D60 and Black and White Photography

[tanders1]

Hello. I am considering the purchase of the Canon D60 but have a question that no store has been able to give me an answer to yet. I hope one of you might know. I enjoy doing black and white photography. Many of my friends have digital cameras with a b/w mode built in so you can see what you are doing in b/w and the image is also b/w. Does the D60 have this capability? If not, how would you get around it to shoot b/w photos? Thanks in advance for your help!

[Rudi]

Shoot in colour, convert in your image editing program... :)

The B+W mode in cheaper digicams is only a gimmick anyway, and not true B+W shooting (the colour filter is in front of the CCD/CMOS sensor all the time, so to get B+W the camera has to discount the colour information).

You're better off shooting in colour anyway, that way you have the choice of discarding the colour info and tweaking for just the right B+W look. So in effect you can turn a colour image into a true B+W image of your choice (including even the effect filters would have in B+W photography). You can't turn a B+W image into a true colour image, however...

HTH,

[Nemo]

Rudi gave you good advise. It's always better to have the original in color and work in Photoshop, et al. I do a tremendous amount of fine art B&W (I'm currently at work on a book on Ireland). At least 85% of the B&W started out as digital color. I use the Piezography BW plugin to generate amazing prints. The best B&W conversion plugin I've used is from www. theimagingfactory.com. I use the filter virtually everyday. If you're serious about B&W, it's the only way to go

[Ken Fong]

I concur with the previous replies. No B&W feature on your digicam is no big deal...you can easily do the desaturation in Photoshop. My photo professor (who shoots B&W) said there is virtually no difference between shooting in color to desaturate, vs. shooting with black and white film. The key is in your desaturation (Photoshop is fine for most folks, or you can buy an add-in as mentioned) and in your output...I too have been impressed with Piezography output...some say it rivals silver oxide prints.