Black & White Shooters

stmv

Senior Member
so,, I am curious,, do any users use color filters on their DSLRs for any type of BW effects? I always just shoot normal,, and then do my conversion in CS (also Bibble has some really
nice BW conversions features).
 

Eye-level

Banned
I've been entertaining the idea of trying to do some B&W stuff. I would guess that I need at least a yellow-green filter and a green filter. They say you can get away with just having Y/G, orange, and red and that you really don't have to have orange and red. My deal is I like to do portraits so I suppose the Y/G would be good for outdoor stuff because of what it does to skies and clouds and the green would be good for indoor portraits because it softens light contrast and increases color contrast. At any rate if I ever do B&W I'm going to get some filters because just plain old vanilla B&W seems like it would be boring to me.

They also say B&W is more difficult to pull of then color stuff.
 

RickSawThat

Senior Member
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My B&W Street Portraits are shot without filters
 

RickSawThat

Senior Member
I was wondering when you were going to come in. :)

Have you ever considered playing with them?

No - I try to do as much as I can with the least amount of equipment possible. I only want to think about composing the shot. I show up to shoot my street photos with one body and one lens and an extra battery in my pocket. No camera bag no extra stuff.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
I was wondering when you were going to come in. :)

Have you ever considered playing with them?

Jeff, when you shoot B&W with a digital camera, the capture is made in color and it's the camera's inside computer that converts it to B&W. When you convert to B&W with photoshop, you are presented with a complete array of filters you can play with as far as density as well as trying different colors. You see the effect on the screen as you apply them.

I think this is a much better approach than to stick a filter in front of the lens and then be stuck with the result.

Just my 2 cents.
 

Eye-level

Banned
I like that philosophy... :)

I've done a little film B&W but no digital stuff. From what little I have done nothing has really registered for me. Nowadays I am beginning to realize and understand that a huge part of photography is contrast and its control. Perhaps it would be easier to explore that concept using B&W instead of color. That being said I know it is not going to be an easy thing to do.
 

piperbarb

Senior Member
Jeff, when you shoot B&W with a digital camera, the capture is made in color and it's the camera's inside computer that converts it to B&W. When you convert to B&W with photoshop, you are presented with a complete array of filters you can play with as far as density as well as trying different colors. You see the effect on the screen as you apply them.

I think this is a much better approach than to stick a filter in front of the lens and then be stuck with the result.

Just my 2 cents.

Agreed. Not only that, but the yellow and red filters work when shooting B&W film. Using them on a digital camera which records the image in color not B&W will not take advantage of the increase in contrast that yellow and red photos make on BE&W film. Two different recording media, two different results.
 

STM

Senior Member
I have tried using a 25A filter on my D700 set to monochrome to see if I got greater saturation and darkening of blues and lightening of reds but the results were very disappointing compared to film. The sensor just does not react to light the same way B&W film does.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
The sensor doesn't really react to light like color film either, it is simply interpreting the light algorhytmically to what has been suggested is "normal color" for display - but we're a little more forgiving there. If you're working in RAW then the data is there, and B&W specific software like Silver Efex Pro 2 have hooks that interpret the light data more closely to the way some classic b&w films looked.
 

SkvLTD

Senior Member
I like that philosophy... :)

I've done a little film B&W but no digital stuff. From what little I have done nothing has really registered for me. Nowadays I am beginning to realize and understand that a huge part of photography is contrast and its control. Perhaps it would be easier to explore that concept using B&W instead of color. That being said I know it is not going to be an easy thing to do.

I kinda see what you mean there, but contrast is still fairly easy to tell on color shots as well. I personally feel that, better have a base that can serve 2 purposes later than to limit it at the base stage.
 

Photowyzard

Senior Member
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