Black & White Help Needed

[Carl one]

Can someone explain this? I just shot several images as black and white in raw mode. The photo down loader shows then as B & W when getting them from the card reader. They copy as B & W when I click Get photos. However, when they are imported into the organizer they are in color and NOT Black & white. What is going on? Thank you. Carl

[Juergen D]

There really is no such thing as RAW B&W. The RAW mode records all available data, which includes color data, without processing or converting them to another format, such as JPEG. All of that is to be done with the graphics software.
Having said that, it is generally recommended not to shoot in B&W mode, but to always do the conversion in post processing. A lot of control is lost if the camera does the internal conversion to B&W JPEG.

Juergen

[Carl one]

Hi Juergen & thank you for your reply. I understand what you said and since this is a learning experiment for me is there a way to get b & w images from the raw data without having the color data included. If I were to to shoot in jpg format or some other format would that produce b & w images in the organizer? There has to be a way to do this otherwise why does the camera allow settings to shoot b & w? Thank you. Carl

[Juergen D]

Yes, if you shoot in JPEG to begin with, you will have black & whites coming off the camera. As I said, though, it is not generally recommended (unless in a case where you don't want to do any processing and send your images off to a lab for printing).

Juergen

[Jeff Perry]

Carl, some cameras (the Nikon D70) do not even have a B& W mode, so all conversions from color to B&W are done in post processing. As Juergen has suggested, it is advisable to shoot in color (save as JPG or RAW at your discretion) and convert the color image to B&W using the tools available to you in a program like Photoshop Elements. That way you have the best of both worlds.

And when you start to convert color to B&W in PSE you will quickly see all the variations you can get.

Jeff

[ljameso1]

Carl, My cameras do shoot black and white jpgs, but I stopped using that feature after I realized I could do a much better job post-processing and also have a color image.

[NicoleB]

What's the best way to convert to black and white in elements?

[Joe M]

What's the best way to convert to black and white in elements?

In PSE6 under Editor>Enhance>Convert to Black and White you will see several Presets and Adjustment Intensity Sliders that allow you to tweak your image.

I like to start out with the best possible color image I can. One with good contrast is usually best.

[NicoleB]

Thanks, I knew it would be eas, just couldn't find it.