We may impose remembered hues on an object seen in black-and-white, but we're also likely to become much more aware of the texture, patterns and shading in the image. Take away the color from even a familiar image, however, and our minds are thrown for a perceptual loop.
Color is a powerful force for driving our focus - the hunter-gatherer instincts that helped us spot animals hiding in the bush now draw us to pick out the color that doesn't seem to belong in a scene. But in an era when color photography can capture the most subtle shades nature throws at us, why does black-and-white photography still hold such sway? Part of the answer has to do with how we're wired to process visual information.
