Shooting black and white on a DSLR?

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

Sep 27, 2009 | 10:31 PM

Andrew

Thread Starter

Teamspeed Pro

Joined: Aug 2007

Posts: 2,258

From: Palo Alto, CA

Shooting black and white on a DSLR?

Does anyone have any good pointers for post-processing images to make artistic black and white photos? I assume it's best not to use the monochrome mode on the camera, and always shoot in color. However, I feel like converting to grayscale in Photoshop blows out some of the depth of the image. Are there other ways to convert a photo into a great B&W?

Sep 27, 2009 | 10:39 PM

Alzilla

Teamspeed Pro

Joined: Apr 2008

Posts: 31,976

From: Minnesota

There's really no easy way to do it in PS that only requires one action. I usually convert it to black & white and then play with the channels (colors) to get it the way I want it. It's actually really slick in Adobe Camera Raw which is built into PS CS3 & CS4.

Sep 28, 2009 | 02:34 AM

GrayTT

Teamspeed Pro

Joined: May 2008

Posts: 15,199

From: MidEast

The way that works for me is to shot in RAW and in color then use PS curves not levels to convert and adjest...

Sep 28, 2009 | 03:35 AM

PorscheFanatic

Teamspeed Pro

Joined: Jan 2008

Posts: 5,524

From: Stockholm, Sweden

PorscheFanatic has a reputation beyond repute

Photoshop CS4 + Black & White menu = Easy peasy.

Sep 28, 2009 | 08:14 AM

Andrew

Thread Starter

Teamspeed Pro

Joined: Aug 2007

Posts: 2,258

From: Palo Alto, CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by PorscheFanatic

Photoshop CS4 + Black & White menu = Easy peasy.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll play with it in CS3, but it may be time to upgrade.

Edit: actually, it looks like CS3 has a Black and White adjustment as well - that will work!

Last edited by Andrew; Sep 28, 2009 at 08:22 AM.