Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: John R Smith on July 16, 2010, 09:53:57 am

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: John R Smith on July 16, 2010, 09:53:57 am

As we all know, Lightroom is one of the very best image editors around for sophisticated B/W work. There are all the tools we need to make stunning monochrome prints from a colour digital file. But I was wondering, how many people here actually make much use of LR for this purpose? And by that I don't mean just the odd frame where the picture is a dead loss in colour, so you convert it to B/W as a last resort. I mean a situation where we go out shooting with B/W as the end product in mind from the very beginning. What is your proportion of colour to B/W?

Thanks for your time

John

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: John R Smith on July 16, 2010, 01:37:40 pm

Well, the colour guys have got a clear lead at the moment. C'mon, you B/W shooters - redress the balance! But you have to be honest, mind - no wishful Ansels  

John

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: John R Smith on July 18, 2010, 02:18:11 am

Well, the results were not unexpected. Most people who voted shoot mostly in colour, most of the time. But there are enough people doing a significant amount of B/W work in LR to confirm my impression that it is one of the best editors around for monochrome work.

However, this is a very small and statistically pretty hopeless sample - only 22 votes, including my own. Perhaps I should have started a poll on whether the Leica S2 is a better camera than the D3X (only kidding, chaps)  

John

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: Chairman Bill on July 18, 2010, 07:10:09 am

I shoot mainly B&W, processed in Aperture. Is Lightroom really better than Aperture? A quick poll here in my household suggests it isn't, with APerture way ahead of the competition.

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: Alan Goldhammer on July 18, 2010, 10:18:19 am

I just logged in and saw the poll.  I do a lot of B&W and use most LR for the conversion, occasionally going to PS for some more challenging images.

Alan

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: john beardsworth on July 18, 2010, 01:20:55 pm

Quote from: Chairman Bill

I shoot mainly B&W, processed in Aperture. Is Lightroom really better than Aperture? A quick poll here in my household suggests it isn't, with APerture way ahead of the competition.

Yes, because the targeted adjustment tool allows you to keep your eyes fully on the image and how areas render in b&w. Yes because you can do such work on multiple images at once. Yes because it can split tone (which Aperture 2 can't do - don't think 3 can either). Possibly yes if your b&w aesthetic includes grain.

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: Chairman Bill on July 18, 2010, 04:44:38 pm

John
my reply followed the suggestion ref S2 vs. D3x poll & was a tad tongue-in-cheek, but thanks for the info ref Lightroom; I might have to have a look at it.

Title: B/W or Colour?
Post by: john beardsworth on July 18, 2010, 05:06:25 pm

Quote from: Chairman Bill

John
my reply followed the suggestion ref S2 vs. D3x poll & was a tad tongue-in-cheek, but thanks for the info ref Lightroom; I might have to have a look at it.

Sorry, but you did ask!