If black is the presence of all color, then why do people say that black-and-white movies are colorless?

Answer 1

Because like black, white is not a color either.

Answer 2

Because "black is the presence of all color" is a technical answer to a scientific question based on the physics of light and pigment.

(this applies to physical color of an object, not colored light. Then it's the opposite - white is the combo of all light colors).

"black-and-white" movies are called colorless because in popular culture, black is not considered a real color. Neither is white, nor any of the shades of grey in-between you would find in an old movie. Color would be anything in the regular, visible spectrum.

It's a scientific definition vs. a cultural definition, that's all.

Answer 3

Actually... black is not the presence of all color. Using light, white is the presence of all color. using your water paint set, black is the presence of all color only if you include black... otherwise a gray brown sludgy colour is what you will get.

The answer to the black and white movies question is just that it is a convention. in reality white is full of color but it is undifferentiated. so really it could be said that black and white movie are full of color. just like silent films are full of sound (listen to Jack Johnson).

Incidentally, another way to say b&w is monochrome which literally means one color (from the original Latin)

Answer 4

To address your first received answer - Black is the darker hues of ALL color spectrums and White is compiled of the lighter hues of ALL color spectrums.

People are ill informed when they say these things. As well, tho I am not a photographer, but movies as well as pictures are more expressive/dynamic in shades of black, white and gray because of the shades or (values) these colors bring to the film/tape. It would be my guess of a person's preference to see movies or TV shows in almost true-to-color scenes. And I suppose that we as a people are spoiled to not keep our imaginations heightened but want to see things right away and for close to what they really appear as.

These are the days of high-tech and the microwave era. We want things instantly yesterday or beyond. There's no savorying anything for the sake of beauty anymore. Sepia is something else we are getting away from.

Thanks for asking.

Answer 5

Actually white is the presence of all color, whereas black is the absence of color

Answer 6

nice question. black and white are all colors, but they're not separated so you get black/white/gray only. they don't have the fun vibrant red etc. so people call them colorless.

Answer 7

I've never heard anyone say, "Let's go watch that colorless movie".

Answer 8

bcoz black n white are not considered as colours

Answer 9

actually black is the ABSENCE of color

Answer 10

all those are wrong...nothing in universe is colourless save trasparent objects