B & W Mode Canon 5D

[rjk]

I have just received my Canon 5D. I am very impressed with the Jpegs you get in the black and white mode. So much so that with very little adjusting I saved the Jpeg as a Tiff and ended up with a file size I would normally get processing in CS2.

I am concerned that this is a method that will lose quality.

My normal method is to take the raw file, which I always shoot in, open in CS2, go to adjustments, channel mixer, tick monochrome and adjust from there.

Results can be seen at www.robkilsby.com (See the light house and play ground) on the opening page brief slide show.

Does anyone have a recommended work flow to take advantage of the seemingly excellent b & w mode that Canon have put on the 5D to match if not improve on what I get with my hopefully old longer method?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[Robert Spoecker]

Hi RJK

I also have a 5D (nice camera) and seldom convert an image to black and white. When I do I use
'ConvertToB&W' which is one of, I am sure, several plug ins for photoshop.

Although it can be done in the software bundeled with the 5D its black and white raw image to color image conversion is too much hassle for me and Canon says in their manual you need to do it in their software. If you shoot everything in raw color then you can easily convert it to black and white if you wish.

Just my thoughts

Robert

[mats]

Just like you I have found the b&w jpegs straight out of my 5D to be great. In fact I have found myself to be using more and more b&w.
My workflow is to set the camera to record both raw and jpeg. Then set b&w in picture styles ( I like to use one of the filters (orange I think). This way I get jpeg b&w and still get raw files for colour or when I absolutely need the last bit of quality out of a b&w conversion. Works great for me, I even get the preview in b&w, without sacrificing the ability to revert to colour (or use the converted raw when needed.)
I have had excellent results with the out of camera jpegs, but I have reduced sharpening in camera.
 I have some snappshots from Barcelona online, it's a wonder what 3200 iso and 1,4 allow you to capture. www.wombat.to/barcelona


Mats

[rjk]

Robert tks for the reply. What you described is how I usually do it but thought there could be short cuts with the supberb jpegs that are produced in the b & w mode.



Mats

Nice images.

So the ones in Barc, say images 6 & 21, did you take straight out the b & w mode, as a jpeg, and then adjust the orange filter in photoshop?

Were these iso 3200!!!?

[mats]

All the b&w images are more or less straight from the camera (with the filter chosen in the picture styles menu).
The night shots are 1600 or 3200 but naturally the day shots are more like 100 or 200.
Have great a3+ prints from an epson 4000 of the photos in the bar ( and they are 3200 and 1,4!)
that come straight from the jpegs. Was in a hurry when i tried the first print and was amazed at the quality, so I kept on printing from the jpegs.
The best part is I still have all the raw options open to me, including colour!

Mats

[rjk]

Mats

Tks for that, didn't know you could add orange filter in mono mode - have just worked out how to do this (only got camera yesterday!) Have reduced sharpening by one step and will try over week end!

[benInMA]

They're your images, if you're happy with the quality & detail there is no reason not to use the in-camera B&W processing.

I use it quite a bit, if you are indeed paranoid just shoot RAW + Picture style or RAW+JPG w/Picture Style.

When I shoot B&W I am not *always* trying to get the absolute sharpest result.. so shooting RAW or processing a picture a lot on the computer is not necessary or desirable.

Count me as another user very happy with the out of the camera B&W Picture Style.  I like the picture styles in general.  I feel no need to be a RAW snob personally.  It has use in some scenarios but certainly not all.

[rjk]

Interesting

I must say I always shoot raw. It does seem that there is a lot of favourable support for the b & w mode in this camera.

I will continue to evaluate.

I guess a good question is does anyone have any experience of recreating the canon 5d b & w 'look' form a raw file?

The formula would be very sought after!!!

[nma]

Interesting

I must say I always shoot raw. It does seem that there is a lot of favourable support for the b & w mode in this camera.

I will continue to evaluate.

I guess a good question is does anyone have any experience of recreating the canon 5d b & w 'look' form a raw file?

The formula would be very sought after!!!
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jrk,

Getting started with B&W and raw is NO BRAINER with dpp 2.2. It is available for download from www.canonusa.com Just open your raw file in dpp and select the monochrome picture style. Then you can select and view the result of simulating different filters.  The advantage goes to raw, versus jpeg, because you select monochrome or color after the fact. It gives a very nice conversion with no effort. I can't say it is the absolute best one can do, but it looks very good straight out of the box.

Hope this helps

[marcmccalmont]

I had never thought of using the B&W style in the 5D so I gave it a try and compaired it to a 16 bit RAW (dxo optics output 16 bit tiff) In PS I added my usual B&W conversion:
 
Mixer R=72 G=18 B=9
Levels Gama=72 and
a fairly strong S shaped curve to increase contrast

The RAW processed Tiff looked tonally similar to the jpeg but had much more detail and the shimmer of the SS trash can was much more realistic. I'll keep converting a 16 bit RGB to B&W. The exercise was worth the experiance though.
Marc

[marcmccalmont]

I had never thought of using the B&W style in the 5D so I gave it a try and compaired it to a 16 bit RAW (dxo optics output 16 bit tiff) In PS I added my usual B&W conversion:
 
Mixer R=72 G=18 B=9
Levels Gama=72 and
a fairly strong S shaped curve to increase contrast

The RAW processed Tiff looked tonally similar to the jpeg but had much more detail and the shimmer of the SS trash can was much more realistic. I'll keep converting a 16 bit RGB to B&W. The exercise was worth the experiance though.
(The tiff has too wide a tonal range to properly display here)
Marc

[attachment=981:attachment][attachment=983:attachment]

[benInMA]

Which is which of your two images?  I can't really tell them apart.

Their is a lot of tuning you can do in the in-camera B&W processing.   Messing with contrast & filters, and such can really change the look and would be appropriate for "shimmers" on a trash can.

[marcmccalmont]

Which is which of your two images?  I can't really tell them apart.

Their is a lot of tuning you can do in the in-camera B&W processing.   Messing with contrast & filters, and such can really change the look and would be appropriate for "shimmers" on a trash can.
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Sorry, the dull satin one (on the left) was the in camera jpeg
the shinny one on the right was the processed raw that looks more like the actual trash can
Marc

[benInMA]

Interesting.

Now that you point out the differences it's obvious to me, though not where each one came from.

The one you processed on the computer has higher contrast and looks like it has a greater area of blown highlights (or close to it) on the trashcan.

It's all personal preference.. but if you want the out of the camera one to look like that just bump up the contrast 1-2 notches.   It should be easy to do.

[rjk]

Thanks for the reply's. The conclusion is what I thought, stick to raw and convert later. I demand the highest quality and there is no short cut!

I have now taken numerous pics with the 5 ds and I must admit it is very close to medium format but so much easier to use, I love it!!!!!