I love... LOVE using the old sets of lenses that I had used on old Pentaxes for years, on my K110d! You've already seen a couple of shots taken in Calgary on a business trip recently, but I thought I'd try a couple more.








Anyone else use their digicams for B&W photography?

I've always been a fan of it, hence why I'm so happy it's rather good on my DSLR. I still go old school and use red filters amongst other old filters on the lenses for B&W.

[davemdsn]

Digital does really good black and white if you put just a tiny bit of effort into it. A simple conversion to greyscale will rarely produce excellent results, but there are several easy ways to get the better results.

Toning is easier than ever....

[celetron]

These r some very good photos
I use my *ist Ds for B&W occasionally but I am afraid that it is not the camera for 30x45cm prints and I really need one with 8+ MP. K10 is not a camera I really enjoy to have since it's rather big, heavy and complex with too many buttons (just my taste though). Waiting for the 2 new models hoping one of these two to fit well in my hands and curry a 8+ MP camera finally. BTW here are some of my B&W photos too:















(not quite all with Ds though...)

[MShawn63]

These photos are wonderful. While I've shot B&W with film for years, I haven't done much with digital yet. I have both the *istD and the K10. So far all of the B&W I've created has been during post processing in Photo Elements 5.0 or LightRoom. I would be greatful for some pointers on how to create B&W images directly in the camera.

[Finn]

These photos are wonderful. While I've shot B&W with film for years, I haven't done much with digital yet. I have both the *istD and the K10. So far all of the B&W I've created has been during post processing in Photo Elements 5.0 or LightRoom. I would be greatful for some pointers on how to create B&W images directly in the camera.

Shooting raw, the only way to do it is in PP (hence the whole "raw" thing). You can shoot jpeg and have the camera do it for you, but I'm kind of a neurotic control freak (hence the whole slr thing), so I like to do the conversion myself. Most of my current b&w work is still with scanned 35mm and 120 negatives.

[PeterAM]

[QUOTE=FireMate
I've always been a fan of it, hence why I'm so happy it's rather good on my DSLR. I still go old school and use red filters amongst other old filters on the lenses for B&W.[/QUOTE]

I assume from your comments that you are shooting B&W in the camera. If that's the case, I'm gonna have to try it, based on your results. I do a fair amount of conversion in post-processing; it's taken quite a bit of time and effort to work through the right combinations of conversion and printing techniques to get the kind of results that I want.
When I first got started in digital I read something that said shooting B&W in camera was nowhere as good as converting in PP and never gave it a try. Would most likely stick with shooting in color and converting so as to have both, but it might be fun sometimes "force" the B&W thought process.

[MShawn63]

Thanks Finn,

I'm shooting more raw than I used to, with the cost of the SD cards dropping it makes it easy to do. I've used LightRoom to do some conversions and am pretty happy with the outcome. I'd like an opinion from others on which is better, setting the camera filter to B&W internally or doing the conversion through software.

[justuspr]

Here are a few I've done, I started B&W back in high school so I've always had a soft spot for it too.









All were done with my k100d. Most with the kit lens.

[WMBP]

Digital does really good black and white if you put just a tiny bit of effort into it. A simple conversion to greyscale will rarely produce excellent results, but there are several easy ways to get the better results.....

Dave,

What ways are you thinking of, if I may ask?

I like b&w very much, when it's appropriate - that is, when the colors are a distraction, or when b&w has a positive benefit like creating that lovely noir mood. To convert, I am simply using the grayscale "treatment" option in Lightroom - and THEN I'm messing with adjustments to tone curves, etc. I have been satisfied with my results so far, but perhaps I'm missing something....

Will

P.S. Like all the photos posted so far. My favorite, I think, is Dave's shot of the old piano.

[Nesster]

I use a gadget called 'Virtual Photographer' - it's a free download plugin for PS - to make most of my b&w prints. The process is like re-photographing the orignal, you can dial in filters and tone shifts and grain and toning to your heart's content (almost).

Here's some with my new K100D:


That's using a Lensbaby


through a windshield with an old Tamron 70-210




I should add that everyone's photos here are AWESOME, really good work!

[davemdsn]

Dave,

What ways are you thinking of, if I may ask?

I like b&w very much, when it's appropriate - that is, when the colors are a distraction, or when b&w has a positive benefit like creating that lovely noir mood. To convert, I am simply using the grayscale "treatment" option in Lightroom - and THEN I'm messing with adjustments to tone curves, etc. I have been satisfied with my results so far, but perhaps I'm missing something....

Will

P.S. Like all the photos posted so far. My favorite, I think, is Dave's shot of the old piano.

Will, thanks for the comment on the piano shot.

In Photoshop there are some quick, very effective means of getting better B&W results. First of all, it is "desaturate" it the worst way to get B&W in most apps. It will render red, green and blue of similar brightness as the same shade of gray. Grayscale is a little better, but not much.

The simplest good way is to add a blank layer over your color image, fill it with black and change the blend mode to "color". This doesn't give much control over which colors are lightened/darkened, but gives results very similar to shooting B&W film.

In Photoshop versions before CS3 the best way was to use channel mixer, which gives control over the individual tones in the image. In CS3 there is a new B&W tool that works much like Channel Mixer, but with more control and some standard B&W presets.

The Lightroom version is much like the B&W tool in CS3, but with maybe even more control. Although in Lightroom you don't have layers so you can't do cool effects by blending two different versions of an image.

The are some other means of getting cool B&W in Photoshop, but they are a little more tricky.

[WMBP]

The Lightroom version is much like the B&W tool in CS3, but with maybe even more control. Although in Lightroom you don't have layers so you can't do cool effects by blending two different versions of an image.

Dave,

Thanks. Don't have Photoshop any more (haven't upgraded in years) so I'm stuck with what I can do in Lightroom. The enclosed pic isn't the best example of a shot that SHOULD be converted, but it's what I have handy. I selected the "grayscale" treatment in Lightroom, then played with the grayscale color-channel sliders. Mainly I think I boosted yellow and orange. I don't really know what I'm doing when I do this - I just play around until I think I've improved the picture a bit, and then I quit. Sometimes I wreck the picture. I'm very familiar with the "reset" button!

Will

[FireMate]

For those who use Bibble Labs, I highly recommend the Andy B&W Plugin

[davemdsn]

Will, the grayscale in Lightroom is among the best B&W converters out there. Total control over both overall and selective color contrast. Plus Lightroom has the split toning, which is amazing. I was sceptical of LR during beta4, but v1 won me over.

[Donald]

All digital colour to black and white conversions require toning. Otherwise the resulting colour desaturation is flat, dull, no 'pop', unremarkable, etc. davemdsn toned images are wonderful examples of this.

toned black and white examples I posted earlier.