Shooting in B&W vs Colour Conversion

[Joves]

They said it well going to gray scale then channel mixing in CS is the way to go. I love the new RAW processor for that.

 

[frXnz kafka]

Always shoot in colour, thats what your camera was made for.

That's ridiculous. Digital cameras aren't made for color. They're made to take pictures.

First of all, no matter what you're doing, you should be shooting in RAW. After that, it doesn't matter what you set your LCD to show you. If you want to shoot B&W, set your camera to B&W mode. The whole point of a digital SLR is to be able to see your photos as soon as you've taken them. Why look at a B&W image in color? It doesn't make any sense. If you KNOW you want the resulting image to be B&W, shoot in B&W. If you're shooting RAW you can always go back and change it later (in fact Photoshop and Lightroom default to color when you open a photo).

 

[doobs]

I don't know Paint Shop Pro (7) but from my experiance with Photodraw and Illustrator I advise greyscale.

The hell are you editing pictures in Illustrator for?

 

[Val]

So why is it a no-brainier? Anyone who really enjoys B&W photography should have a complete set of colour filters to allow you to get different effects. They are fundamentally important to controlling the tone of B&W, and anyone who says otherwise (I really mean no disrespect) is kidding themselves.

Garbz is talking sense :thumbup:

 

[Val]

That's ridiculous. Digital cameras aren't made for color. They're made to take pictures.

First of all, no matter what you're doing, you should be shooting in RAW.

That's ridiculous.

 

[doobs]

That's ridiculous.

No, that's actually why that feature comes with the camera. To use it.

 

[Val]

No, that's actually why that feature comes with the camera. To use it.

No offence, but are you guys like 16 years old?

All features in a camera are there to use them. Its just that one should decide if, when and how to use that particular feature.

 

[hyakuhei]

That's ridiculous. Digital cameras aren't made for color. They're made to take pictures.

Take a look at the sensor, were talking colour there. IF you set your camera to shoot BW then you are using just taking a colour photo and then converting to BW on the camera. Thats pants for a lot of reasons mainly because you are forced into accepting whatever mix of channels the camera was set to for its conversion, this is, in most cases, [SIZE=-1]30% Red, 60% Green,& 10% B[/SIZE]lue.

First of all, no matter what you're doing, you should be shooting in RAW.

Also not true, there are many situations where you may want to use a compressed format for your images, one that springs to mind is where your shooting a rapidly changing scene, say for instance a football match and you need to know that your always going to have space in the camera buffer for that one important shot. Ok, so if you have a MkIII thats not such an issue but if your using your old 300D, you need all the buffer space you can get.

However, I do agree that shooting in RAW is typically favourable.

 

[xjoycex]

Thanks for this thread, quite useful as I was also curious if the shots are taken in B&W mode.

 

[Garbz]

Just to clarify on an earlier question:

JPEG -> sensor data with all camera settings applied
RAW -> sensor data raw with no camera settings applied. Sharpening, colour space, contrast curves, whitebalance, all of this is done in software on the computer.

When shooting black and white photos in RAW mode the RAW file is the same it still stores identical information as when you shoot in colour, and most programs won't even register that your camera was set to black and white.

The point I was trying to make though is some cameras like the D200 will display in black and white on the LCD even when shooting in RAW, which is a great way to preview what an Image may look like in black and white while with no tone control, while at the same time storing all the colour information that allows you the custom creativity later when you load them onto your computer.

And for anyone still doubting:
This photo was is what results when you load the image off the camera with normal black and white conversion:

Now this is the same photo using only the red channel (equivalent of using a Wratten #29A deep red filter) adding a grain and doing a minor curves adjustment, and a sepia tone. This image would NOT have been possible if I had a black and white jpeg to work with:

 

[frXnz kafka]

No offence, but are you guys like 16 years old?

All features in a camera are there to use them. Its just that one should decide if, when and how to use that particular feature.

The implication that digital camera is created for color photography is ridiculous. That's like saying "That telephoto lens you're using was created for wildlife photography."

Take a look at the sensor, were talking colour there. IF you set your camera to shoot BW then you are using just taking a colour photo and then converting to BW on the camera. Thats pants for a lot of reasons mainly because you are forced into accepting whatever mix of channels the camera was set to for its conversion, this is, in most cases, [SIZE=-1]30% Red, 60% Green,& 10% B[/SIZE]lue.

My point was, if you're shooting in RAW, it doesn't matter what your LCD shows you. For composition's sake it's best to shoot in B&W mode if you're shooting a B&W image. You don't lose any information by doing this, and you're not committed to a certain B&W conversion. Yes the sensor is a color sensor, but I don't see how that's even relevant. If you're composing a B&W image, compose it in B&W. To use the telephoto lens example again, you wouldn't use a wide-angle lens to compose a close-up shot.

Also not true, there are many situations where you may want to use a compressed format for your images, one that springs to mind is where your shooting a rapidly changing scene, say for instance a football match

You are right that RAW isn't always best suited for fast-paced action. But in any case where you don't need a ton of FPS, you should be shooting RAW. I assumed he wasn't shooting sports or something like that. But if this is the case then yes, shoot color.

 

[Alex_B]

I read here digital cameras were made to capture colours... actually this is what they are really bad at!

In first instance, the sensor measures brightness/intensity .. it cannot distinguish for colour on a per pixel basis, only the bayer pattern filter helps here, but results are only interpolated.

 

[Silverbackmp]

Shoot in color and use the channel mixer or a plugin for conversion. You can find free plugins that allow you to easily adjust the black and white color balance (for filter effects) and add other effects like sephia.

 

[Battou]

The hell are you editing pictures in Illustrator for?

Because I don't have all those newfangled photoediters yall have, I've said that before.

Hell I barely use the ones I have.

 

[bango707]

I read here digital cameras were made to capture colours... actually this is what they are really bad at!

Agreed!!!