Digital Black and White question

[RMThompson]

In my old Minolta film SLR (which doesn't AF anymore sadly enough) I always noticed a different in my black and white photography when I shot in BnW film, versus shooting in color and converting it later. The BnW film contrasted a LOT more, and was generally sharper.

My question is, in digital, is there any difference between setting my camera to BnW mode (canon A610 right now) or doing it post process... I personally use Picasa 2 for my general touch ups like that.

I want to make sure my Black and White REALLY pops, but if there is no difference, then I guess its better to shoot in color, in case I want to do something different. I do know that I love shooting in Canon's Neutral or Low Sharpening modes, and they look better than if I did the same in Picasa!

What are all of your experiences like?

 

[Big Mike]

Absolutely do it in post process...it's so very much more flexible. Plus, as you mention...it give you the option to do something different.

I've never used Picasa for image editing...but with Photoshop...there are several different conversion methods...which will let you tweak and fine tune the image to your heart's desire.

B&W film...is still, in many people's opinion, king of image quality.

 

[Photography School Asia]

Totally agree with Mike on this one.

If you keep the channels you can manipulate the image better in post production. But up close, I have never seen a digital B/W image that I like yet.

Photography School Asia
www.jonathantaylor.net

 

[RMThompson]

Well here is my BnW set.

Some of these were done in the camera, but most were post process:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmthompson/sets/72157594379354320/

 

[Big Mike]

Those all look really good. Great contrast...whatever you are doing...seems to be working.

 

[JIP]

Try Adobe Lightroom the free beta download is great take advantage of it while it lasts it has grayscale conversion to B+W wich, if I'm not mistaken is a really good way to convert color to B+W it also has all the adjustments you will need to tweak you images

 

[AluminumStudios]

Always shoot digital in color, then use Photoshop's channel mixer (or eqivalent in other software) to convert to B&W. Who know's what method a camera uses to shoot in B&W, it may simply desaturate which yields notoriously flat images.

Channel mixing is great because every scene is different, if you look at the red, green, and blue channels, you'll see some pop and other's don't. You can include more of them for a more dramatic B&W image.