White Balance in BW

[pborgbarthet]

Does White Balance affect Black and White shots? If I was to shoot black and white under tungsten lighting, would it make any difference what WB setting I used?

Thanks

 

[ANDS!]

Interesting question - I dont think so. I tried it and got the same cast on objects.

 

[Seefutlung]

No, white balance does not affect a B&W image. B&W is all about shades of gray and light intensity not color.

 

[Digital Matt]

Yes it most certainly does. White balance changes the sensitivity to different colors of the spectrum. The sensor in a digital camera is far more sensitive to red than any other color. You can see this in an RGB histogram. So, if you expose a photo under tungsten lighting without setting your white balance correctly, you'll get an image with dominant reds. Once color balancing it, it becomes darker because a large portion of the light that was captured was red. This totally affects a b&w image. Open an image in photoshop, make a hue/sat adjustment layer, set the saturation to 0, and set the blend mode to color. You'll have a standard black and white image. Now select the background image and change it's hue/saturation (ctrl+u). Move the hue slider back and forth and watch the tones in the image change as the hue of the underlying photo is changed.

 

[pborgbarthet]

Yes it most certainly does. White balance changes the sensitivity to different colors of the spectrum. The sensor in a digital camera is far more sensitive to red than any other color. You can see this in an RGB histogram. So, if you expose a photo under tungsten lighting without setting your white balance correctly, you'll get an image with dominant reds. Once color balancing it, it becomes darker because a large portion of the light that was captured was red. This totally affects a b&w image. Open an image in photoshop, make a hue/sat adjustment layer, set the saturation to 0, and set the blend mode to color. You'll have a standard black and white image. Now select the background image and change it's hue/saturation (ctrl+u). Move the hue slider back and forth and watch the tones in the image change as the hue of the underlying photo is changed.

Thanks a lot for the information. It really makes sense he way you explained it. I'll be trying it out tonight and i'll let you know the results...

Thanks

 

[Digital Matt]

I use C1 LE to process my raw files. If I intend a picture to be B&W, there is a B&W preview button. I adjust the white balance to give me the best results in the B&W preview, and then export the picture in grayscale. Changing the color temperature (wb) drastically changes the look of the monochrome image.