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Photoshop turning B&W images into color


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I shot over 200 B&W images (RAW format) yesterday using my Canon20D

and then downloaded the images without any difficulty. But as I was

looking at the thumbnails in Photoshop CS, I watched each and every

image turn from B&W into a color image. Is Photoshop CS supposed to do

this? It seems a bit silly to use the B&W settings in the camera if

Photoshop is simply going to add color on its own. I know I can

desaturate the images but it was my intent not to have to do this.

Anyone experience this? Thanks.

 

Jeff Collins

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I don't think 20D saves images as B&W in RAW. RAW is RAW. It's unprocessed output from the sensor with color in intensity info. All the B&W setting probably does is insert something in the file header that tells the Canon software what parameters to use to convert to B&W. CS probably doesn't understand that header info.

 

Can't for the life of me see why anyone would shoot in B&W anyway. If you want all the shots done with the same conversion parameters, just batch process them.

 

The 20D always shoots in color. B&W is just a software based conversion.

 

If you want B&W images saved by the 20D, you can probably do that if you select to save the files as JPEGs.

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I don't have CS or CS2 but I believe the problem is that Adobe Camera Raw does not recognize the B&W mode of the camera. (The RAW image is not processed but the fact that you chose B&W mode and any filters is recorded in the proprietary part of the EXIF). If you use the Canon software then it will recognize the B&W mode and know if you shot it with a special filter.

 

I always apply such things afterwards but sometimes it is useful to be able to see a B&W image on the LCD to judge tonality. Thus the B&W mode is not entirely useless.

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