901. Why aren’t black-and-white (monochrome) photographs disqualified by the Trust Test for misrepresenting the appearance of the scene depicted?

Because “misrepresentation” is judged by the standards of respected international news agencies (as per P7), and black-and-white photographs have been a trusted staple of news photography for more than 100 years.

Many of the most widely trusted photographs in the world have been in black-and-white. (Some documentary photographers have said that their photos seem to be more trusted when in black-and-white than in color.)

Black-and-white/mono photos can qualify as TTG (assuming they fully meet the Trust Test) whether they were shot with a monochrome digital sensor, with black-and-white film, or with color film/sensors and then converted into black-and-white.

Over the past 20 years, countless news photographs in every corner of the world have fallen into that last category: they were photographed in color and published in black-and-white. See FAQ #886 on the non-deceptive conversion of color to black-and-white.

As a result of this historical association with “newsphotos,” black-and-white photographs long ago became a part of the public’s photographic literacy.

Few members of the general public trust a photograph less when it is non-deceptively converted (see #886) to black-and-white.

Viewers’ trust of black-and-white photographs has survived even though many printed-newspaper photographs (and almost all online newsphotos) are now published in color.

When it comes to rinairs and “not misrepresenting the appearance of the scene depicted” (P7), there are no comparable “light”-related anomalies that enjoy the privileged position of black-and-white photographs (see the bottom half of #903).