B/w - raw

Michael J.

Michael J.

Senior Member
A couple of days ago I wanted shoot B/W with my D 5100. I set my cam to B/W. I shoot RAW. After opening the shoots in LR it imported B/W but as I clicked Develop all B/W photos turned into color.

My question is: What did I wrong?
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Yep. ^^^

If you're using LR or ACR just go to the camera profile section and set that to B&W and you'll get something that should match the jpeg previews you saw in-camera. What I'm not sure of is whether or not it also applies any B&W filters that you set within the camera. If you want to know, shoot RAW+JPEG and compare the two.
 
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Pebbleheed

Senior Member
The majority of my photographs are black and white. But I never shoot in black and white, I always shoot in colour.

You can always convert a colour photograph to black and white very easily but you can't go the other way.

So shoot in colour. Convert after. This is one of the benefits of digital photography.

Have a look at my stuff here. ALL the black and white stuff was shot in colour and edited in photoshop www.flickr.com/pebbleheed
 
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STM

Senior Member
All of the images are shot in color, not gray scale. The images are just processed in the camera into grayscale. Another point with this is you cannot use black and white filters like red, green or yellow as you would with black and white film.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
STM said:
All of the images are shot in color, not gray scale. The images are just processed in the camera into grayscale. Another point with this is you cannot use black and white filters like red, green or yellow as you would with black and white film.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ - unless your point is the use of such filters in color photography (in which case you could, but why is the question).

I use Silver Efex Pro to do 95% of my B&W conversions, and the first thing I do is go to the filter section and pass thru the 360 degrees of hues I could have used had I been shooting B&W directly. It's a cheat, and I think back to my brother who, in high school, taught me about saturation, hues and their impact on a desaturated image. But hey, I've got a BS in Computer Science, so I'm going with the software. LOL

That said, understanding what you're looking at in full spectrum color when your intention is grey scale, is a major plus.
 
Michael J.

Michael J.

Senior Member
Thank you so much for your time answering. I appreciate it very much. So I keep on shooting in color and pp afterwards.
 
G

Geoffc

Senior Member
Just to be clear, any picture settings like B&W, vivid, sharp, high contrast etc only apply to jpgs, including the one embedded in each raw file. A raw file is always an unprocessed colour image, albeit Lightroom may apply presets on import. If you use Nikon software it may apply the settings to raw files but I don't know as I don't use it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
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STM

Senior Member
BackdoorHippie said:
I beg to differ - unless your point is the use of such filters in color photography (in which case you could, but why is the question).

I use Silver Efex Pro to do 95% of my B&W conversions, and the first thing I do is go to the filter section and pass thru the 360 degrees of hues I could have used had I been shooting B&W directly. It's a cheat, and I think back to my brother who, in high school, taught me about saturation, hues and their impact on a desaturated image. But hey, I've got a BS in Computer Science, so I'm going with the software. LOL

That said, understanding what you're looking at in full spectrum color when your intention is grey scale, is a major plus.
Click to expand...

You will NOT get the same effect in digital from using a 25A, K2, G0, etc., filter (if you are shooting in grayscale) that you will if you were using one with black and white film.
 
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480sparky

Senior Member
STM said:
No you won't. Regardless of whether you shoot in RAW or .tiff or .jpg, the sensor "sees" in color. It has an entirely different sensitivity than black and white film. Go try it for yourself and see
Click to expand...

Point No. 1: Sensors do not 'see' in color. Sensors only record the level of light that strikes the pixels as filtered shades of gray. Only after the shutter closes and the electronics of the camera take over and process the data is color created.


Point No. 2: You can easily replicate any color filter in post on any color image.... raw, TIFF or JPEG.
 
S

STM

Senior Member
480sparky said:
Point No. 1: Sensors do not 'see' in color. Sensors only record the level of light that strikes the pixels as filtered shades of gray. Only after the shutter closes and the electronics of the camera take over and process the data is color created.


Point No. 2: You can easily replicate any color filter in post on any color image.... raw, TIFF or JPEG.
Click to expand...

Again you mention POST. I am talking about the image IN THE CAMERA using filters you would use for B&W photography. That is what I have been talking about the whole time.
 
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