How do colours translate to black and white?

[newhobby2009]

I am a costume professional about to work on a black and white film. Texture is the key element but i do not know how colours will translate into black and white.

Could anyone give me advice or translate the following colours for me. Is it as simple as black and white, light colours and dark colours?

Red, Grey, Blue, Pink, Orange, Purple.

many thanks.

[AgBeard]

Black & White / monochrome has a Grayscale that represents colour.

Go to Grayscale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for a good explanation & examples.

[wulf]

It is going to vary on the two things. Firstly, the overall tonal value of the colour. Light blue or dark blue? Pale pink or deep scarlet?

Secondly, the balance of red, green and blue detected by the camera in the given clothing. If you are shooting with film then the effect this will have depends on the filmstock you are using and the development process applied to it. If you are shooting digitally, where colour is the default, it might be best to plan on turning it to monochrome in post processing, which will allow you to make use of varying mixes of the different colour channels.

See the Mix to Mono tutorial I posted here recently for details on how I perform that conversion.

Wulf