B&W questions

[gokenin]

I have always liked black and white photography and was wondering if anyone knew how to go about taking pictures in B&W with a pentax K100d. I know that you can always edit it post picture taking to strip color or use the in camera filter setting for B&W but was wondering in there was a combination of filters that can be added to the lens to take B&W or to heighten the image. Have a been looking at filters on adorama and noticed B&W filters and thats what got me thinking. Thanks for any help

 

[MICKEY88]

I have always liked black and white photography and was wondering if anyone knew how to go about taking pictures in B&W with a pentax K100d. I know that you can always edit it post picture taking to strip color or use the in camera filter setting for B&W but was wondering in there was a combination of filters that can be added to the lens to take B&W or to heighten the image. Have a been looking at filters on adorama and noticed B&W filters and thats what got me thinking. Thanks for any help

personally I prefer to shoot in color and post process, that way I can have the pic b&W, color, or use selective coloring, if you shoot in b&w then decide you'd like the pic in color, it's a whole different story trying to hand color..

 

[ukcatfan]

I am pretty sure that the physical filters are only needed for film. Just shoot in RAW and then all of the data is there to do with whatever you please. When you use the JPG B&W, it is still seeing the data as color and then converting to B&W. Why not use RAW and have the control? If you ever become a real hardcore B&W shooter, pick up a cheap used K1000 and shoot film.

Kevin

 

[gokenin]

I will probably end up using the filters in corel paintshop pro XI but will have to buy the upgrade if i want to shoot RAW as there is no raw support in XI

 

[ukcatfan]

I will probably end up using the filters in corel paintshop pro XI but will have to buy the upgrade if i want to shoot RAW as there is no raw support in XI

Don't forget that the Silkypix powered lab program came with the camera and is actually pretty powerful as long as you are not doing big batches.

Kevin

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Filters are often used in black and white in order to change the balance of colors. For example, shooters sometimes use yellow or orange filters to block out some of the blue light coming from the sky. That makes the sky darker so that the clouds stand out more. It's all about adjusting the relative brightness of different colors before the conversion to black and white so that some colors end up darker or lighter relative to others.

The great thing about shooting digital is that you can apply those color filters in software after you've shot. You can see the effects of each filter and decide whether you want to use it and how much of it you want.

Here is an Adobe article on the subject.

 

[gokenin]

Thanks Guys I was wondering about the whole filter thing and would never even thought to use the color mixer in the corel program and have installed the software that came with the camera so now I can shoot in RAW as well Thanks for your help

 

[Groucho]

Yeah, definitely shoot in raw and adjust later. There are also a bunch of Photoshop filters that attempt to replicate specific b/w film types - many have trial versions so you can try and see if you find one that you like. Lightroom also has a nice b/w mixer that lets you adjust the colors as part of the conversion.

Note that b/w film has more dynamic range than color film or any DSLR, so you won't be able to replicate the look exactly, but you can still get some nice results. Here's one that I kind of like that I took in DL last month:

 

[jann1033]

virtual photographer( free) has some interesting b&w presets and so does xero( also free) i like alien skin the best as it has more adjustments but that one isn't free. if you shoot raw, you can shoot in your b&w mode and still retain the color detail but see it in b&w when you shoot( at least you can with my canon,guessing that would be so across the brands)
this is with alien skin

 

[gokenin]

I assume for those of us that use jpeg for the most part your suggestion would be to copy the original pictureand use the copy to turn into black and white that way you will still have the original in color as well?

 

[Groucho]

I would agree with that. Setting the camera to b/w gains you nothing over doing it yourself and removes your ability to make any adjustments to the conversion.

It's kind of like having the camera superimpose the time/date in the corner - it's better to do it yourself.

 

[jann1033]

I assume for those of us that use jpeg for the most part your suggestion would be to copy the original pictureand use the copy to turn into black and white that way you will still have the original in color as well?

i think if you use jpg you should do anything on a copy since if you save the original a number of times it degrades...from what i've seen shooting b&w( except if you shoot raw like i mentioned) is pretty worthless. my camera has incamera filters but imo post processing conversion always looks better, especially if you like contrasty photos( which i do)
i did this one with the incamera processing when i first got my camera and the detail just isn't there( although it could also be some "user error" as well )