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Last year my wife and I spent some time in the Colonial Williamsburg area of VA. While I took many color photos, I also took some photos in the B&W mode. Why? You may ask. Good question.
Everyone says that you should not shoot in B&W mode because you will loose important digital information. You should "always" shoot in color (preferably in RAW) and then convert to black and white.
Well, I didn't listen. The biggest reason I took photos in B&W mode was to practice "seeing" in B&W. I would look at a scene and try to visualize what it might look like in black and white. I then took the photo to see how close I came to visualizing how the final scene would look. I took many photos during this time and it was a good practice.
When I got back I put them aside and just recently I began looking at these photos all over again. In Photoshop Elements I would adjust "levels", add some "contrast" and sometimes added a little vignette. In most images, however, I only adjusted "levels" and the "contrast" and that’s it. The only time I would add any sharpening was after re-sizing the image, and then added some sharpening where needed, but most images needed no sharpening at all.
In addition, I should let you know that these were all taken using a Canon G11 in the Auto ISO setting and on the "P" (programmed) setting. I let the camera set the ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Occasionally I would adjust for over or underexposure, according to what I would see in the scene. No other camera adjustments where done.
To be honest, I am quite happy with the finished images. I can see myself doing this more and more and just forget shooting in color and then converting to B&W. After seeing how these turned out, if I know I want B&W images, I don’t see why I can’t shoot in B&W mode.
This photo is the first in a series of B&W images, taken in the B&W mode, that I will be posting on Riff's Photography Journal. I hope you like them and I will be glad to answer any and all questions that I can. In addition, I welcome all comments as well. It would be nice to know your thoughts.
Thank you... :-)
