B&W In Camera vs. Conversion

[GCRollo]

This is no doubt a Newbie question, so forgive me.

I see a lot of people prefer to convert to B&W from a color photo. But why?
Personally I prefer B&W images, and look for content and composition that will support this.
So why not shoot in B&W Mode, using the onboard setting and filters?
It seems to me that you would get better images this way as opposed converting. More consistent if you will.

I see plenty of "tips" for doing conversions, but haven't seen any debate on the reason for this being, or not being, a preferred method.

If you shoot B&W, what setting do you find you use most? Filter? Toning, Etc..?

[Sam]

I shoot RAW almost all of the time, so I need to convert them myself. Also, I like to have control over contrast and tones. When I shoot B&W setting I am pretty much stuck with what the camera wants to do.

I use the channel mixer method. I have a few actions that I wrote for myself so that I can get consistency.

I process my RAW images with the same color temp, contrast etc. The run one of my actions on the image set. They will all be similar and I am able to control the final output.

[4830Deuce]

I can only second what was said before, for digital there really is no replacement for post-processing when it comes to B&W. I also use the channel mixer when converting to b&w. There are many great tutorials and books out there that will help you with a lot of your "newbie" questions on digital photography. Im in no way new to shooting digital but man am I still learning, I still buy books and read tutorials daily...

-Justin

[ajbalazic]

Originally Posted by solinger

I shoot RAW almost all of the time, so I need to convert them myself. Also, I like to have control over contrast and tones. When I shoot B&W setting I am pretty much stuck with what the camera wants to do.

I use the channel mixer method. I have a few actions that I wrote for myself so that I can get consistency.

I process my RAW images with the same color temp, contrast etc. The run one of my actions on the image set. They will all be similar and I am able to control the final output.

Agreed. Except I've never tried to write my own actions, which is an excellent idea for consistency.

[sporff]

there's different ways to go about getting a B&W image. a digital camera captures the image full color then converts it to black and white based on overall luminance and such. with post processing you can convert it to b&w any way you want. film B&W people use different color filters to get these effects while digital people can do the exact same thing (and more) with the channel mixer in photoshop.

when you set the "filter" in the options menu of the camera, you're doing the exact same thing that the channel mixer does by making certain colors dominate the luminance of the mono image. with photoshop instead of having just a couple of options, you get to set each color component to any value you wish.

try taking an image with plenty of colors in it and take it into photoshop and play with the channel mixer and seeing just how different it can look. it's not like a bad thing to shoot in B&W mode but you'll almost always get better results by post processing it

[Tuna]

I shoot B&W film to achieve the greatest tonal range but the reason it is suggested that one shoot in color and convert when shooting digital is because RGB digital most closely resembles the tonal range of B&W film when converted (best when using Channel Mixer type methods rather than desaturation or greyscale). The B&W mode in digital does not contain the necessary information to achieve this wider (greater?) tonal range.

Many photographers actually shoot color slide film and scan/convert to B&W and achieve very nice control of their shadows and tone - better than digital in-camera B&W - though the exposure of slide film is unforgiving - much more critical. Maybe digital camera manufacturers will eventually understand the need and incorporate an extra step in in-camera B&W capture that incorporates the RGB capture method before in-camera conversion to B&W.

Tuna

[GCRollo]

Thank you all for your responses to my question. To date, I have been shooting in JPG format. There is so much information for me to digest at this point, that shooting RAW seemed yet another step to complicate things for me. I have pretty good knowledge of PS, but have never used the Channel Mixer, so that may take a bit to get used to.

When shooting RAW, do most of you do all you PP in PS? (i.e. Setting White Balance, etc...)

solinger
- I have never written an "action" for PS... Could you post the script?

Thanks again.. I guess I need to read up, and make the transistion to shooting RAW for "Best" results.

[cjm]

I wont risk turning on my Camera to B&W. I might take a picture of a rainbow and it will be B&W because I forgot to turn color back on. Ok that might not happen but I preffer to take it in color instead of greyscale on my camera. That way I can truly change the picture to B&W and not Grey&White.

[ChP]

If you shoot in color and then convert to black and white you can always decide to take a second look at the color photo later. Also, there may be effects you want to acheive with the color image during the conversion process.

Personally I convert using either calculation, or channel mixer in Photoshop. I have a lot control this way over the finished product.

[cjm]

or you can also do this with a color photo that you can not do with a B&W from Camera photo.