Do you guys shoot B&W or color then edit to B&W

[ant1832]

I'm really new to photography(first post here). I purchased a Canon a70 about a year back and have enjoyed using it, but haven't really taken advantage of its many features. One thing I've been curious about is whether most people take digital pics in color first and then edit them to black and white or if they shoot using the B&W mode on the camera.

I often times find myself taking multiple color and B&W shots of the same thing. It drives my wife and family nuts when I'm taking pics of people because I keep telling them to hold on while I switch back and forth.

I've also seen a few of the infrared pics around the forums...what exactly do I need for my a70 to shoot pics like this?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

[Shakey]

Take them in color and convert them to Black and White. It gives you more options.
However , a good conversion does take some time.
For how, to check out the Picture processing forums there are some good threads and links tocolor /B&W conversions.

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/

Has a good tutorial on it just scroll down the page till you find the BW topic.

IR on a A70 I dont know but I would like to know how for my (similar) A80

Cheers,
Tim

[ant1832]

That's a good link...thanks for the info.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Some of us are even forced to shoot in color and convert.. the 10D and Drebel do not have a B&W mode.. :wink:

[Penguin_101_1]

You just need the converter ($20) that is 52mm. I have pictures in my forum. (Link below)





:)

[scottbergerphoto]

In PSE 2 when you convert color to black and white, try this:
1.Open up the layers palate. Window>layers
2. Click on the blk/white circle at the bottom of the layers palate and select a new adjustment layer, Levels. Click OK in the levels box once it opens. No adjustments yet.
3. Open up a Hue/saturation layer the same way. Drag the saturation slider all the way to the left to remove all the color and click OK.
4. Double click directly on the levels icon in the Levels adjustment layer.
5. From the pull down menu select each color (Red,Green,Blue) and adjust levels for each color. After you've done all three select OK.
6. Go to the Layers palate, select More> Flatten.
Thats it. It works better then Mode>greyscale.
(From The Photshop Elements Book for Digital Photography, by Scott Kelby)
Scott

[stopbath]

There's no real advantage to shooting in Black and White mode, other than you don't need to convert the image later. All effects modes are just modifications that can be performed through editing. The only thing is that these modes save you the trouble of editing. Thus if you know you want black and white, you can just shoot that way, and your ready to go. You can also apply black and white filters to the shot to enhance the shot if you have them available.

On the downside, if you shoot in black and white, you can't adjust the levels of some colours before changing to black and white, so you have to do all your modifications up front (just like black and white film.)

In short, if you're used to black and white, and have all the filters to shoot it, you can easily stick with it. If not, shoot in colour and convert, or for ease just shoot in black and white mode.

[nosquare2003]

There's no real advantage to shooting in Black and White mode, other than you don't need to convert the image later. All effects modes are just modifications that can be performed through editing. The only thing is that these modes save you the trouble of editing. Thus if you know you want black and white, you can just shoot that way, and your ready to go. You can also apply black and white filters to the shot to enhance the shot if you have them available.

On the downside, if you shoot in black and white, you can't adjust the levels of some colours before changing to black and white, so you have to do all your modifications up front (just like black and white film.)

In short, if you're used to black and white, and have all the filters to shoot it, you can easily stick with it. If not, shoot in colour and convert, or for ease just shoot in black and white mode.

Stopbath, you provide a great advice. Perhaps he can take photos in colour and then convert. Well, there's a Photoshop action that simplifies the B & W conversion:

http://www.jakerlund.net/page.php?id=6

(In fact, the above link was referred by another member, ilya)

(Edited: when I realise that I write something wrong)

[karusel]

I've posted this link (http://www.russellbrown.com/tips/pdf/colortoB&W.pdf) in some other thread, but here it is again... 8)

[Grubby]

Always take the photo in color. You can be a little more creative with the picture. When I get home I will attach a link.

You can crop out portions of an image in color....soften them and past them over the black and white image. This is a cool effect which adds a little bit of character to a plain BW pic. Try to stay within one or two colors and focus on one object or group of objects.

Not to mention you may like the color shot just as much. I have a BW pic of my daughter on my desktop. My wife has the same picture in color on hers. It is all about personal prefrence.

[Grubby]

I promised you the link.....
Why you should always shoot in color and edit to greyscale......


http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27038
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27035