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B&W question
Aug 24, 2021 21:03:55 #
Aug 24, 2021 22:20:06 #
CHG_CANON wrote:
This is 2021. Your digital camera captures in full-color. It outputs converted JPEGs to B&W.
This is 2021. Edit your full color RAW (or JPEG) to B&W on your computer. You start with better potential in the original file, yielding a better result in B&W, including digital versions of color filters and custom software for different toning, if desired.
This is 2021. Edit your full color RAW (or JPEG) to B&W on your computer. You start with better potential in the original file, yielding a better result in B&W, including digital versions of color filters and custom software for different toning, if desired.
What Paul said...
I'll add that if I used film to record the image, I camera-scan the negative or slide to raw files and manipulate them in software. Sometimes the computer allows things I could never do in a lab or darkroom.
Aug 24, 2021 23:40:35 #
delder
Loc: Maryland
ALWAYS Shoot in Color.
I have found some shots may be valid as BOTH a B&W AND a COLOR photograph!
I have found some shots may be valid as BOTH a B&W AND a COLOR photograph!
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Aug 25, 2021 07:04:04 #
JimH123 wrote:
Just in case some individuals haven't discovered t... (show quote)
Thank you. I will keep this handy.
Aug 25, 2021 07:19:45 #
rmalarz wrote:
To add to my previous post, there’s a bit more to converting to black and white than just desaturating a color image.
—Bob
—Bob
I'm sure you are right. The summer before I retired a long-time client invited my wife and me to his Nantucket summer house for a weekend. We had a light lunch a three-hour sail dinner at 8. After a little nap and shower I go downstairs he is in the bar area we have a drink and he shows me around. He has a black and white picture of this charging elephant I have no idea what camera or lens the photographer used. The detail was unreal. Massive elephant. Not too far away was at first glance a white picture with a black spot. Looking at the picture, the black spot was the bottom pad of a departing polar bear. In this white environment. For me, I have yet to see any other black and white prints that have affected me in the same way. I don't remember the photographer's name.
Aug 25, 2021 08:53:14 #
RustyNM wrote:
For those who do B&W:
Do you shoot in B&W, or
Do you shoot in color and convert?
why?
Do you shoot in B&W, or
Do you shoot in color and convert?
why?
I shoot in RAW convert to B&W and save as rgb, I feel I get a better range of grays this way.
Aug 25, 2021 09:52:56 #
An outstanding professional photographer, writer (he has authored several books on B & W) and educator, Harold Davis always takes raw color photographs and converts to B & W during processing. According to Harold Davis, the manner in which the color photos are processed, by his set up cameras, is critical so that when he convert to B & W the processing is more accurate. Harold has several youtube videos on B & W you may want to checks these out.
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Aug 25, 2021 10:08:49 #
RustyNM
Loc: Deming, NM
Kozan wrote:
In a modern digital camera, you are always capturing color, even if the camera is set to show you B & W.
Edit the color photo by using the color channels. By far this is the best method because grass may not be as green as you like or the sky not as blue, etc.
Edit the color photo by using the color channels. By far this is the best method because grass may not be as green as you like or the sky not as blue, etc.
Thanks for the reply.
Aug 25, 2021 10:10:56 #
Aug 25, 2021 10:22:31 #
mwsilvers
Loc: Central New Jersey
RustyNM wrote:
For those who do B&W:
Do you shoot in B&W, or
Do you shoot in color and convert?
why?
Do you shoot in B&W, or
Do you shoot in color and convert?
why?
If you shoot raw all the colors are retained even if you change the camera to monochrome. So if seeing in monochrome helps you compose, go for it. You'll still have to convert the image in post.
Aug 25, 2021 14:25:41 #
I'm fortunate enough to have monochrome digital sensors--Leica and Phase One. And I love them. But they are luxuries that do not get as much use as my color gear.
There is an issue of practicality--very few clients will commit to b/w only. So easily 50-60% of my final b/w shots were actually shot in native color, then converted in post.
I could digress about the technical merits of removing the Bayer array, but digital gear has become so good that for most of us, it's probably a moot point.
In my experience, it really isn't about the gear or post-processing. When I set out to shoot b/w, I look at luminance and lines. Choosing a monochrome sensor somehow changes the way I look at things, what I choose to shoot and how I shoot it.
For me, it's not so much about shooting in b/w as it is about seeing in b/w.
There is an issue of practicality--very few clients will commit to b/w only. So easily 50-60% of my final b/w shots were actually shot in native color, then converted in post.
I could digress about the technical merits of removing the Bayer array, but digital gear has become so good that for most of us, it's probably a moot point.
In my experience, it really isn't about the gear or post-processing. When I set out to shoot b/w, I look at luminance and lines. Choosing a monochrome sensor somehow changes the way I look at things, what I choose to shoot and how I shoot it.
For me, it's not so much about shooting in b/w as it is about seeing in b/w.
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Aug 25, 2021 14:54:18 #
Lucian
Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio
quixdraw wrote:
If I am on a B&W photo run, yes, I set to or one button switch to Monochrome. Being in Monochrome helps me think in values, not colors. On a general shoot I run in color and convert or not based on the photo.
That does not make sense, because you are not viewing it in the camera in B&W, that is through the view finder. So see it in colour, compose it in the view finder in colour, so why then choose B&W as the recoding medium? Why not just record in colour and then change the file in the computer?
Since you are seeing the scene with your eyes in colour and through the view finder in colour, how are you "Thinking in values" as you put it? I'm not speaking of looking at a taken image on the camera LCD in possible B&W, just so you understand.
Aug 25, 2021 16:18:19 #
Lucian wrote:
That does not make sense, because you are not view... (show quote)
Maybe he's using Live View rather than the view finder. If you know the final image will be in b/w, it makes perfect sense to me to view the composition in b/w live view then process the RAW into b/w in post.
Aug 25, 2021 18:22:03 #
Lucian wrote:
That does not make sense, because you are not view... (show quote)
Mirrorless cameras let you compose in the ELECTRONIC viewfinder in black-and-white, WHILE saving both a black-and-white JPEG and a raw data file with all the color information...
Aug 25, 2021 19:32:36 #
smf85
Loc: Freeport, IL
I have a monochrome converted Nikon D850 with a fused silica cover glass. In terms of quality the really isn’t a comparison with a Bayer filter camera image converted to monochrome.
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