We demonstrate a new approach to laser control using binary phase shaping. We apply this method to the problem of spectrally narrowing multiphoton excitation using shaped laser pulses as required for selectivity in two-photon microscopy. The symmetry of the problem is analyzed from first principles and a rational solution is proposed. Successful experimental implementation and simulations are presented using 10 fs ultrashort pulses. The proposed solution is a factor of 6 better than the sinusoidal phase used previously by our group. An evolutionary learning algorithm was used to efficiently improve the solution by a further factor of 2.5 because of the greatly reduced search space afforded by binary phase shaping.