Digital black & white question? What are the pros & cons of setting the camera to shoot in monochrome (the B & W setting on my Canon), or shooting in color and converting to B & W...

josephnl Loc: Irvine,, CA

What are the pros & cons of setting the camera to shoot in monochrome (the B & W setting on my Canon), or shooting in color and converting to B & W using Photoshop or iPhoto on the computer? I've never done much B & W and would like to start playing around with it.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Shoot RAW. Set to monochrome and you'll see. You'll still have color because RAW is in color but you will see b&w on the playback.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

You have more control on how the colors translate into B&W tones if you convert later. But to me, one of the best reasons is that you may someday wish you had the color version of the shot.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

josephnl wrote:

What are the pros & cons of setting the camera to shoot in monochrome (the B & W setting on my Canon), or shooting in color and converting to B & W using Photoshop or iPhoto on the computer? I've never done much B & W and would like to start playing around with it.

This is one of the great things with digital cameras.
This is one case where you can have your cake and eat it to.

Shooting in monochrome in camera can help to train your eye for monochromatic shooting, can help you to see.

But the best images will be produced off the full information the camera can provide - the full sized, raw, colour image.

With digital, if you shoot in raw, with the camera turned to monochrome, your raw is still the full colour image and can be brought out of your raw file.

As a matter of fact, ACR will automatically convert your image back to colour when you load it - whereas DPP will leave it represented to you in mono.

So - shoot raw, shoot in mono if it helps you see or train your eye, and work on the colour version for your processing.

josephnl Loc: Irvine,, CA

Thanks...great advice. Please, I'm a newbie...what is ACR and DPP?

amehta Loc: Boston

josephnl wrote:

Thanks...great advice. Please, I'm a newbie...what is ACR and DPP?

ACR: Adobe Camera Raw
DPP: (Canon) Digital Photo Professional

These are two programs which people use to process raw sensor data into RGB (red/green/blue) image data, like a jpeg. ACR can be used for files from many cameras, DPP is specifically for Canon cameras. DPP has the advantage that it can read all the camera processing settings stored in the CR2 (raw) file and use those to reproduce the jpeg you would get if you shot raw+jpeg.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

josephnl wrote:

Thanks...great advice. Please, I'm a newbie...what is ACR and DPP?

ACR is Adobe Camera Raw - the raw converter on the front end of Photoshop or Lightroom that raw files get loaded and converted through. Also a good editing program in its own right.

DPP is Digital Photo Professional - the raw converter, editing program that came free with your Canon camera. It is a very good free starter editing program.

amehta Loc: Boston

josephnl wrote:

What are the pros & cons of setting the camera to shoot in monochrome (the B & W setting on my Canon), or shooting in color and converting to B & W using Photoshop or iPhoto on the computer? I've never done much B & W and would like to start playing around with it.

You can also go back through your current stock of digital photos and apply a monochrome filter to see how you like it.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Very good response to the OP.

lighthouse wrote:

This is one of the great things with digital camer... (show quote)

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

josephnl wrote:

What are the pros & cons of setting the camera to shoot in monochrome (the B & W setting on my Canon), or shooting in color and converting to B & W using Photoshop or iPhoto on the computer? I've never done much B & W and would like to start playing around with it.

It is convenient if you either don't have the software or aren't good at using it or don't have the time. Given the low cost of using a digicam, the idea of taking several shots of the same scene (b&w, raw, JPEG, etc) covers your bases.

anotherview Loc: California

Note that even though the camera monitor will display a black-and-white image (in JPEG file format), the file itself remains in the RAW file format.

Later in Adobe Camera Raw, you can manipulate this RAW file to suit your taste, whether for color or black-and-white.

The best black-and-white software seems to be Silver Efex Pro 2.

Nik Software developed SEP2. Google bought Nik Software, and sells its software as Google Nik Collection, for $149, a big bargain in my opinion because this Collection includes other very useful filters like Color Efex Pro.

Note: I am not a shill for Google, only a satisfied user pre-Google.

Welcome to black-and-white.

josephnl wrote:

What are the pros & cons of setting the camera to shoot in monochrome (the B & W setting on my Canon), or shooting in color and converting to B & W using Photoshop or iPhoto on the computer? I've never done much B & W and would like to start playing around with it.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

DavidPine wrote:

Shoot RAW. Set to monochrome and you'll see. You'll still have color because RAW is in color but you will see b&w on the playback.

Agree. I have my camera set to show B&W previews which is, after all, the luminance values of your image. I save in RAW and then convert in PP so I can mimic any number of contrast control filters that I do not have to carry around.

Besides in my opinion, part of photography is the digital "darkroom" and I do not want the camera manufacturer making conversion decisions for me.

Girl with A Canon Loc: Myrtle Beach,SC

josephnl wrote:

What are the pros & cons of setting the camera to shoot in monochrome (the B & W setting on my Canon), or shooting in color and converting to B & W using Photoshop or iPhoto on the computer? I've never done much B & W and would like to start playing around with it.

I am not by all means as good as most of these people on UHH's. But I have been playing around with Street People and B&W just lately. I shoot in Raw but I stay with color for editing reasons. I have just learned in the past week how to dodge and burn and add color back to a B&W photo. The one I am attaching was PP in Topaz B&W no special one of the effects. I just hit reset and then used the sliders as needed. As you can see I elected to bring back just the eyes of the tiger on his shirt. The two flowers that he sprayed and the buttons on the tops of the cans.

loveandpeace Loc: Southeast Iowa

anotherview wrote:

The best black-and-white software seems to be Silver Efex Pro 2.

I agree that Silver Efex Pro 2 is still king. I started out with DXO Filmpack 2, which is very good, but kept hearing about Silver Efex from photographers I admire, like Tony Sweet. I changed over to the NIK suite about five years ago (before Google bought it) and have never looked back. Silver Efex is so flexible and deep without being complicated that anyone can get great monochrome photos with it.

I also agree with every who advocates shooting in Raw and converting later.

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

I just started a b/w film photography course and will be using my old AE-1. Maybe I'll try also shooting b/w with my A77 (which I've never tried before). We start shooting next week and developing our own 5x7s.