Shoot in B&W or convert Colour to B&W...

[Gweebs]

What gives the best results?

Taking a photo in B&W using the camera settings, or

Take the photo in colour then use software to convert it over?



Just interested in what would give the best depth and B&W range on a photo....

 

[The_Traveler]

There isn't much of a contest.
Converting to BW in software will give a better result most of the time.

The camera doesn't know how much exposure you want to give each separate color in BW.

 

[Garbz]

Depends if you have a full set of black and white filter accessories from your film camera. Depth and contrast was well controlled in black and white film through the use of various colour filters with a wide variety of effects.

When you shoot in colour the full original colour of the scene is there. This gives you the ability afterwards to pick and choose how you mix the colour channels in a black and white image. For instance in Photoshop the channel mixer set to 100% red, 0% green and 0% blue would make the picture appear as though it was shot through a #25A red filter.

On top of that there's other considerations such as do you convert to black and white preserving the absolute values of the pixel or do you weight it according to which colour appears brightest to the eye (i.e. converting the red green and blue channels to black and white, or converting to a LAB colour space and keeping just the Lightness channel eliminating A and b).


All these options you lose when you shoot in black and white. Also if you shoot RAW it won't make a difference either.

 

[Breaux]

Convert to B&W using software. Garbz summed it up nicely. I just would add that in Photoshop, you can apply different color filtering to different sections of the photo, which you can't do with filters on the lens.

 

[Gweebs]

Make sense!!! Thanks!!!

 

[flea77]

Actually, shooting in black & white I find looks far superior, of course for me that means using B&W film

Allan

 

[1holegrouper]

Software conversion is what I prefer. Lightroom does a good job. Nik Silver Efex Pro does an even better job. But neither approach a good film B&W IMHO

 

[table1349]

Most DSLR's don't shoot black and white. The sensors record the full range of colors and then black and white is produced from in camera processing. Jpg's may be b&W format only, but when shooting in raw it usually is just a setting in the raw file. The full color is there if you want to view it. Me. I prefer doing my own conversion rather than letting the camera decide.

 

[480sparky]

I'm not a big B&W fan, but it would make sense to me to shoot in color and post the conversion. You would not only be able to convert the entire image in one click (desaturate), but you should be able to address the process specific to each color.