Easy question about black and white photography with digital camera. Can you help me out?
If I take a color photo, and remove the color later (in photoshop), will it effect the quality of the photo? Or, should I use the black and white feature that is built into the camera?
I have a digital camera and it’s my first attempt at black and white photography.
Thanks in advance.
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Personally, I like taking the photos in color and then switching them to black and white in Photoshop, as you get more control over the tones; it kind of reminds me of taking black and white film shots, as you see through the viewfinder in color, then develop and print, and you see it rendered in black and white.
Also, it’s nice to have both color and black & white just in case you decide that you wish you had it in color, but used the black and white function on your camera.
If you want a specific look, you can use a colored filter shooting straight black and white, such as a yellow, red, green, etc. kind of filter. They bring out different elements in a b&w image
It’s best to take it in colour then desaturate, then adjust the levels so you get the best mix of shadows and highlights.
The most impressive pictures in B&W have a huge range from the darkest detail in the shadows to the finest lines in the high lights. Traditionally, this range can not be achieved with color film and often people who work in color do not look at “seeing” in B&W and are photographing more for variations in color rather than light and shadow. Sometimes getting that range onto the paper requires special techniques in exposure and processing such as Ansel Adams and Steichen http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/steichen/steichen2.html
If your camera, in shooting B&W originally had far more shades of gray than the 256 in the software I use, say 4096 or 32000+, then it would be worth learning to handle it if you can maintain it through processing and printing on the best paper or projection image. But if the shades of gray are the same as after conversion from color, then shoot in color and convert later and try to learn to see for the best results