Interesting B&W experience.

[WolfSpring]

So I found that my D40 does have a B&W option, thought it's not as detailed as using PS on a color photo, I took a bunch of photos with it on B&W. Something I found out, for me that it, that it seems to be easier to try and learn light with B&W. I think one of my main problems with lighting before was so many colors not looking right and I attributed that to lighting, and it may have been film speed or ISO not necisarrily apperature and lighting. Now that I have removed WB from the equasion and I don't have colors to worry about, I can manipulate the settings to better understand shading and lighting. As I said this works for me, may not work for someone else just something I thought I'd share if someone else was having problems with lighting, maybe they can try this to learn better. Also I would like to appologize for my spelling and grammar, especially to those who have to translate this. I am no where near stupid, and I did learn english once, and when I have to do something buisness I use MS Word. I am lazy and do not feel that spelling and grammar are that important as long as I get the message accross. If anyone has a comment on why my theory is flawed something I am not considering by all means tell me before I go to far thinking I am learning and I am actually setting myself up for failure. Thank you.

 

[Johnboy2978]

I think one of my main problems with lighting before was so many colors not looking right and I attributed that to lighting, and it may have been film speed or ISO not necisarrily apperature and lighting.

If this is the main issue, then it sounds like your white balance settings were off. If you shoot RAW, you can quickly adjust the setting to bring those colors back to where they should be. If you shoot with a strobe and get a consistent temperature, you can set it in the camera first and do minimal adjustments later.

 

[WolfSpring]

When you say strobe do you mean like a speed light? or is that something different? The issue I was actually haveing was shadowing and some color issues. I'm just trying to learn a little bit of everything and working with the black and white yesterday showed me where some of my aperature settings may have been to slow. I was reading about the sunny 16 theory and was goign to look that up today. I remember that from a high school class, but had forgot almost everything I knew from back then. And we shot all b&W back then, mainly because it was cheaper for the school to develop. That was 12 years ago though and I had forgot most of that.

 

[EOS_JD]

Shoot RAW+JPG and leave the camera set to B&W. Your JPG images will all be B&W but if you find an image you wished was in colour, then you still have the colour image availablke as a RAW (which can also be edited to create a better more dynamic B&W too.

 

[Johnboy2978]

By strobe I meant a studio flash unit like that of an Alien Bee
http://www.alienbees.com/
which have a daylight balanced bulb which is color corrected for about 5700 degrees. You would use this for indoor studio type portraits. Also if you are shooting indoors, even w/ a strobe unit, you can get some unwanted color cast to your pictures if you are shooting in a room w/ stong colors on the walls. It will also give a colorcast to the shadows as well. For instance my dining room is crimson red. If I shot portraits in there, everything would have a red color cast to it since the light woud reflect off the walls. Same problem if you bounce flash off a ceiling which has a funky color or shooting outdoors under a tent and used a bounced flash.

You should always check your WB setting and adjust it accordingly to the environment you shoot in. If outdoors, you might use a speedlight or a strobe to fill in shadows or you could also get by with a reflector. That is where the sunny 16 rule would come into play. Basically, it says if you are shooting outdoors in mid afternoon, sun overhead, you should have your aperture at f/16, your ISO at 100 and your shutterspeed would be roughly the inverse of the ISO i.e., close to 1/100 - 1/125.

 

[RyanLilly]

Most professional video camera viewfinders are in B&W because it helps the operator concentrate on lighting and contrast. And if this is helping you, then keep at it, although I think that shooting in raw or Raw+jpg is the best Idea.

 

[WolfSpring]

I shot in raw+Jpeg(basic) and really like this one shot I got, but now what program to convert a nikon NEF file? Or edit it better yet? Nikon capture DX trial has expired and I'm not spending 125 bucks for one program right now. Any info is greatly appreciated.

 

[MACollum]

I think I understand what you're saying...I sometimes think I'm simply having a hard time figuring out what to meter. I can't tell 18% gray from anything (though I've heard that green grass is typically 18% or so?). Either that or my light meter or monitor is really off. All my pictures come out dark, usually way past the right, when looking at the histogram. Lightening exposure is a big part of post processing for me. My prints come out normal but I suppose the lab could be correcting them or something.