Raw & Jpeg For B & W

riverrat373

New member
I read an interesting article recently by a professional photographer (forgot where!). He suggested shooting in both raw and jpeg with the camera set to b&w. The raw file will come out in color and you can look at the b&w jpeg and get a better idea of the contrast, etc. That will enable you to better convert the raw file to b&w. Has anyone tried this? I shoot with a Nikon D5500 and always shoot in raw & jpeg but have not tried the articles suggestion. :beguiled:
 

LouCioccio

Senior Member
I’ve done the first part when I show students how to shoot raw and select monochrome. This article goes on e better as I did not know I could do this.
https://www.slrlounge.com/black-white-camera-post/
i still shoot B&W with film, yes film in 35mm and 120. Usually when I hold a photo safari with our club I always bring a dslr and either my ETRs or FM and use my Sekonic L86.
Lou Cioccio
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Like different films will give you different looks in B&W, and like filters will change contrast levels, shooting in this method will only give a single interpretation of the B&W conversion based on the camera's B&W profile (or however you've modified it). I can see the advantages if you are attempting to teach film using a DSLR, but not really beyond that. B&W post-processing engines allow you to play infinitely in the "digital darkroom" producing 20 different results simply by using presets generated for the various film types. Heck, you can even find good presets for Lightroom that will allow you to create a bunch of virtual copies of the same image each with a different preset and you can bounce through each along with an untreated color copy and see how each preset/film type interprets the same set of colors. I suspect you can learn more, more quickly, by spending an hour each with 8 good sample images than you could in weeks of shooting this way. After which you could effectively create a custom camera profile(s) that matches your preference(s) and then drill in more on working with that.

I learned more about B&W photography with a single image in Silver Efex Pro sitting in the color modification section and playing with the various sliders than I ever would shooting and peeping. Maybe that's just how I work? Or maybe it's just how I shoot? I tend to be someone who cares only about getting a well exposed RAW file because I know I can rely on my "darkroom skills" to get the image I want/see when I engage the shutter. And maybe that's the point of the article, since "Professionals" would rather be as close to "done" as possible with that shutter click. But they've also developed those other skills over long hours of trial and error before going pro and I suspect there are better ways to cut down your time in elementary school.
 
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