fuji s6000fd, B&W

[sportsmom1713]

Brand new to this forum and brand new to a digital camera (fuji s6000fd)! So, hello out there ! I read on here the other day someone said the fuji
s6000fd manual is about useless...I'm beginning to agree. Learning by alot of trial & error. Ready to take some B & W shots though, can someone help me out, or guide me through? thanks

[P_Schneider]

Hi sportsmom,
welcome to the forum.

There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to b&w. You can either take a color photo and desaturate it in photoshop or similar.
You can also set the camera to b&w via the F button.

I prefer to shoot in b&w instead of converting a color picture myself. I think you get a better picture that way. that's just my opinion. I have seen some really good converted shots but it usually takes a quite bit of tweaking to get it right which can be tedious.

Both techniques rely on the same thing for success though, a high contrast scene to shoot in the first place. Dramatic shadows and object oriented subject matter make the best shots. Landscapes are usually not the best choice unless you have a focal point in the shot such as a bridge or a striking tree that's close or mid shot.

I have a few b&w shots on this page. (http://www.pbase.com/p_schneider/cityscapes_s6k)

[burna]

I'm no expert, but I think you can shoot in RAW and convert to B&W later. This way the processing to B&W on your computer would be the same as that on your camera and you would then have the choice of colour, B&W or both.

[flippedgazelle]

You don't need RAW to convert to B&W later - every image editing program allows you to convert to B&W.

Programs like Photoshop have more options regarding the way photos can be converted. You can simply change the mode to "Grayscale", or you can choose "Desaturate", or you can open up the Channel Mixer and convert to grayscale while giving different weights tot he Red, Blue and Green channels, or you can get a fabulous plugin like BW Styler that allows you to control the enitre B&W conversion process, including mimicking developing techniques, films type, etc. It's very cool and easy to use.

The danger of shooting in B&W is that if you decide later that you wish you had a color version of the photo, there's no going back.

[burna]

You don't need RAW to convert to B&W later - every image editing program allows you to convert to B&W.



Of course you don't NEED to shoot in RAW to be able to convert to B&W, but I think it would be a much better option than shooting in B&W. I was simply saying, Why shoot in B&W when you can shoot in RAW and do the same or even better B&W conversion on your PC?

I personally shoot in .jpg most of the time and like you say convert using Photoshop.

[flippedgazelle]

I apologize, burna, I misunderstood your statement.