Shooting B/W In Camera

Hi folks,

Our camera club is going to be doing a field trip at the end of January to an auto wrecking yard. The goal this trip is to shoot everything in black and white, but in camera.

I would be interested in any tips for shooting B/W that anyone has. Also, what would be the advantage of shooting B/W in camera over converting to B/W later.

Thanks...
Al

There are no advantages to shooting in B&W in camera, other than as an exercise to perhaps get you thinking about a scene in tones rather than colours. Before setting off, you may want to look through your camera manual to see if you have the option of applying 'filters'.

Some cameras have the facility to mimic the effect of the filters that would be used by a photographer using traditional B&W film, which may prove useful for this exercise.

So many people say there is no advantage of shooting in B&W in camera, and I disagree.

There is one DISTINCT advantage...you know EXACTLY what your shot will look like in B&W.

I have tried both ways and have concluded that if I know I want a shot in B&W, it's much, much better to shoot it that way in camera than convert later. Why? Because you don't know what it will look like in B&W...I have shot stuff in colour and knew I wanted it to be B&W...then got home, converted it and realized that it sucked in B&W...if you know for sure that you want that shot in B&W, then shoot it in B&W and you'll know right away whether it works or not.

LowriderS10 wrote in post #11598689
So many people say there is no advantage of shooting in B&W in camera, and I disagree.

There is one DISTINCT advantage...you know EXACTLY what your shot will look like in B&W.

I have tried both ways and have concluded that if I know I want a shot in B&W, it's much, much better to shoot it that way in camera than convert later. Why? Because you don't know what it will look like in B&W...I have shot stuff in colour and knew I wanted it to be B&W...then got home, converted it and realized that it sucked in B&W...if you know for sure that you want that shot in B&W, then shoot it in B&W and you'll know right away whether it works or not.

Do this with RAW + JPEG capture and you can apply different filters later to the RAW file.

But I agree in general - B&W is something you need to be thinking about when you are shooting. I've had a few shots that worked better in B&W as an afterthought - but in general if I think I'm shooting in color then I do not get shots that look very good in B&W.

Lowrider I disagree. If you shoot B&W in camera, you are stuck with how the camera decides to make the conversion, unless shooting as JeffreyG suggests. Converting a colour image in something like Photoshop gives you way more latitude and options on how the conversion is done, which can have a massive difference on the final outcome.

You also have the opportunity of keeping the colour image as well.

Shoot RAW and set the picture style to Monochrome. That way it's the best of both worlds. The in-camera preview will give you an ideal of what the B&W will look like and you can always convert the RAW to B&W and tweak to your satisfaction.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I was reading the manual for the XSi earlier today. Found out about the ability to shoot in monochrome with RAW and it sounds like I can go either color or b/w from the RAW. I have the camera set to shoot both RAW and large fine jpegs. So, all I need to do is switch to monochrome when I need to.

I am definitely going to play around with this before the field trip.

Thanks again...
Al

I recently started playing with B&W on my 7D, I shot in RAW and took different shots in both Monochrome style and in a custom color style that I typically use. In general, I think you are much better off shooting what you intend as much as possible. The results were clear on that point. Some things work as B&W and some really don't. These days it's easy to convert later if you shoot RAW but shooting with intent will allow you to get better results in the future as your skill develops in that area rather than just having all of the possibilities that PP offers.