B&W vs Color: Does the Brain Work in LAB Color Space

[tstermitz]

Roger Cicala at Lens rentals had a very interesting article on Black & White vs Color. He uses the LAB color space for editing, and shows some interesting reasons why this works for him.

The most interesting thing he talked about was how the brain works with the visual system to separate out B&W from Color channels. He says that B&W is responsible for the 3D awareness and movement the "where", while color is more for "what" and identifying shapes.

I'd never thought about it before, but it does seem strange that B&W photographs do such a good job of representing the world, despite the fact that our eyes are always operating in color.

 

[lynnb]

I saw that article and found it very interesting. Lots of things I didn't know - and I thought I had a reasonable knowledge of colour and colour perception.

 

[MarBaz]

This helps me alot, i'm actually trying to learn to previsualize black and white, this helps me alot thank you tstermitz!

 

[craygc]

Another interesting lecture: What art can tell us about the brain

 

[icebear]

For me it falls in the category:
"OK, interesting but what's the purpose?"

Basically I'm not interested in having fun with colors.
Going for weird colored faces or whatever effects that make stuff look like out of "Avatar".

I use manual WB to get my colors accurate.
Monitors use RGB [red, green, blue], printers CMYK [cyan, magenta, yellow + key (i.e. black)].
I don't need a third color space to make it even more interesting😉.

 

[tstermitz]

@Klaus: Certainly, use the colorspace you prefer or the one that is appropriate for your output, e.g. CMYK for printshops.

Apparently, the brain processes B&W in a separate channel from color. That's pretty interesting, and similar to how the LAB colorspace works.