Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: JimAscher on February 13, 2011, 10:49:42 am
-
I set the "Film Mode" in my Panasonic Lumix cameras to record in black-and-white, which gives me a black-and-white image on my LCD for composing purposes. I capture in both RAW and JPEG. However, this seems to result in an initial black-and-white RAW image when copying my memory card to the My Pictures folder on my PC. I can run a conversion of these RAW black-and-white images to Adobe DNG, which then of course gives me the RAW images in color. My preference would be to see the black-and-white image on my camera['s LCD, have it captured in black-and-white in the JPEG format for evaluation purposes, but have the RAW image be retained in color without the need for conversion to DNG. I don't really think there's a way of achieving this, but I thought I'd query this forum for possible solutions any one might have.
-
I set the "Film Mode" in my Panasonic Lumix cameras to record in black-and-white, which gives me a black-and-white image on my LCD for composing purposes. I capture in both RAW and JPEG. However, this seems to result in an initial black-and-white RAW image when copying my memory card to the My Pictures folder on my PC. I can run a conversion of these RAW black-and-white images to Adobe DNG, which then of course gives me the RAW images in color. My preference would be to see the black-and-white image on my camera['s LCD, have it captured in black-and-white in the JPEG format for evaluation purposes, but have the RAW image be retained in color without the need for conversion to DNG. I don't really think there's a way of achieving this, but I thought I'd query this forum for possible solutions any one might have.
With respect, I think you're confused.
There's no such thing as a "black-and-white RAW image". A raw file contains all the data which came from the camera's sensor plus some other settings. I imagine that whatever software runs on your PC to allow you to view the raw file when it's copied to your My Pictures folder is simply honouring the settings which your camera has recorded you want to use when converting this raw data to a viewable image. In this case, those settings include "make this image b&w".
When you create a DNG raw file, you are not running "a conversion of these RAW black-and-white images to Adobe DNG". You are converting one form of raw data file into another. Whatever software you then use to view the newly-created DNG files does not honour the settings recorded by your camera, so it creates a colour image from the raw data.
In essence, you are already doing what you say in your penultimate sentence you want to do. I think you need to get a better understanding of how to use your PC software.
Of course, if I'm wrong, I'll be corrected.
Jeremy
-
With respect, I think you're confused.
There's no such thing as a "black-and-white RAW image". A raw file contains all the data which came from the camera's sensor plus some other settings. I imagine that whatever software runs on your PC to allow you to view the raw file when it's copied to your My Pictures folder is simply honouring the settings which your camera has recorded you want to use when converting this raw data to a viewable image. In this case, those settings include "make this image b&w".
When you create a DNG raw file, you are not running "a conversion of these RAW black-and-white images to Adobe DNG". You are converting one form of raw data file into another. Whatever software you then use to view the newly-created DNG files does not honour the settings recorded by your camera, so it creates a colour image from the raw data.
In essence, you are already doing what you say in your penultimate sentence you want to do. I think you need to get a better understanding of how to use your PC software.
Of course, if I'm wrong, I'll be corrected.
Jeremy
Jeremy: Your analysis and explanation are absolutely "right on." My phrasing of my problem was unfortunately misleading as to what my own understanding actually was. I do recognize that a RAW image cannot in itself be black-and-white. It always contains full pixel detail. The DNG "conversion" merely is a method permitting the RAW image to appear in color on my PC monitor. The unfortunate thing for me is that when working in Lightroom, LR only picks up and repeats the black-and-white depiction of the Panasonic RW2 RAW image, which necessitates my need, when in LR, to convert the RW2 to DNG. (Photoshop Elements, however, seems to convert the RW2 image into color without any problem, although, as I understand it, both LR and PSE employ the same Adobe Camera Raw conversion engine.)
In any case, I've identified a "work-around" (DNG conversion) which isn't really all that cumbersome. Many thanks for your clarification of my situation. Jim
-
Jeremy: Your analysis and explanation are absolutely "right on." My phrasing of my problem was unfortunately misleading as to what my own understanding actually was. I do recognize that a RAW image cannot in itself be black-and-white. It always contains full pixel detail. The DNG "conversion" merely is a method permitting the RAW image to appear in color on my PC monitor. The unfortunate thing for me is that when working in Lightroom, LR only picks up and repeats the black-and-white depiction of the Panasonic RW2 RAW image, which necessitates my need, when in LR, to convert the RW2 to DNG. (Photoshop Elements, however, seems to convert the RW2 image into color without any problem, although, as I understand it, both LR and PSE employ the same Adobe Camera Raw conversion engine.)
In any case, I've identified a "work-around" (DNG conversion) which isn't really all that cumbersome. Many thanks for your clarification of my situation. Jim
Jim,
I would be very surprised if LR were doing other than honouring a preference somehow associated with the raw file to have the image in b&w. Have you tried simply clicking the "colour" (sorry, "color") button in LR develop module? I'd have thought that would have worked. I can't understand how the workaround which you describe could really be necessary.
Jeremy
-
It reminds me of a time when my new images imported into Lightroom 3 were coming in with a 2003 process version. Turned out I was using a develop preset on import left over from LR 2 and as such it was converting everything to 2003... When I was studying computer programming the most popular question in the lab was, "Why is it doing this?" The answer was always the same: "Because you told it to..."
Mike.
-
When I was studying computer programming the most popular question in the lab was, "Why is it doing this?" The answer was always the same: "Because you told it to..."
Mike.
Amen!
Eric
-
Jim,
I would be very surprised if LR were doing other than honouring a preference somehow associated with the raw file to have the image in b&w. Have you tried simply clicking the "colour" (sorry, "color") button in LR develop module? I'd have thought that would have worked. I can't understand how the workaround which you describe could really be necessary.
Jeremy
Jeremy: On checking further, I am finding that the RW2 images appear in black-and-white only as the thumbnails in the PC's My Pictures folder. When I click on one of them, I'm transported to Photoshop Elements, which then displays the RW2 in color. ("Colour" is all right with me too, as I used to live in London and was educated a bit at the University of Edinburgh.) My problems which I reported earlier with Lightroom in this regard seem to have (mysteriously?) disappeared. Thanks again. Jim