Black and White on a Digital camera

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thegary

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Gary
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Hello,

I very often convert my pictures to black and white. I shoot RAW then conver them.

On my Canon 50D there is a monochrome setting in picturestyles.

My question is, Is the Monochrome setting a good B&W starting point, or am i better just to shoot color and convert them in post?


Thanks
Gary
 
shoot colour then convert to mono in post processing. much much more control over how it will look!
 
If you shoot RAW then the pics will always be in colour - no matter if you choose b/w in camera.
 
I always shoot colour and convert to B&W later - there are different ways to convert and it depends on the picture which one will look best. Plus, if you shoot B&W and then later decide you'd quite like to have had that shot in colour, well you're stuffed :thinking:
 
I haven't seen the monochrome setting of the 50D in action but I'd be surprised if it delivered better results than you'd get from converting a colour file. The monochrome setting on my Nikon D40X produced very bland results - essentially just desaturated images with no noticeable contrast or toning.
 
When I know I'm going to convert an image to B&W in PP I will often set the camera to mono so that I can see instantly what it'll look like. If shooting in RAW (which I always do) then you are capturing the colour data anyway so what you see on the back of the camera is just a mono preview. The proper B&W conversion should always be done in PP.
 
Shoot raw + jpeg then you'll have a ready made black and white to give you a starting point (or a quick pic for the web) and you'll have the full colour raw to make a better conversion later. Plus you'll have the advantage of actually seeing the pic in B+W on the camera back as a rough guide to whether it works on not.
 
i dont shoot raw...but i do convert the colour to black to white
in the software i use are b>w filters....so i can do the colour in different filtrations
red orange green etc and inbetween

then i have a colour to go back to...and really most times i prefer the colour
 
Thanks for all the feedback.

I don't do alot of B&W. But as i always shoot RAW , then it would seem i am in good order.

Just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing something. Good day of shooting today. Went to -5.


THanks again
Gary
 
thegary said:
Thanks for all the feedback.

I don't do alot of B&W. But as i always shoot RAW , then it would seem i am in good order.

Just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing something. Good day of shooting today. Went to -5..


THanks again
Gary
Click to expand...

warming up?:)
 
I use Silver Efex, which is supposed to be one of the best B&W plugins - works with Photoshop and Lightroom.

Amongst other things it simulates various brands of B&W film, including a very natural grain effect.

Here's one I did earlier :D

reservoir.jpg


A.
 
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