GXR + M-mount. B/W. RAW. Pics in Lightroom are colour?!

[TKH]

Sorry to ask a maybe silly question, but I have the following (understanding) problem.

I set my GXR-M in Picture Quality/Size to RAW/JEPG Setting fine.

Image Settings is Standard.
Take a pic, on camera screen it is colour after import to Lightroom it is colour.

Now Image Settings to Black & White.
Take a pic, on camera screen it is B&W after import to Lightroom it is colour?!

😕

Rainer

 

[Larry H-L]

Yes, raw is raw... All of the data is still there. On most cameras, only Jpegs are affected by camera settings.

Easy to make a B&W image from color in Lightroom, lots of presets that you can apply during import, or use the develop module.

 

[rbelyell]

raw will always come out in color, regardless of settings. if you set cam to raw+jpeg and set it to b&w, you will get 2 images: one raw color and one jpeg b&w (and any other custom settings will appear in your jpeg).

what you may want to try is just not shooting raw. it takes up a lot of space on your hard drive and requires more time PP to get the look you want. the gxr has a 'film bracketing' feature that allows you to take color and b&w jpegs (or an additional optional sepia jpeg as well) simultaneously. i use this setting all the time. i personally only shoot raw in very difficult lighting situations, otherwise, in my personaly opinion, its a waste. i like the images to come out of the camera as close as possible to how i want them to look, ie, with my custom settings already in place. and to have that happen you have to shoot jpeg.

now this is a very personal and subjective topic. there will no doubt be countless responses here both agreeing and vehemently disgreeing on benefits of raw vs jpeg. my advice is shoot both for a while and make your own determination based on what you see and what you want.
tony

 

[TKH]

Thanks Tony and Larry,

you are right. My mistake. If RAW, than its RAW, so the colour must be there. A few beer to much yesterday...

 

[johannielscom]

Setting the camera screen and viewfinder to B&W and the camera to RAW is what gets me my best shots.

Real easy to find light vs. dark in my shots that way, and if I decide I want to have the picture in color later on, all I have to do is not convert it to B&W in Lightroom...

Other cool trick: set the camera to manual and have the display show the exposure meter only. Whenever you change aperture or shutter speed, the camera's EVF will instantly show the effect on the final shot!

Finding correct lighting has never been this easy! It's like composing the final image while shooting!

 

[Dwig]

Thanks Tony and Larry,

you are right. My mistake. If RAW, than its RAW, so the colour must be there. A few beer to much yesterday...

Quite correct.

It should be noted, though, that most (prehaps all) cameras that offer a B&W mode will write that setting into the RAW file's EXIF header. If you use the manufacturer's matching RAW conversion software it will, in most cases, initially display the RAW in B&W replicating the color>B&W conversion the camera would have done when creating a JPEG. The RAW data is still color and you can alter or disable the default B&W conversion before processing the image.

 

[CliveC]

Is it just me or is it impossible to write RAW only, keep settings on B&W and have the screen show B&W? I realize colour is written to the file, but can the camera not show me B&W without writing an associated JPEG file?

 

[TKH]

I think also thats impossible. The RAW only setting is a kind of mad for me, because you cannot zoom in a good way on the camera pics. The camera needs good Jpegs to zoom in when you play pics.

 

[MikeAUS]

it takes up a lot of space on your hard drive

This is not relevant in 2013. Just shoot raw + fine jpeg ...

 

[thegman]

This is not relevant in 2013. Just shoot raw + fine jpeg ...

It's probably getting more relevant in 2013, SSD drives are getting very popular in laptops, and have much smaller capacity than the hard disks of a few years ago. The average amount of storage in a computer being sold these days is less than it was a couple of years ago, probably quite a lot less.

 

[Murchu]

Yep, usually only the manufacturers own software recognises *all* of the raw settings, as most camera manufacturers keep their full details of their raw files to themselves. Software manufacturers are thus forced have to reverse reverse engineer/ interpret that raw file as best they can, and its pretty much like someone trying to bake a cake having only the ingredients and a finished picture of the finished product to go by.

Bottom line, I open up one of my Nikon raw files in Nikons Capture NX2 software and I see exactly what I dialled in in the camera. I open that same raw file in Lightroom for example, and I see Adobes best effort at interpreting that raw file.

 

[johannielscom]

Adobes best effort of interpreting that raw file is good enough to me.

Still shooting RAW + JPEG fine, camera set to B&W. The viewfinder and LCD show a B&W image, when set to Manual the camera's viewfinder instantly provides feedback on changes in shutter or aperture by darkening or brightening the image. It's as if I'm composing the final image in the viewfinder: exposure, composition, DOF are all visible while taking the shot!

After importing, Lightroom gives me the color RAW image. I've seen it in B&W while shooting, but sometimes an image does surprise me in color and I decide to keep it in color. If not, it's only a few clicks in Lightroom to restore it to the seen-before B&W version.

This set-up is the best of both worlds and Lightroom complements it great!