Color to B & W Question

Tom Potter

Hey Guys,

OK - this is probably gonna sould like a realy amateurish question. Know how in the olden days if you wanted black & white, youi shot with B & W film. Today, with digital and digital software, a color can be made into a B & W with the click of a button. Is it considered just as legit to offer a B & W print via that software click of that button, as it was to have shot with B & W film in the past? I'm saying "Yes", but, a little birdie is telling me to pose the question.

Thx,

Tom

colourbox

It's the same as it ever was.

In the olden days, you would manipulate the darkness of different colors on B&W film by putting a colored filter in front of the lens. That was on top of the fact that different types of B&W film was engineered for specific responses to colors, in other words the film and filters you picked controlled your color-to-B&W conversion.

With digital, the serious B&W enthusiasts don't simply click a button to convert. They use B&W conversion controls to massage the conversion from color to B&W to get exactly the look they want, just like they did with the old films and filters. It's all the same.

Tom Potter

colourbox wrote:

It's the same as it ever was.

In the olden days, you would manipulate the darkness of different colors on B&W film by putting a colored filter in front of the lens. That was on top of the fact that different types of B&W film was engineered for specific responses to colors, in other words the film and filters you picked controlled your color-to-B&W conversion.

With digital, the serious B&W enthusiasts don't simply click a button to convert. They use B&W conversion controls to massage the conversion from color to B&W to get exactly the look they want, just like they did with the old films and filters. It's all the same.

OK - Excellent! - Thx a lot

pathfinder

I process many shots as color and as B&W and decide later which I truly prefer, both from the same RAW file.

Tom Potter

pathfinder wrote:

I process many shots as color and as B&W and decide later which I truly prefer, both from the same RAW file.

OK, cool, Pathfinder - Appreciate the tip!

Tom

pyry

I often know going in that I want a particular shot in B&W. I tweak the conversion with colour weighing, contrast - and graininess. I sometimes turn noise management off all together and push the sharpness to bring out the grain and grit.

B&W takes just as much work to get right as colour.

So the answer to your question, is B&W an equal of colour as the end product with digital formats, definitely yes.

pathfinder

I agree that some shots are planned at the time of shooting to move to B&W. Strong contrasty lighting, with strong elements of shape, rather than color, lead me to think about B&W conversion at the time of shooting.

But there are also times, when I shoot an image, thinking I will process it in color, that I later decide it has potential as a B&W also. That is one of the beauties of shooting in digital. Pixels are free

Chapter 7 of Margulis Professional Photoshop is about B&W conversion

Lightroom makes B&W conversion very easy these days also.