E-520 b&w

[Maczero]

I want to try black and white photography seriously. Are there any particular tips or settings that are relevant for the E-520?

Apart from the fact that B&W photography can be exceptionally striking, it looks as though it can help moderate any noise issues (not that this has been a problem in colour for me).

Maczero

[Ian]

I want to try black and white photography seriously. Are there any particular tips or settings that are relevant for the E-520?

Apart from the fact that B&W photography can be exceptionally striking, it looks as though it can help moderate any noise issues (not that this has been a problem in colour for me).

Maczero

Noise is inherently much less of a problem in mono than colour as much of the noticeable effect of noise is colour-based. Some noise grain can even be beneficial to a mono image as it adds some dimension to the picture and I know many photographers who deliberately add noise to mono images if they feel it will help.

You could of course use the monotone Picture Mode in your E-520. Better still, use a good editing package, like Photoshop, and use a channels conversion mode to create a finely tuned black and white result from a colour original. Mono is not simply about desaturating a colour image. By altering the levels of the colour channels you can achieve a huge variation in the result. For example, if you have a blue sky in your image, adjusting the blue channel can make the grey tone of the mono version, in the sky, extra dark if you like. You can adjust the mono tone of the green foliage by adjusting green channel, etc.

I'd also recommend shooting in RAW. This gives you much better control.

Ian

[Maczero]

Ian

Thank you for your reply. The reason I wanted to give B&W a serious try is because my 'other' camera is a Ricoh GX200. A bit OT - you ain't seen noise at higher (ISOs 400/800+) until you have seen this camera, but it has a fantastic user interface, which makes up for a lot and gives you a lot of control giving you a chance of working your way to a decent photo. However, one of the strategies for dealing with the noise problem in this camera is to use B&W. I thought, tho' noise hasn't been a real issue for me with the E-520, that any problems would be minimised going B&W and I could start to think in the same way about photos with the Ricoh and the E-520. Plus, there is a real power to a B&W photo, if only I could find it.

I generally shoot RAW = Large Fine anyway (not good enough to get JPEGs right first time) and mostly use Aperture/SilverEfex for conversion; so the basic tools will suffice. I am experimenting with LZ as well, but frankly haven't got my head around it.

I wondered whether there was any in camera setting that could help improve the JPEG output (filters better in camera or computer - the latter I would have thought, sharpening and contrast, different from colour or not)? I guess LiveView in monochrome would help visualise the shot. There doesn't seem to be high key/low key tone curve available in B&W; so, I suppose that this has to be done through exposure compensation? I suppose that none of this affects the RAW capture anyway?

I suspect that these questions merely illuminate my ignorance, but all help gratefully received!

Maczero

[crimbo]

Drop over to http://www.runboard.com/bthedigitalmonochromeforum

You will find that most digital monochrome workers favour raw capture...after that the learning curve gets painful!

[Maczero]

Looks like I'm about to become a masochist then! Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

Maczero