Filters

I've been getting some pretty decent shots lately in B&W using the B&W setting instead of converting in PS. Some have been good and some have been really close but I couldn't help but think a filter might have made the difference.

How many of you are using filters to enhance your shots?

How many shot B&W in the camera versus converting in PS or another program.

I think with enough light / exposure time one can get best "filtered" images with an optical filter - independ where BW conversion is made (camera / PC). Without filter on needs to boost single color chanels in post processing - more noise.
But I have not tested this, and can not say how obvious the noise will be, for example with image like with a dark red filter to darken blue sky.

Furthermore optical filters could really filter very exact, not only with the broad spectral bands the Bayer sensor has. But I am not sure how differences will be. Bandpass filters are very uncommon

I do not use filters on black and white photos. And I do all of my converting in post processing. Some really great black and white photographers see in black and white before they even take a shot, I think I'm aspiring to be one too. I have a blog: http://shootdigitalpic​slikethepros.com …photography-forum-support

I visited this issue ( B/W in camera or post) a while back. From what I remember and this may depend on the camera now, the in camera B/W setting was only 8bit vs doing the conversion in post (16bit?) and had less tone to work with. I brought this up in past because I was frustrated with the tonal range of my in camera B/W and being very new to digital photography.
Hope this info helps or poss not relevant now since newer cameras may have improved these settings in camera.