Black and White on an M8

[wlaidlaw]

Excuse me if this has been asked before but a search for the answer produced nothing of note. Is there any difference and/or advantage, if I take a photo in DNG + JPEG fine with the M8 set to black and white on the colour menu or leaving in normal colour, converting the DNG and then discarding the colour information, when I import the TIFF image into Photoshop. I assume not, since the DNG always seems to be in colour, although the JPEG is in black and white. If you were taking JPEG only, would there then be an advantage in taking in B&W, rather than discarding the colour information at a later stage? It is important to me as about 30%+ of my big prints are in B&W or tinted B&W (sepia, cyanide, pseudo IR, Platinum, etc).

Wilson

[wilfredo]

I always shoot Raw (95% of the time) and then convert to B&W. There really is no advantage to shooting in B&W except to get an idea of what you got from viewing the image on the LCD.

Cheers,
Wilfredo
Benitez-Rivera Photography

[Shootist]

The only time I use jpeg only is when I'm shooting a job I've done AND need to share those images with others in the company I work for right away and they are always in color.
If I think I'm going to use B&W I then shot DNG+JPG with the JPG in B&W just so I can view the B&W image on the LCD. I then may use the jpeg or convert the DNG to a grayscale image. It all depends on what other things I have going on and the time I have and whether or not the Jpeg's look OK.

[norm_snyder]

Hello Wilson--

I am primarily [> 95%] a black and white photographer, and had explored the use of JPEGS, rather than DNG+JPEG, for display [13x19 and up] prints. Particularly at iso 640 and above, the DNG files, which I import and convert into TIFF files, produce far better tonal gradation than the JPEGs which have been converted to TIFF files. This is particulalry true of the darker gray tones. I find that, for convenience, shooting in camera B&W is my preference, because then the previews, as noted by others, are available in that presentation. I also use the JPEG's for producing quick contact sheets in PS, and then convert the DNGs I want singly, rather than as a batch conversion. It's slow workflow, but then I am not having to produce large quantities of prints for clients, for example. Currently, I am doing my B&W conversions of the DNG files in Raw Developer, and occasionally convert [in Raw Developer or C1] to TIFF, then convert to B&W in Channel Mixer. For the most part, I am quite happy with the results in Raw Developer.

On display prints, the differences are quite apparent, but not really on JPEGs for the web.

Wilfredo--Terrific shot, and the tonality, even on a monitor, really seems to show off what the camera can do.

--Norm

[wlaidlaw]

Thank you all for your kind help and advice. I currently have DNG+JPEG fine and B&W set as Camera Profile 2 on the M8 and I think it makes sense therefore to keep it that way. I don't tend to use the LCD screen a lot but the B&W preview is always there if I want it.

I had not thought of using the JPEG's as a contact sheet (good idea) and generally only keep them until I have sorted the keepers and chuckers in iPhoto, then after DNG conversion of the keepers in C1, transfer the JPEG's to my archive external drive and trash them in iPhoto. I then reimport the TIFF's from my capture file into iPhoto. It sounds a bit laborious but I have got it reasonably automated. It would all be much simpler if Aperture worked properly on DNG's.

Wilson

[norm_snyder]

The JPEGs don't take up very much hard drive space [I do back ups to CD or DVD and external HD, so I put them in a separate folder, stored within the main folder for that shoot [e.g., B-035 contains DNG files + B-035j, which has the JPEGs]. I edit using the JPEGs--much faster, and I can see them in B&W without converting, delete those I don't want, and then delete the DNG's I don't want, based on that sort. I suppose it's all some sort of holdover from all those years sorting negs, and looking at contact sheets.

--Norm