digital B&Ws: in-camera or PS?

[justincase]

i have a canon G2. is it better to take black & white photos with the camera set to B&W or to take color photos and convert them in photoshop. i understand the usefulness of having the photograph in color in case i want to print it that way too but i'm asking only of the quality of the photograph. does the camera just discard all the color information like photoshop would anyway? if so, why would anyone take a picture in B&W mode other than to reduce the size of the files? the shots i've taken with the camera in B&W mode seem more dramatic to me than to take the same photo in color and then converting it to gray-scale but i'm not sure if i'm imagining it. thoughts?

[beach512]

justincase wrote:
i have a canon G2. is it better to take black & white photos with the camera set to B&W or to take color photos and convert them in photoshop.

Try some experiments and find out what works best for you.

[KHogan]

Hi Justin,

I don't have a G1 but used to have a Sony S75 which also had a B&W setting. I experimented with it and eventually opted to shoot my B&W intended shots in colour and convert later in PS. The reason I preferred this workflow is that I found that I had far more control over the resulting B&W when I used the Channel Mixer to do the conversion rather than a straight "Convert to Grayscale". I did not find too much difference between the in-camera conversion to B&W and the "Convert to Grayscale" routine in Photoshop. The other reason was that I preferred not to have to bother to go into the camera menu to set it for B&W to get a shot or two and then return to colour mode. And finally, there were a few times when I preferred in the end the colour version of a shot originally intended for B&W.

Ultimately, the choice is yours based on your preferences and how you like to work. There are some who believe shooting in colour and converting later is the better way to go. IMO, it depends on how you're working and what you want to do in the end. Personally, like I said above, I prefer the flexibility and freedom of shooting in colour and converting later.

Have fun!
Kharim

[sasa]

I always shoot in colour... then convert in PS.

First of all, it gives you the flexibility to use the picture in both formats (colour & BW)... who knows, you may need that later?

More importantly, though, different pictures convert better in different ways. "Convert to Greyscale" in PS is OK... but sometimes you get a better result simply using one of the three channels (R,G or B) to turn it into Greyscale.

s.