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Black & White
Hi all. I am new to this group (and digital photography).
My camera (Olympus C-760) can shoot black and white pictures. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in quality between selecting the black and white option, and taking the shot in colour and converting to black and white with PC software? I haven't had any photos (B&W) printed professionally yet (only at home on my not-so-great printer) and would like some advice on this, as well as any comments on my choice of camera. The only other thing I have found is, as with thread just found, that shutter delay (compared to SLR) is something I will need to adjust to. Even when using the "half depression of the shutter technique" the camera takes that little bit longer to shoot. Winny |
#2
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Black & White
"Winny" wrote in message u... Hi all. I am new to this group (and digital photography). My camera (Olympus C-760) can shoot black and white pictures. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in quality between selecting the black and white option, and taking the shot in colour and converting to black and white with PC software? I haven't had any photos (B&W) printed professionally yet (only at home on my not-so-great printer) and would like some advice on this, as well as any comments on my choice of camera. The only other thing I have found is, as with thread just found, that shutter delay (compared to SLR) is something I will need to adjust to. Even when using the "half depression of the shutter technique" the camera takes that little bit longer to shoot. Winny There are various algorithms to convert color images to gray scale (a better name for B&W). I don't know what algorithm my camera uses, and I couldn't change it if I did know. My editing software (Paint Shop Pro) lets me set the algorithm and options, and go back to the original image if I don't like the result, so I can try a different way. It is extra effort, but to me it is worthwhile doing. |
#3
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Black & White
Winny wrote:
Hi all. I am new to this group (and digital photography). My camera (Olympus C-760) can shoot black and white pictures. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in quality between selecting the black and white option, and taking the shot in colour and converting to black and white with PC software? That's entirely up to you to decide. Do some test shots and see how they turn out. |
#4
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Black & White
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#5
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Black & White
"John McWilliams" wrote in message
news:bdmFc.15733$IQ4.13941@attbi_s02... wrote: Winny wrote: Hi all. I am new to this group (and digital photography). My camera (Olympus C-760) can shoot black and white pictures. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in quality between selecting the black and white option, and taking the shot in colour and converting to black and white with PC software? That's entirely up to you to decide. Do some test shots and see how they turn out. The question is emminently reasonable, and I'd like to know the experiences of others, or theory, at the least as to which should produce the better image. I would think that shooting in RAW mode and converting to B+W in Photoshop would yield the best results, but that's just a hypothesis and the OP probably doesn't have that option. -- John McWilliams Having tried the greyscale option on my wife's E-10, I'd have to say you are right. We both get better results by digital fiddling in P-shop than with greyscale direct from the camera. -- Skip Middleton http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com |
#6
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Black & White
"Winny" wrote in message u... Hi all. I am new to this group (and digital photography). My camera (Olympus C-760) can shoot black and white pictures. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in quality between selecting the black and white option, and taking the shot in colour and converting to black and white with PC software? I haven't had any photos (B&W) printed professionally yet (only at home on my not-so-great printer) and would like some advice on this, as well as any comments on my choice of camera. The only other thing I have found is, as with thread just found, that shutter delay (compared to SLR) is something I will need to adjust to. Even when using the "half depression of the shutter technique" the camera takes that little bit longer to shoot. It is much, much, much better to shoot in color, then convert to b&w from within a program such as Photoshop. Most in-camera b&w modes simply de-saturate the color image, so what you usually wind up with is a rather aenemic-looking gray luminance map AND you have lost all color information which might have been used to save the picture. Worst-case example and solution: suppose you shoot a reddish flower against a greenish background and the reds and greens have roughly the same luminance. The camera's b&w mode will give you a picture in which the red flower almost disappears into the background, since both colors will be assigned the same gray value. If you work with the color image in Photoshop, though, you can manipulate the individual color channels in such a way as to drastically increase the contrast between flower and background. ('Way back when I was shooting B&W film, I would have metered off both flower and background and seeing they were roughly at the same brightness, I would have slapped a red filter on my lens to do the same thing I described doing in Photoshop.) There are even simpler ways than direct color channel manipulation to perform effective color-to-B&W conversions: See http://www.adobe.com/tips/phs8colorbw/main.html for a few examples and you will be absolutely amazed at the difference between a well-executed color-to-B&W conversion and a simple de-saturation. In addition, by using Photoshop to make B&W's, you don't have to lug around a bag full of colored filters for B&W shots. |
#8
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Black & White
Skip M wrote:
"John McWilliams" wrote in message news:bdmFc.15733$IQ4.13941@attbi_s02... wrote: Winny wrote: Hi all. I am new to this group (and digital photography). My camera (Olympus C-760) can shoot black and white pictures. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in quality between selecting the black and white option, and taking the shot in colour and converting to black and white with PC software? That's entirely up to you to decide. Do some test shots and see how they turn out. The question is emminently reasonable, and I'd like to know the experiences of others, or theory, at the least as to which should produce the better image. I would think that shooting in RAW mode and converting to B+W in Photoshop would yield the best results, but that's just a hypothesis and the OP probably doesn't have that option. -- John McWilliams Having tried the greyscale option on my wife's E-10, I'd have to say you are right. We both get better results by digital fiddling in P-shop than with greyscale direct from the camera. Thanks, and Paul's and Robert's explanations fill in why this is so. Someone told me *definitively* (!) that it was better to shoot B+W in the camera, but intuitively I doubted that. Now I am glad to know the difference that I may find down the road as per the examples given. -- John McWilliams |
#9
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Black & White
"John McWilliams" wrote in message
news:t2EFc.18357$%_6.2103@attbi_s01... Skip M wrote: "John McWilliams" wrote in message news:bdmFc.15733$IQ4.13941@attbi_s02... wrote: The question is emminently reasonable, and I'd like to know the experiences of others, or theory, at the least as to which should produce the better image. I would think that shooting in RAW mode and converting to B+W in Photoshop would yield the best results, but that's just a hypothesis and the OP probably doesn't have that option. -- John McWilliams Having tried the greyscale option on my wife's E-10, I'd have to say you are right. We both get better results by digital fiddling in P-shop than with greyscale direct from the camera. Thanks, and Paul's and Robert's explanations fill in why this is so. Someone told me *definitively* (!) that it was better to shoot B+W in the camera, but intuitively I doubted that. Now I am glad to know the difference that I may find down the road as per the examples given. -- John McWilliams One of the things I've found effective is to bump the red channel up before desaturating, and using the "saturation" slider in Hue/Saturation to desat the image rather than merely hitting "greyscale" or "desaturate." -- Skip Middleton http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com |
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