Monochrome Images

canon400d · February 7, 2009

This afternoon I took a few shots in Monochrome using my 40D.I always shoot Raw + L Jpeg. I have just put the CR2 images through Photoshop CS3 to find to my amazement they have all turned out in colour. The corresponding + L Jpegs have come out in black & white when I put them through ACR. I am sure there is a simple explanation to this which I would really appreciate.
Regards
Bob

Brendan · February 10, 2009

I assume the Canon files are the same as on my Nikon, in which case shooting in RAW+JPG, B/W gives you a RAW file with full color information (which often defaults to normal saturation - i.e., in color), and a JPG file converted in-camera to B/W. The benefit is that you can quickly see the B/W result with the JPG, but you still have the color file so you can do a custom B/W conversion, or process the photograph in color if you feel so inclined.

Hope this helps,
—Brendan

pyry · February 10, 2009

Perfectly normal behaviour. Raw data is always untouched out of the camera (it's actually un-rendered subpixel stuff), the BW setting affects jpegs only.

If you're using a post processing software as powerful as Photoshop, then by all means, shoot raw and convert to monochrome in post. You will find the tools available to you much better for the job.

canon400d · February 13, 2009

pyry wrote:

Perfectly normal behaviour. Raw data is always untouched out of the camera (it's actually un-rendered subpixel stuff), the BW setting affects jpegs only.

If you're using a post processing software as powerful as Photoshop, then by all means, shoot raw and convert to monochrome in post. You will find the tools available to you much better for the job.

Thanks Brendan and Pyry for that excellent advice. I really appreciate your help.
Regards
Bob

Candid Arts · February 13, 2009

Also, you don't need to shoot in RAW+JPEG to get that preview. If you just shoot in RAW, your camera will still make a "preview only" JPEG file to view on your LCD as a RAW file can't be viewed on the in-camera LCD. The +JPEG is just taking up extra space at that point (assuming that's all you are using the actuall JPEG file for). The preview only jpeg isn't actually an extra file on your memory card, it's just a tiny little preview jpeg that's actually encoded in the RAW file, so that is what you are seeing on the LCD screen of your camera. And like other said, once you import the actual RAW file to your computer, you can view the RAW file which is just that...RAW. i.e Full color how you saw it when you were taking the shot, no conversions or adjustments in camera made whatsoever.

Monochrome Images

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