B&W RD-1s and CS2

[Terryc]

I have recently tried taking pictures in Black & White directly from the camera.
With the camera set to Raw + JPEG and B&W the shots I open with CS2 are in colour with the Raw file and B&W with the JPEG.
If I open the same files in Epson Raw then both are B&W but the Raw file is very poor quality looking very much out of focus and mushy, while the JPEG is sharp.

Any ideas anyone please.

 

[louisb]

Terry

Never tried it. Apart from curiosity I can't see the advantage to taking a B&W shot with the camera. My view has always been that it is better to desaturate in CS2 and then get all those great opportunities to play with the channel mixer or duotone.

LouisB

 

[Terryc]

Terry

Never tried it. Apart from curiosity I can't see the advantage to taking a B&W shot with the camera. My view has always been that it is better to desaturate in CS2 and then get all those great opportunities to play with the channel mixer or duotone.

LouisB

Just for curiosity for me too, but cannot understand why I get the results I do.

 

[Terryc]

What's your EdgeEnhance set at in PhotoRAW? And your camera's film setting?

I also shoot at RAW B&W (no JPG). The camera's film setting is set at it's default standard and the EdgeEnhance is set to Zero. With that, I get crystal clear images everytime.

Yes every things set to default.

 

[Terryc]

I have solved the poor image quality in Epson Raw not really using the program I did not realise the tone adjustments from last time used were retained.
I am still curious to know why CS2 sees the B&W Raw image in colour though

 

[M4streetshooter]

If you record in RAW, no matter what settings you make in the camera, the actual RAW file will be untouched. I set my camera to raw & B&W only because I like to see the image on the lcd screen in B&W. When you go to process, you'll see a color image. By the way, I use The Image Factory's Converter to make the image B&W.

If you shoot jpeg in B&W, then that's what you get...a processed B&W image. you can't go back to color with a jpeg.

hope this helps....don

 

[Terryc]

Of course makes sense now. I was having a mental block, many thanks.

Terry

 

[jlw]

Don's explanation is right on the mark; here's a tiny addition:

When you record the raw file with the camera set to b&w mode, it adds a flag to the EXIF header indicating that the image is intended to be b&w. Epson's PhotoRaw converter software can read this flag and "knows" that you intended the image to be b&w, so displays it in b&w. (You can easily change it back to color by switching the type setting in PhotoRaw.) Non-Epson raw conversion software ignores the flag and always interprets the image as color; you change it back to b&w by using the various options in the raw conversion software.