B&W or Colour - do you shoot with one in mind?

DiddyDave

DiddyDave

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Following on from a valid comment on another thread, this occurred to me as a question...

Do you shoot Colour and then think, hmm perhaps it'll look good in B&W, or do you shoot for B&W in your subjects?

For my part, and aside from shooting specifically for a club comp either way, I rarely go out to shoot either - but react to the scene in front of me and then imagine at the time what I think would look best, Colour or B&W

In the olden-days of film, you clearly made that decision as you loaded the camera, with digital we don't have that pressure at the capture stage - so how are we choosing now? :shrug:

Do some of you go out specifically to shoot B&W then?

Or do you often just try B&W as a means of seeing if that will suck a good shot out of a poor Colour one? :thinking::thinking::thinking:
 
I always shoot in colour as I can't be bothered to change the in-camera settings (and I'd probably forget to change back) but quite often I will see a picture which I know will be good in B&W and sometimes I will shoot something knowing beforehand it will be a mono shot.

Having said that I have taken many shots which were okay in colour but when I re-visit them I then realise that mono would suit them far better. The perfect example of this is when I went to Duxford earlier this year, a couple of months later I was going through the shots and thought this Mustang would be better in mono.
 
Hey Dave, great question.

Though not as experienced as you, nor have I been into photography for anywhere near as long, I have indeed thought about which would look best B&W or colour - at the time of taking the shot. Not for all images, but certainly have thought that this might look better in B&W when taking the shot.

Having said that, amending a colour image to B&W is easy enough post shot, so I ma not sure I'd want to change the settings on camera every time I wanted to do this. Also, it might be that it didn't occur that a particular image would look better in B&W until one saw it on the Mac/PC.
 
This is a good thread about it. For me I shoot in B&W on the camera. 90% of my people photography is B&W. I set my 30D to B&W so I can see if the tones, shadows and light works right there and then. If not I can correct it at the scene. Doing this allows me to get the shot right in camera. There is no coming home and wondering if it looks better in B&W or colour because that was decided on location. B&W isn't just desaturating an image. Its as complex to work with as colour imho and you need a good understanding of it to really get good images. Its the age old thing, photography is just light. You have to know how that light will work in B&W for it to be of any use to you.
 
I never shoot B&W on the camera but in my mind it's either a colour or B&W image before it gets framed up.

I try to always have the finished print in my mind before going anyway near the camera and have always like working with the pre-visualisation method.

That doesn't mean that shots never get changed in post process of course and I have nothing against changing to a better plan if one comes along. You can't beat the satisfaction though of ending up with a finsihed imaged that you really like and exactly matches what you saw in your minds eye.
 
DiddyDave said:
Do some of you go out specifically to shoot B&W then?

Or do you often just try B&W as a means of seeing if that will suck a good shot out of a poor Colour one? :thinking::thinking::thinking:
Click to expand...

Hello DiddyDave. :wave:

Both! :D

I quite often decide to shoot in black and white before I start. Even though I shoot colour RAW this is only so I can can the best conversion out of it and do not use the in camera B&W. I actually prefer to use film for mono, but mostly do not have the time and it tends to be a luxury.

I've had images that I just had to rescue because I could not go back and recreate them for whatever reason. It may just not have worked in colour for instance, or I messed up in some way. If have to have the shot then the mono-conversion may come out. I'm not that proud even if I do not do it very often. :D I'm happy to say that this also happens less as my experience increases and I can plan shots better.
 
I shoot RAW...though I take images with colour or B&W in mind sometimes - with my subject matter, most of what I do looks better in B&W, but I have to shoot colour for the Bosses.
 
I always shoot in RAW but my mind is usually made up before I shoot whether the finished article will be colour or B&W.

I agree with one of the posters above about mono being as complex to work with as colour.

I recently purchased my very first 35mm camera (Canon EOS Elan 7e) and some B&W Ilford film, so when I use that I have to get the B&W view in my mind before I shoot.
 
i always shoot in raw. so i can change a shot if i want...
my intension in always colour.
i will try a few in b+w if i feel they will work.
so in answer . i shoot colour..


md:thumbs:
 
Fred Dawson said:
never shot B&W, I always shoot raw and convert to B&W in photshop which gives pleantly of control.
Click to expand...

Thats what I do, but the beauty of the Canon Picture styles mean that if you shoot RAW you can shoot in B&W and it can be removed later if you don't like it. Helps you think in B&W. Get the shot perfect there and then.
 
I shoot raw but if im intending a shot to be B&W or if im shooting lots of B&W images I normally have the camera set to record the jpeg in b&w with a red filter.

I also would take pictures with slightly different settings if im shooting for B&W than I would for colour.
 
Yes definately, If I'm making images for an Inscape magazine article then in my mind is B&W and whether or not a particular subject will work.

Thinking about it flat lighting is the worst for B&W, the colours will show up differently but in B&W tones the differences will be minimal. Though of course this can be partly remedied in Photoshop.

Here's one made on a dull day using our shed as a background and fiddled with in Pshop, it's a toned Cyanotype so the contrast is quite low anyway;

wd390.jpg


Its really interesting this question, I've never thought about it before just done it.

James
 
Another thought on this subject, has anyone had a B&W digital image printed? If so did it meet your expectations?
and who did the printing for you?
 
Plenty. They look just like they do on my screen. I use Photobox.
 
DiddyDave said:
After years of use, whether I get a proper B&W from my i9950 still seems to be hit & miss
Click to expand...

Agree!:agree:

My IP 5000 has, and still is giving me excellent service but B&W looks better on the real thing most of the time.

When I shoot I always shoot Raw but IMHO there are a few things that are ESSENTIAL in a great B&W shot and at least one (preferably more) should always be part of the shot:

The right light,

interesting textures

interesting/unusual subject matter (OK, True for colour too:bonk:

BLACK

and WHITE

and NO flash unless in studio work!
 
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