Author Topic: How to take good B&W pictures? (Read 1089 times)

tin369 · « **on:** April 17, 2011, 05:30:05 AM »

Can I just turn the setting to monochrome and start clicking away? What is the optimum in camera settings?

Do you guys process B&W after shooting in color? I don't want to process and would like to limit it. Probably process some in Picasa thats it. I want something out of camera that is nice. Now I feel like the pics are very flat.

Any suggestions?

Em5 Pete · « **Reply #1 on:** April 17, 2011, 10:00:25 AM »

For simplicity, as you want, you can put the camera in B&W mode, you may want to up your contrast to compensate for the flatness you are getting. You can adjust contrast in Picasa if you want.

See how you like it. For more control, your software may have a B&W conversion tool that will give you more control. The Red channel is used to control contrast with Software conversions, and will usually have a way to adjust that channel

count_zero · « **Reply #2 on:** April 17, 2011, 05:46:24 PM »

I always shoot in color, then convert to black and white later. Usually, shots with high contrast turn out well in B&W. Olympus viewer and other free software like gimp have common B&W filters that help bring out the contrast depending upon the scene colors.

peterb666 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 18, 2011, 12:38:12 AM »

I always shoot in RAW which means the image is captured in colour. I do the conversion later, either in Camera RAW, in my HDR software if using it, or when preparing photos for upload to the inernet using Picasa.

Quite often, I like to see the effect of applying different filters which I always do in post-processing.

GrandadHarry · « **Reply #4 on:** April 18, 2011, 12:42:26 AM »

I also shoot Raw colour & convert Later.
In camera B& W shooting can be used but as peviously said they need tweaking later.
It also depends what the local conditions allow.

tin369 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 18, 2011, 12:23:16 PM »

Looks like the norm is to shoot in raw color or jpeg color and then PP to B&W.

traveler_101 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 18, 2011, 01:00:07 PM »

Quote from: tin369 on April 18, 2011, 12:23:16 PM

Looks like the norm is to shoot in raw color or jpeg color and then PP to B&W.

For those who like PP sure. I shoot in monochrome because it reflects a conscious decision to do so and not something I add or remove in processing. I want to think in monochrome. Set contrast up and (possibly) saturation down. Look for textures and shapes (forms).

Em5 Pete · « **Reply #7 on:** April 18, 2011, 02:24:03 PM »

Quote from: traveler_101 on April 18, 2011, 01:00:07 PM

Quote from: tin369 on April 18, 2011, 12:23:16 PM
Looks like the norm is to shoot in raw color or jpeg color and then PP to B&W.

For those who like PP sure. I shoot in monochrome because it reflects a conscious decision to do so and not something I add or remove in processing. I want to think in monochrome. Set contrast up and (possibly) saturation down. Look for textures and shapes (forms).

Good advice....
Setting the saturation lower will help your shadow detail and highlight detail. Be careful with upping the contrast too much.. you can always this in post later also.

voyager · « **Reply #8 on:** April 22, 2011, 11:29:22 AM »

People in my Flickr contacts use something called Silver Efex Pro.

http://www.amazon.com/Nik-Software-nik-5100-Silver-Efex/dp/B001DEV95W

How to take good B&W pictures?