Shooting BW on a Nikon D200

<p>I find the setting for BW on the D200 to be a very washed out look. Anyway to have a little more contrast, a little more "jump" in BW in camera?</p>

<p>Never capture b/w in-camera. Shoot color, RAW images, and use your software to make the conversion. You will have FAR more choices that way, and you can always go back to the RAW file when you've learned to make better conversions.</p>

It hapens the same with my D40x, the pictures look too gray stock.

 

I think of it as an advantage more than a drawback. All this grays means that you have a lot of range to play with. If you use curve adjusting or histogram adjusting in your favorite RAW converter in seconds you can set the contrast to your likes.

Yes, I agree with Les. I have low contrast when I take RAW files and I remove the saturation...

<p>Optimise image. It starts on page 45 of the instruction book. Contrast is on top of page 47.</p>

<p>I would strongly recommend you shoot raw or raw+JPEG and do the conversion in a photo editing program where there is much more control. CS3 and 4 raw converter allow you to add the effect of different color filters after the fact, ie you can see what the photo would have looked like had you used an orange filter to darken the blue sky & then take it away if you do not like it. Then retry with a yellow.</p>

<p>NX2 also has a black and white change in it that can be made. Download a free trial from Nikon USA that is good for 60 days. Purchase a copy from Cameta Camera for $119. Just use the activation code for the copy you have and do not uninstall.</p>

 

<p>Some great suggestions. Too bad. My Ricoh GX200 allows for a ton of in camera BW processing. Kind of nice when you want to "see" BW all the way through.</p>

<p>Shoot RAW in color, switch to grayscale, then play with curves. I liked to push Red +100 to for skin tones.</p>

<p>It's pretty easy to do your own work in Photoshop, if you have it. Lightroom is good too, though I've never used it beyond the free demo. I agree that shooting in black and white is not the way to go, the best results happen in post. Here is a D200 shot I took a few weeks ago, converted to monochrome in Photoshop (no filter was used, it's all in post):<br /> <img src="http://hull534.smugmug.com/photos/553916116_rDjpC-L.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="536" /></p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3417/3641583954_7bcd12efca.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="335" /><br>

Shot in BW on D200 then noodled with PS Elements 6.0</p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3633/3641592076_d6eebb5fc7.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="335" /></p>

<p>shoot in RAW</p>

<p>When you use the B&W setting on the camera, it uses only the green pixels to form the image. You're essentially throwing away half the information (the Bayer array has 50% green pixels, 25% red and 25% blue).</p>

<p>If you shoot in color and then later convert to B&W, you can easily simulate the effect of different filters by adjusting the color balance before converting to B&W. E.g., if you want a red or orange filter, you can do that without having to actually bring one with you.</p>

<p>Of course, the catch is that what you see on your camera's LCD is not what you want the final product to look like. You have to think a little differently. Sometime what looks good in color ends up looking bland and boring in B&W, and vice versa.</p>

<p>To address Ben's point about the LCD showing color while the intention is to eventually convert it to B&W, isn't it possible to select B&W and then shoot in RAW so that on the LCD you have the B&W but the RAW file has all the color data for post processing?</p>

<p>yes David L., that is now what I am doing.</p>

<p>Yes David L., that is now what I am doing, too.:)</p>

<p>Although I agree that it is much better to shoot in color then convert afterwards and this is what I do 90% of the time it can be fun to pretend you are loaded with black and white and to go shooting. But the best camera I have ever found for this is the Panasonic L1. It has multiple film settings including black and white in low medium and high contrast. It does a pretty creditable job in any of these settings. While I own a D200 as well I must admit I have never been tempted to try to shoot in BW mode with it partly because the option is buried in a hierarchy of menu settings. In the L1 its accessible from a custom function that can be accessed off a dial on the camera body and thus is easy to turn on and off whe you are of a mind to.</p>

<p>I like shooting in monochrome (RAW) B&W because it gives me an idea of how things will look. To me it's akin to loading a film camera with Tri-X and seeing instant results if i need to chimp. It's a great learning tool.<br>

However even though it adds a step to post processing, I change the RAW to colour in NX, save as aTIFF and convert to B&W in PS with Alien Skin. I too don't like the conversion in camera, but as long as you're shooting RAW you still have all the info anyway.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Ross, I believe there is a setting that allows capture simultaneously in raw and jpeg, the raw in color and the jpeg in bw. you can chimp the bw and to help you see in bw. Sorry, I dont remember how to set that in the menu. If you find you are filling the card with the double images, you can delete the unwanted bw's. Also, if you capture in color, you have the choice of rgb channel you use and still have the option to use the image in color, not so if captured in bw.</p>

Shooting monochrome in-camera you lose a TON of flexibility for post-capture color filtering; which allows you to

accentuate/deaccentuate elements to taste. I'd never want to lose that ability.

<p>Bob;<br>

If you use RAW and shoot in monochrome you can still use the RAW as colour. You just convert it to colour in NX if you want to. I think you're right if you use PS though.<br>

Cheers</p>

<p>For conversion in PS, you might want to have a look at a free plugin called VirtualPhotographer, which in my view gives better results than the built-in conversion to black&white, and is somewhat easier to use too. Since it won't cost you a dime, worth the shot.</p>

<p>Personally. I prefer the conversion options for B&W in Capture NX2, though.</p>

<p>As a general rule, I stay away from the "artistic" setting on my camera, such as B&W. Using them can really limit the control you have over your image when processing it.<br /> <br /> For B&W I like to use the channel mixer. This gives me control over the three color channels in a way that is much like using color filters on my lens.<br /> <br /> Here is an example of what channel mixer can do. Same image, different values for the RGB channels using channel mixer and monochrome.</p>

<p>Top Image - Red channel increased, B/G decreased accordingly<br>

Bottom Image - Red channel decresed, B/G increased accordingly.<br /> <br /> The car is red.</p><div></div>

<p>Keith that is a great example. Channel mixer in PS is the best way to create B&W photos, IMO. It's like shooting with filters to emphasize or de-emphasize different colors.</p>