Black & White Shooters

**Stangman98** · 12-23-2012, 06:07 PM

Contest launches January 22, 2013

**jamadophotography** · 12-26-2012, 09:39 AM

Thanks!

**stmv** · 01-25-2013, 12:25 AM

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** · 01-25-2013, 12:36 AM

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** · 01-25-2013, 03:20 PM

My B&W Street Portraits are shot without filters

**Eye-level** · 01-25-2013, 03:22 PM

I was wondering when you were going to come in.

Have you ever considered playing with them?

**RickSawThat** · 01-25-2013, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by Eye-level

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** · 01-25-2013, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by Eye-level

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** · 01-25-2013, 03:39 PM

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.