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Black and white pictures:Better from de camera or converted?


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When I take a digital picture I have two options: a) Use the black and white mode from the camera or 2) Take it in color and then convert it in the computer to B&W. Which is the best option? The quality of the final picture is the same? Thanks for your advise.

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Usually B&W images made by the camera are JPEG, so you are already on a loser right there. You'll get far more control by working with a colour original. Make Silver Efex a Lightroom or Photoshop plugin (find plugins under 'Filters' in Photoshop). Save your .dng as a .TIFF file and open it in Silver Efex for working on, you have a vast array of tools that work incredibly well. When you've finished save the file, still as an Adobe RGB .TIFF, and don't save it as a 'Greyscale' image because traditional B&W is never pure B&W, printing paper and developing chemicals always impart a cool or warm tone to the image, however slight, and you can replicate this in Silver Efex. 

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Usually B&W images made by the camera are JPEG, so you are already on a loser right there. You'll get far more control by working with a colour original. Make Silver Efex a Lightroom or Photoshop plugin (find plugins under 'Filters' in Photoshop). Save your .dng as a .TIFF file and open it in Silver Efex for working on, you have a vast array of tools that work incredibly well. When you've finished save the file, still as an Adobe RGB .TIFF, and don't save it as a 'Greyscale' image because traditional B&W is never pure B&W, printing paper and developing chemicals always impart a cool or warm tone to the image, however slight, and you can replicate this in Silver Efex. 

 

Many thanks for your answer. I will try the way you show me.

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When shooting digital, I always convert from DNG, either in LR or in SilverEfex.

 

However, when having b/w in my mind while shooting, I always set the camera up for dual capture (DNG + high contrast b/w jpg). This gives me a point of reference for conversion and helps to shape the idea of what I want to aim at in postprocessing (i.e. in what respect I like or dislike the in-camera b/w rendering and in what way I might find it lacking).

 

The ooc jpg sometimes also helps me to check myself against overdoing things, which can be quite a pitfall, especially in SilverEfex, imho. Far too many images nowadays look like „aesthetic pornography“ to me. The „clarity“ (LR) or „structure“ (SE) sliders can be overly alluring. I have been there and have come back aiming for moderation in postprocessing.

 

But to each his own journey. Have fun with yours!

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