BW using the 20D

[gd_king]

Ive been asked to take wedding pictures for a friend. I literally just

bought my 20D and would like to use that camera instead of film.

 

I dont have too much time to play around with photoshop - but if I

wanted to take BW pictures - is it better to take the BW pictures

using the 20D or should I take color pictures with the 20D and convert

them later on with Photoshop?

 

Will there be a difference in quality?

 

Thanks for helping . . .

[ryan mcgill - trm photo st]

I would recommend shooting all in color. You can always convert to B&W but cannot go backwards. In PhotoShop it is fairly easy to convert to B&W. I use gradient mapping. It is basically a two or three click process.

[lovcom_photo]

B&W in-camera with 20D...very bad idea.

 

Better to shoot RAW, and in color, then using Photo-Shop you can use levels and curves for EACH CHANNEL, via splitting the image into separate channels and then converting to 8-bit, then grayscale...this offers results much better then the muddy bland results from the in-camera setting.

 

I have B&W on my 5D and I never use it...a waste of time...the results are cr@p.

[lovcom_photo]

more....splitting to separate RGB channels, you can fine tune each channel....more control, and your whites are WHITE, and your blacks are BLACK...more contrast, brighter faces. The gradiant map provides less control and is often arbitrary, still better then using in-camera however.

[agustin.benencia]

Hi, I've been using my 20D since last year. And I like to take BW images (most of my pics are in B&W). I think many people in this forum will say that is better to take the photos in color and then convert them using PS, and I think they are right. But my case is like yours, I don't have much time to spend it in front of the machine. I love the "in camera" BW function, they are more than fine to me.

 

AGUSTIN

[fourfa]

if you don't have time to play in photoshop, the methods being described above probably won't do, though they're probably the right way to get the best results with maximum control.

 

instead look for a full-featured plug-in for B&W conversions, something with some presets and a couple of slider options. Working in photoshop sometimes is like programming in machine language, often it's nice to have an interface that takes care of the minutia for you.

[KenPapai]

And yet another fairly good way is to do all of your B&W conversions from within ACR (Camera Raw).

 

1. Move the Saturation slider all the way to left (-100%).

 

2. Then adjust white balance to suit;

 

3. after that play with your exposure and contrast sliders until it looks "perfect."

 

A surprisingly good B&W result will occur. If you are new to the 20D and shoot in JPG only then you'll have less latitude to correct your images in the post processing; so shoot RAW as you have nothing to lose. Good luck!

[KenPapai]

Shot in RAW, converted to B&W totally within PS CS2 ACR:<div></div>

[KenPapai]

Also shot in RAW and converted to B&W in ACR, same as above, wedding 2005:<div></div>

[m_barbu1]

Something to keep in mind is that just because you're using Photoshop to process the images, doesn't mean you have to sit there and do this for every single image. Photoshop is very good at batch processing (assuming you want to apply the exact same steps to each image).

[awindsor]

Any converting to B&W can hide a multitude of sins. The redeye in the previous shot has become less distracting white catchlights.

[awindsor]

If you set B&W mode and RAW capture then the B&W setting affects only the preview image; you can still convert the RAW file to colour. It may be of some use to preview the tonal balance and separation though you can alter them considerably in post processing from a colour image.

[chrisjb]

There are many ways to convert to B&W each photo can sometimes benefit from 1 way or another. You could just convert to LAB colour and just use the lightness chanel, Fred Miranda has some quick preset actions, or Optil Verve Labs `Virtual Photographer` is a free Plugin for PS. either way I feel you`ll have more detail shooting in colour.

Saves time on the day

 

good luck

[roger.a]

I shoot about 90% B&W. Always raw, always in the BW mode on the camera, usually with the yellow or orange filter selected.

 

If you shoot raw you can still change it later.

If you shoot JPG you have very little room for changes later.

 

Have a look at this thread:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00FmTP

 

("Max size of 5D prints" in this forum)

[gd_king]

Thanks for all your responses - I still have a lot to learn. Not even sure if I have Photoshop or not - I think something came with the camera. Im also going to download the virtual photographer and play with adjusting pictures in batches . . .

[olli_salo]

One option is to use the RAW+L feature of the camera, meaning that you capture both the unharmed RAW-file and a BW version as JPEG at the same time.

 

This of course requires more space from your CF cards so it might not be optimal. The good thing is that you then have your BW images ready and in case you capture something truly remarkable that would maybe benefit from colour or a very controlled BW conversion, you can always go back to the RAW file.

 

I sometimes use this while shooting in studio and planning to convert the shots to BW in the editing phase - the JPEG's give a good approximation.