One of the trends that's been popping up more and more here on deviantART is the use of black and white photography. And why not? A monochrome image can convey emotion and beauty as well if not better than a color photograph, and there are many artists on here who are better with the medium than I could ever hope to be. Not only that, but it has far more history as an art form; color photography is a relatively new development compared to the history of photography at large. That being said, an aspect of black and white that is often neglected here and in the art community at large is tone.
Tone refers to the color temperature of a black and white photograph. Most people have seen the sepia effect on their camera or photo editor, played around briefly with making their pictures look "old" and then gotten bored and left it at that. However, actual sepia toning in the historical context is truly fascinating.
For one thing, why do we associate sepia tone with age? Crisp, cold blacks and grays have been available ever since photography got its start. For the answer, we have to look at how pictures used to be made.
These days, 1 hour film development and (increasingly) digital cameras have almost completely replaced the old methods of making photographs. There was a time when, to get a simple snapshot image, you had to take the picture, develop the film into negatives, then make a positive by shining a light through the negative onto a piece of specially treated paper that you could then develop into a photograph. Both the paper and the film were treated with light-sensitive silver bromide so that they could take on an image. However, silver bromide isn't that stable, which is precisely why it's so good for photography; even light can make it deteriorate. To make their prints last longer, some photographers used a sulphorous chemical to treat their positives, which stabilized the silver and gave the pictures a warm, earthy tone. Because of their stability, a disproportionate number of these pictures survive in tact today, making it seem like they were more common than they actually were.
This may seem to have little relevance to anyone other than anachronistic dinosaurs like myself who still make photographs in a dimly-lit room with tubs of slightly malodorous chemicals, but I believe that sepia toning is underrepresented and unfairly stereotyped. It's not just an obsolete technology, it's a valid and artistic aspect of photography. It seems to me that the tone of a black and white photograph should be taken into as much account as its contrast or density. Next time you open up Photoshop to edit your digital shots, don't just convert them to grayscale. Think about whether the image would look better with a warmer or cooler tone. Often, basic black and white is the obvious choice, and far better than sepia or another tone. Have a look, though. You might be surprised by which one you ultimately decide on.