Digital Black and White Photography Question?

Question

Ok.

Is there a difference between digital black and white photography, and digital photography that you alter using photoshop or something to make it black and white?

Like, is there digital black and white photography? Can anyone give me any information about it?

THANKS HEAPS!

Answer 1

There is no digital black and white camera as such as all digital cameras have colour sensors. There is, however black and white digital photography where a photograph has been taken in colour and converted into a monotone image using photoshop. Some cameras have black and white settings but they only desaturate the image rather than produce a true contrasty black and white photograph. To create a good black and white digital photo, take the photo in colour and convert in photoshop using one of a number of different black and white conversion techniques. Never desaturate the image because desaturation only removes the colour leaving a flat greyscale image.

The technique I use most often is convert the RGB image to Lab mode, extract the lightness channel and convert that channel back to RGB mode. Then I use curves to obtain the contrast and dynamics that make a black and white photo what it is meant to be. Visit my website and drop me an email for more information - http://www.straightshots.co.nz


I just read the next post so this is added on to what I have already written - yes, digital can reproduce exactly what film can produce. There is a myth that digital cant capture all that film can which isnt true. The reason this arguement continues is because 1) film users wont take the time to compare film and digital side by side and 2) film users and also a lot of digital users dont know how to use digital to its full potential. Anyone who doesn't believe, email me and I will present the facts.

Answer 2

I have a Nikon CoolPix 5400 that takes photos in black and white and they say that you will get better resolution if you set the camera this way in the first place. I can't vouch for that claim as I never evaluated it critically.

The D200 also allows B&W photography, but I do not see any claim about increased resolution. I also admit that I have never used this setting. I prefer to remove color by desaturation in Photoshop.

Actually, I have Photoshop Elements. You can simply remove all color by hitting [SHIFT]+[CTRL]+[U] and you will get a black and white image. I prefer not to do it this way, however. If you just hit [CTRL]+[U], you will get the Hue/Saturation adjustment screen. From this screen, you can cut all colors but the one you choose to favor to -100 and then take the Master saturation down to something like -80 until you get the desired effect. This will leave the bare slightest trace of a color in your picture and this is so much more interesting than actual black and white. When I was printing photos, I used to choose one paper or another for the native color of the paper. If I wanted stark black and white, there was an Agfa paper that was pretty good. Most other papers seemed to color the image somewhat in much the same way as Kodachrome made things more saturated and red while Ektachrome made things cooler and blue.

Adobe must have heard from other users, because Photoshop Elements 5.0 has a new feature that lets you do exactly what I used to do with the Hue/Saturation tools. Under the "Enhance" menu, there is an item called "Convert to Black and White." If you open up this menu, you will see a screen with eight samples of your image. The samples show more red, less red, more green, less green, more blue, less blue, more contrast and less contrast. You can adjust the intensity of the effect and there you go. They also offer presets for portrait, vivid landscape, scenic landscape, urban/snapshots, newspaper or infrared effect.

Once you have seen the final result, you will not be satisfied with plain old black and white from your digital photos. The desaturation technique for older versions of P.E. and the "Convert to Black and White" in P.E. 5.0 make much more realistic B&W prints, if that makes any sense at all. Like I said, you never really saw ACTUAL black and white prints from a darkroom anyhow and this copies that effect.

Answer 3

The best way I can answer this is to tell you that film B&W will produce the fine tonal ranges that you would see in a well exposed film B&W image as digital will not, even when using photoshop as it may look good but there is some image degradation as photoshop cannot produce the tonal range( at least not the amatuer version). You can remove the color and it will look B&W but its not the same as a film B&W photo. It's very important to understand the tone means a great deal when it comes to B&W photography. There are some good software programs that can produce the tonal range required; however: I can't think of any right of hand. I would do a web search for B&W conversion programs.

Answer 4

There is probably a high end exception to this but all digital cameras that I am aware of use a color sensor. That is the sensors capture red, green, and blue light. Some convert the color image into B&W in camera, others don't but either way it is being done by a computer processor.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Most digital cameras have a black and white option. If not a good photo editing software can do it.

Answer 7

Photoshop is to make pictures different colors, like black and white or multi-colors.

A regular digital camera would take color pictures unless u take it to a darkroom and get it into black and white.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

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Answer 10

Theres a way with photoshop to take a picture,then change the color to MAKE it black and white. Just search and find it on your photoshop.