M8 B&W Setting

[1joel1]

I am curious how you set your M8 for black and wihite photography. Do you use the Black and White setting in the menu, remove the color channels in Photoshop, use a third party program like Photo Efex, or what?

Perhaps I should've used a poll, but I'd rather hear the details. Also, does anyone have any comparisons?

Thanks in Advance,

Joel

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

From Menu: lens detection : OFF
Sharpening: Standard
Color saturation: Black & White
Contrast: Medium High
Color management : sRGB

"Set" Iso 640
EV varies, usually -1
Compression: DNG+JPG fine
Resolution: 10 MP

This setting coincides with my Film M cameras with Double X developed at 400 ASA
Good as "Electronic Polaroid", occasionally I even use the DNG with conversion in Photoshop for the final image. I hardly ever use M8 for digital color, there are other equipment for that, in my arsenal.
Usually I take the auto exposure metering from my hand,press the release button halfway, that locks the exposure, focus and push the button all down.The image is exposed then from the reading of my hand, which is about 18% gray ( therefore the EV-1 )

 

[_goodtimez]

i used to shoot RAW with the M8 and convert later on using the delivered software.
I still prefer film rendition in BW

 

[1joel1]

That's good to read. I had never considered the B&W setting in the color saturation and was using PS and Efex for the conversion. Like you, am am going to dedicate my M8 to B&W when the M9 or ME arrives next year.

Thanks,

Joel

 

[1joel1]

i used to shoot RAW with the M8 and convert later on using the delivered software.
I still prefer film rendition in BW

I plan on picking up an M7 later this year and getting my hands wet once agian with film. Looking forward to it very much. Also have an RTS III with some Zeiss glass.

Joel

 

[IEDEI]

DNG + JPG Fine

convert the DNG later. all settings standard.

 

[fred2511]

DNG + JPG Fine

convert the DNG later. all settings standard.

Same setting for me and a bit of silver effex

 

[jsrockit]

Dng only and then convert and process in Lightroom. That said, I'm mostly a color photographer who happens upon the occasional B&w photo.

 

[CVickery]

I'm a bit of a newby in this, but I've been shooting DNG +JPG, with the JPG settings as Sharpening - Standard, Color Saturation - Black & White, and Contrast - Standard. I've noticed that there seems to be increased fine detail using the DNG files. I process with Lightroom 4, or Capture One 6 Pro. Using Capture One I have profiles from JFI that mimic different film types.

 

[jaapv]

DNG, and use the B&W conversion ACR offers in CS6. Then go to CS6 for the final tweaks in Levels and Curves, crop, creative sharpening, etc, and output sharpening.

 

[LCT]

DNG, Capture One, Silver Efex, seldom tweaks in CS3.

 

[Strangeluv]

DNG and Silver Efex Pro for BW conversion.

 

[peterm1]

I always shoot in RAW on the M8 which does not have a good reputaion for the quality of its JPG images. I then convert in Corel Paintshop (a Photoshop equivalent). Shooting in colour and in RAW always gives more options when converting to black and white.

 

[crispy12]

The jpegs are horrible, I only use jpeg basic for BW preview on the rear screen. Gives me an idea if the photo I just took will work well in BW. Then I process the DNG in LR.

 

[CrisR]

DNG + JPG Fine

convert the DNG later. all settings standard.

Same here. The JPG is just to see the rough B&W that the camera produces to get an idea. I hardly ever look at the screen tho.

I auto ISO 160-640 if the weather is gloomy and i'm using hyperfocal, often with the shutter dial set to 90-250 as conditions change.

If it's sunny, i just set it to 160 and let it work out it's own shutter speed with a minimum of 125.

 

[1joel1]

Thanks all for the great feedback. My main concern was that setting the M8 for B&W would give a better image to work with than using Color and then removing the color information in PS. I guess that you can use the Raw converter in PS to remove the color rather than doing it after conversion and removing it in PS.

Cheers,

Joel

 

[ChrisC]

You will find that many people are in a rush to dump all that wonderfully useful colour information as fast as possible [essentially, that's what CONVERTING is].

I keep that colour information for as long as possible by ASSIGNING a desturated COLOUR SPACE to the colour image. I use A Joseph Holmes Ektaspace [?] profile [-99] which shows the image as a B&W on screen, whilst still retaining all the colour information within it's file [but unseen, and in the 'background']. This leaves the image available for all colour post production tools, such as e.g. Photoshop's Selective Colour. By working this way one can 'play' the image's colours for tonal effects, without dumping any of the file's colour until a final decision is made to Convert the image into a B&W 'Colour' Space.

............. Chris

EDIT - In case there is confusion about the M8 B&W setting, it only effects the in-camera J-peg. The RAW file remains exactly as with all RAW files; it's a colour file, it's unchanged by the B&W camera setting.

 

[user237428934]

Thanks all for the great feedback. My main concern was that setting the M8 for B&W would give a better image to work with than using Color and then removing the color information in PS. I guess that you can use the Raw converter in PS to remove the color rather than doing it after conversion and removing it in PS.

Cheers,

Joel

This is probably not the best way to do it. In PS you have more options with the color channels than you have in the raw converter.

 

[1joel1]

This is probably not the best way to do it. In PS you have more options with the color channels than you have in the raw converter.

That's very good to know.

Many Thanks,

Joel