Shooting B&W with the G's

All,

I have a distinct interest in shooting more black and white with my G5. I have shot a ton of black and white film and seem to have an understanding of how to get the results that I am looking for out of B&W film. I have not had the same success with the G series cameras.

I would be interested in picking some of your brains as to how you coax great black and white work from your G-series cameras. How to get the sharpness, exposure, contrast and all the other factors set just right for those "knock your socks off" black and white photos. Any post processing steps that you have found that really help B&W shots out of these cameras? I would not only be interested in reading what you think - but also seeing some examples of photos posted in this thread for everyone to view. Thanks and I look forward to where this thread could go.

Here's a little tip. I took this photo of some locomotive wheels and gears in Scranton, PA (Steamtown NHS). I wasn't thinking black & white at the time - I just thought all that heavy metal was neat. When I looked at the photo on my computer, I wasn't happy with the colors. There was a blue tint from the sky and a warmer reflection from a building behind me. They just didn't go with the subject matter. So, I thought it might make a good candidate for a B&W photo...

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Thanks Scott!

That is a great shot - that you made even better in my opinion by converting it to black and white. I really like what you did with adding some red and yellow as well - that last shot is the most appealing to my eye. Good tips and thanks for posting examples - makes it so much easier to understand when you can actaully see what you are talking about.

Did you, or do you, ever shoot B&W right out of the camera? I would be interested to know if you have some camera settings that you use that seem to work best for good black and white shots right from the camera. With regards to settings like EV, contrast, sharpness and others. Thanks again for your help.

Every now and then I'll shoot B&W right from the camera. Having the LCD in black and white is a good aid to composition (color just gets in the way when it's not what you're trying to achieve). I don't use any different settings, though. Just my normal "standard" or "default" settings on everything. It's just as easy to make your adjustments later on your computer.

If you shoot in RAW, you can take the picture in B&W to see how it looks on your G5 LCD. When you take it back to your computer (I use PSE3.0), the picture should come up in color and you can convert it to B&W. This was cool because I could get an idea if the picture looks good B&W and if it doesn't, I have it in color.

Scott- I love the improvements made to the pic-seeing as the monitor is set for 'work' standards it might not be optimized to view from here, but the steel comes across as very cold. I LOVE IT! Love that metal!

G'day!

Bauerman this site may be of some help to you http://194.100.88.243 …ital_Black_and_​White.html It has some real nice digital BW workflow. I like his tinted image look which is somewhat warmer but really appeals to my eye. The best advice again and again when it comes to digital BW is to shoot in color. I think the new Epson Rangefinder has a more dedicated BW option see here http://www.luminous-landscape.com …s/cameras/epson​-rd1.shtml but that would require another purchase

Regards,
Flagpole
Sydney, Australia

Thanks for the link Flagpole - I will give that a look and see if that information is helpful. Would you be willing to post something that you have done in black and white - just want to see some more examples. Thanks!

I remember timmyquest had posted a really easy effective b+w workflow, I will look for it......

Ok found it - see
http://www.photography​-on-the.net …977&highlight=b​lack+white

The diagrams are missing, but I think the instructions should be ok. I had some good results using this.

G'day again!

I don't shoot in BW but ocassionally just for the fun I try my hand at some BW conversions. Here is one I tried some time ago but I think I may need to tweak it some more in Shadow areas in PS and add some noise as well

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There's a knack to knowing what makes good conditions for b/w images. I *never* would try to shoot this way on a bright, sunny day, as that's useless. I find winter is ideal for shooting b/w but I make it an all year round endeavor.

BTW, I do own the HP 7960 and it rocks with b/w - another good reason to shoot with the b/w effects setting on the G6.

Does anyone use sepia that much?

I love the look of Sepia actually - but I am so unfamiliar with it - I rarely shoot in that mode. I have also been interested in seeing some of this "dual-tone" work that is out there - its kind of inbetween Sepia and Black and White. Have any of you used dual tone at all?

Some good info on sepia:
http://www.thelightsri​ghtstudio.com …fTheWeek/TipOfT​heWeek.htm
(tip for Dec 13th - Dec 19th for future reference). Wandered across that site from a sub-sub-sub link from this thread.
Also, same site:
http://www.thelightsri​ghtstudio.com …B&WFineArt/B&WF​ineArt.htm

I like the look of sepia, too. It's kind of ironic that we try to duplicate the fading and color shifting of old photographs, after so much trouble was taken to find ways to have them not fade or color shift.