5D Mk1 Picture Style B&W

[peter_a__nyc_]

<p>My friend is selling me his 5D Mk1, and it will be my first serious digital camera. I want to get good B&W images but I'm trying to keep things simple and minimize post processing. I just don't have time to tweak every single picture, and I realize the images will be inferior. The photos will mostly be published on the web, with only an occasional 8x10 print. If I shoot RAW + JPEG I could process the RAW file if I want, but I'll also have an immediate B&W JPEG. Is anyone here actually happy using the in-camera Mono Picture Setting for JPEGs? Thank you.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>You could do this since you'll have the RAW for backup, but in most cases it is far preferable to do the BW conversion in post rather than in the camera since you have far more control over the outcome.</p>

[steven_f1]

<p>When you set up for a picture carefully you will be hard pressed to see any difference from film at 8X10 or pictures resized for the WEB. I recently submitted 5 photos for a local photo contest (all 11X14 taken with the 5D Mk1). Over 250 photos were submitted. Two of my photos were accepted for display. Niether had any sharpening or noise reduction applied. I simply took the RAW file, adjusted white ballance, cropped to tast, and converted to JPEG. Two that recieved significantly more work were not accepted. Some people consider post processing manditory while others do not. It is more a matter of tast rather than a requirement.</p>

<p>I have however never done much MONO work. However I can say that with Adobe CS3 my picture color and contrast settings are being applied to my RAW files. I have directly compared two pictures taken from a tripod with minimum and maximum contrast as well as maximum and minimum color saturation. The RAW files clearly show the difference. Do some experments by adjusting MONO picture settings to see what you like the most. Also compare the RAW and JPEGs for each. Your software may or may not apply the picture settings to your RAW file. You might find that you like the MONO settings as is or you might find a customized MONO setting that you like better. </p>

[david_henderson]

<p>If I didn't want to put major effort into post processing on b&w conversions then rather than do what you contemplate I'd buy Lightroom (lots of reasons for doing this anyway) experiment with the channel settings to produce a b&w style I liked, and set this up as a preset .</p>