Question about B/W digital technique

[Pfreddee]

How many of you who shoot digital B/W use and like your camera's Monochrome setting (if it has one)? Or do you always shoot in color and post-process the color to a B/W photo? I like the black and white I get from my camera's Monochrome setting, and I'm lazy about post-processing, since I send out JPEGS to get prints.

Thank you to all who reply.

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen)

 

[JoeV]

Usually process BW from raw, but I do like the Lumix G-series' dynamic monochrome film mode JPEGs.

~Joe

 

[gbealnz]

I'm equally lazy, and use the B&W settings on my X-Vario. I'm very happy with the results.
Gary

 

[narsuitus]

How many of you who shoot digital B/W use and like your camera's Monochrome setting (if it has one)? Or do you always shoot in color and post-process the color to a B/W photo?

I have tried it both ways and like it both ways using my Fuji X-Pro1 and my Olympus micro 4/3 digital cameras.

 

[Godfrey]

I can do B&W JPEGs with the Leica SL and M-P, or with the Olympus E-M1. All give me enough control over the JPEG rendering to get pretty good results directly out of the camera; the M-P has more and better control since it implements presets for B&W filters. The Leica M-D gives no in-camera options: all you get are raw files out of it. So processing the exposures in Lightroom or other image processing software is essential.

I have been rendering monochrome from raw files for many years now, with Lightroom. I have a wide range of presets that I created to give me starting points for many different kinds of scene situations. Because of this, it takes less time for me to process the raw files from any of my cameras than it does to setup and use the in-camera image processing controls, and there is more range of adjustment and finer grained control available.

It is occasionally fun to challenge myself and live within the constraints of a camera's in-camera image processing to make B&W JPEGs. But I almost always find that I'll take the raw output into Lightroom later on and produce a better quality photograph.

G

 

[trondareo]

I use the yellow or redfilter settings for black and white on my X-e1. And shoot jpeg or raw as the mood strikes me. I have two presets in RawTherapee if I am chaning to BW afterwards

 

[williaty]

I never use the monochrome mode (or any other modes) on my camera. I want to capture everything the sensor and processor will allow me to and then choose at home how to deploy all that data. To that end, I shoot in RAW mode in the camera, do a "neutral" processing of it in Adobe Camera Raw, then send the result into Photoshop as a Smart Object which I process into monochrome in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. This workflow first of all produces very, very good results. Prior to discovering it, I had never found any software that could equal the control and results I achieved in the wet darkroom. Second, this process is non-destructive right up until the moment I choose to save the final result as a JPEG to share with other people. What this means is that I can go back and change the processing of any one step at any time without having to restart from scratch. Feel like I might want to go back and make it look like I'd used a yellow filter rather than an orange one? Tweak it. Want to go back and add some extra contrast to the shadows? Tweak it. What to go back and bring the tones of the model's dress down to a darker value without bringing her skintone down? Tweak it. Want to add contrast and sparkle to her eyes without also emphasizing skin defects? Tweak it.

It's a very, very powerful workflow that I gain more appreciation for each time I process a shoot through it.

If you shot in your camera's monochrome mode, you'd be locked out of all of it.