Monochrome - post processing etc

BengaLover

Wondering who of you chooses to shoot in monochrome for initial shots or shoots in colour and then convert to monochrome AFTER, and why..

MaggyM

I would always photograph in raw regardless of if I want a colour or monochrome image. The raw file will always hold much more information that a jpeg which makes it much more versatile when processing it.

So in short to answer your question, I always shoot in colour, and then convert to mono.

DaireQuinlan

I don't think there's any defensible reason why you'd shoot digital in B&W out of the camera, relying on some preset in the camera to do the conversion. Shoot in colour (raw or otherwise) and you can convert from any mix of your channels, effectively giving you the equivalent of different colour filters in post.

Kenny Logins

Always RAW. If I could buy a camera similar to my D5100 with no; jpeg processing, useless effects, auto modes, white balance settings (I always leave it to auto) etc. etc., I would.

I did use the on-board jpeg processing in my cameras until I started using Lightroom. That was a revelation.

DaireQuinlan

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Always RAW. If I could buy a camera similar to my D5100 with no; jpeg processing, useless effects, auto modes, white balance settings (I always leave it to auto) etc. etc., I would.

That is all.

jonniebgood1

Kenny Logins wrote: »

I did use the on-board jpeg processing in my cameras until I started using Lightroom. That was a revelation.

Could you explain to an amateur what the benefits of editing a RAW file rather than a JPG is?

Kenny Logins

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Could you explain to an amateur what the benefits of editing a RAW file rather than a JPG is?

When using jpeg you're relying on the camera to do all of the processing, and in doing this it strips out the surplus information from the file, permanently.

RAW retains all of the captured information in the file, and you can then do loads to fix blown highlights, lost shadow detail, correct exposure, correct white balance etc.

I'm new to photography myself, and when recently I compared the post-processing ability and range of a RAW file to the same jpeg I couldn't believe the difference, and switched.

CabanSail

When people say they are shooting in "Black and White" what they mean is they have that set in their options for the jpeg processing in camera.

If you think about it we all shoot "Mono in Triplicate". This is because the sensor has three channels, red blue and green. Each channel will appear as a mono image with the characteristics of using the corresponding filter. This means we can then use this data to create a Mono with any filter you like rather than only one filter if shooting film.

In camera mono is throwing away data, twice.

AnCatDubh

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I don't think there's any defensible reason why you'd shoot digital in B&W out of the camera, relying on some preset in the camera to do the conversion.

It mightn't be defensible, but I often do it simply because i like it. That also leaves me shooting jpg so what I lose I lose. Meh....

I take the preset, adjust the settings to look something like I think might be aesthetically pleasing and shoot like that. Yes, I lose all possibility of doing something in colour out of them but that doesn't matter to what i'm doing at the time. It also saves me on a black and white conversion. Maybe not defensible but saves a truck load of time. No regrets when I shoot like that thus far.

I guess I am aided by black and white in camera controls/options which are to my liking.

Kenny Logins

Good video here showing the conversion options -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPnEa1cNfeE