Color vs. B&W mode from the camera

[leicaglow]

<p>On a Nikon DSLR, like a D200 in this case, I understand that if I set the menu to shoot B&W, it will give me RAW images in color, and JPEG's in B&W. But does it cause anything different to happen to the RAW image, differently than you would get if you just shot color in the first place?</p>

[joseph_wisniewski]

<p>Nope, the raw is perfectly normal.</p>

[hans_janssen]

<p>When you use NX2 the RAW pictures is in B/W and you can switch it to color again there.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Thanks for the info. Hans, it was driving me nuts that one program displayed the RAW images as color, and the other as B&W. I have a project that needs to be all B&W (thousands of images) and I just don't want to have to convert them all.</p>

[hans_janssen]

<p>Even with LR is it 'no work' to convert 1000 or 10.000 of images, just convert 1 and copy the settings to the others.</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>The channel mixer in Photoshop is often a better way to convert BW to color, btw.</p>

[raczoliver]

<p>If you open the pictures with a Nikon software, say Capture NX or View NX, it automatically applies your settings to the raw file, all of which you can of course change if you so wish. Other software might not recognize the camera settings, so will show you the raw file in color.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Hans, Thanks. My copy is on its way.</p>

<p>Peter, Normally, this is how I would convert to B&W, but I don't want to deal with that for thousands of images. It would take forever just to load them into PS.</p>

<p>Oliver, That explains why ACDSee is sometimes displaying them in color and sometimes not. It is obviously confused.</p>

[Kent Shafer]

<blockquote>

<p>Even with LR is it 'no work' to convert 1000 or 10.000 of images, just convert 1 and copy the settings to the others.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>And you can do the same thing with ACR and Bridge. Convert one to B&W in ACR, save the settings as a preset, then apply it to all your photos with Edit—Develop Settings in Bridge.</p>

[peterafle]

<p>Michael -- it would be great to know more about your project -- what are all these images going to be used for?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I don't want to deal with that for thousands of images. It would take forever just to load them into PS.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>To me, this begs the question -- If you are dealing with thousands of images, and you don't want to deal with individual processing or conversion for all those pictures, why are you shooting RAW/NEF at all? You are going to have to convert them all from NEF into JPEG or some other format anyway to print or post or otherwise use them. Would it be simpler to just shoot black and white JPEGS? </p>

<p>Also, you might want to consider using ViewNX2, which is free from the Nikon website -- it will display your NEF files on your computer with the proper in-camera settings (in otherwords, black and white will display as black and white) and will also let you apply settings to batches of images all at once. The newest NX2 version is very capable and a lot faster than the old version. You may decide you don't need LR at all.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Peter, I can't give a lot of details, but it's a syndicated photojounalism and multimedia project, and I am seriously thinking I might just want to shoot JPEGs, and not RAW (I can't believe I just said that). It requires a lot of quick editing, and I think you probably just persuaded me to go this route. It would speed things up to work just with one format.</p>