleep.

Instead of removing color from an image and leaving a low-contrast  
black and white image,
I think for a moment of adding color to a medium-or-high-contrast  
black and white image,
which is done with toning and tinting.  Toning and tinting, done to  
photographs, (forgetting
colorization of moving picture film) can be pleasing to the eye, when  
it is done with
low or very low saturation.  There is a connection between color and  
contrast that seems to
be in some kind of inverse ratio, depending somewhat on the artistic  
taste of the viewer.

--Rob

--
Rob Lingelbach
http://www.colorist.org/robhome.html
rob at colorist.org  rob at lingelbach.us