Photography can be classified into 3 major types i.e. Black and White photography, Colour photography and Digital photography. Out of these three, the Black and White photography is the oldest one. It is also known as ‘monochrome’ photography. Black and White photography gives a classic look to an image and it is cheaper when compared to coloured and digital ones. This is the reason why it is still used today. Monochrome photography is the mother of all other types of photography such as colour and digital photography.

The coloured photography evolved around the mid 1800s. In the beginning, colour photographs were taken with the help of three cameras. Each of the cameras had a colour filter which gives the photographer the three basic channels required to develop a coloured image. Later on groundbreaking innovations eliminated this cumbersome method and the photographers started to capture coloured images with the help of a single camera only. Coloured photography is expensive when compared to monochrome photography. It required purchasing more advanced photography equipment. Thus, in the early days coloured photography was not welcomed by everyone.

Both coloured and monochrome photography needed film and used chemicals to develop the photographs. So, it was very difficult to process the captured image afterwards. Also, a lot of time was spent on the image processing in the labs. So, a fast and more efficient method of photography was developed and became popular with the name of Digital photography. Digital photography records the image as electronic data, which gives the photographer freedom to manipulate the image easily. The time taken to process a photograph was also reduced. This was a remarkable achievement and soon the digital photography was accepted with arms wide open.