Whats the difference?

videoboyje · Jun 4, 2008

Im fairly new to photography, and i have wondered something for a while. Is it better to shoot in B/W or use gray scale on a colored picture later? Is there a quality difference between the two? Do you guys usually shoot in B/W or use gray scale later? Thanks guys.

Rachelsne · Jun 4, 2008

I think Grey scale doesnt have any true blacks-so the picture wouldnt be true black and white...I may be wrong though

NateWagner · Jun 4, 2008

In addition, an advantage of shooting in color is that one can always change it to black and white later, particularly changing the levels and being able to create a higher contrast, more interesting image.

compur · Jun 4, 2008

Whatever works best for you is better and it's better because it works best
for you.

Miaow · Jun 4, 2008

I like to shoot in colour and then convert a pic - Sometimes what I thought would work well as a B&W didnt and was actually better in colour - At least shooting in colour if the pic doesn't work as a B&W you can still go back to the colour version whereas shooting in B&W you cant go back...

Grayscale true doesn't really give a great black and white conversion I've found - I've been using the dual tone conversion in PhotoImpact (dont have photoshop) recently rather than grayscale (monotone) as it gives better colours and I can also use the red filter if needed.

BrandonS · Jun 5, 2008

It should be noted that if you shoot raw, at least on my D80, it doesn't matter if you have it on B&W or not. The RAW file will still be color. I would imagine it'd be the same with all cameras.

Alex_B · Jun 5, 2008

videoboyje said:
Im fairly new to photography, and i have wondered something for a while. Is it better to shoot in B/W or use gray scale on a colored picture later? Is there a quality difference between the two? Do you guys usually shoot in B/W or use gray scale later? Thanks guys.

If you shoot digital, converting into gray scale by simply setting saturation to zero will not give very good b&w results. Normally you would have to work a bit more on it.
So if you want no effort, shoot b&w directly in camera. If you want optimised results and flexibility, shoot colour and convert in postprocessing (more tedious, search for tutorials ... or get a plugin

)

TrickyRic · Jun 5, 2008

I generally shoot in colour and later decide that some shots may look better converted, in which case I use UFRaw to process the raw file again.

I visit Niagara Falls quite regularly though, since my family live in England and you just have to see Niagara when you come out here. I've decided that next time we visit, I'll shoot entirely in black and white using the camera settings. Shooting the same water fall over and over gets somewhat repetitive and I'll be interested to see what I can pull off.

I don't really think there's any right or wrong method for doing things. As a programmer I've been brought up with the concept that if something works, you did it right. Everybody has there own methods and styles regardless of the result. It's the same here.