Digital BW, The Print

My friend says that his Kodak point-and-shoot digital camera has 
options for capturing black&white and sepia images, something my Nikon 
D100 does not.  How does a digital camera do that?

> From: Donald Schiemann
>
> My friend says that his Kodak point-and-shoot digital camera has
> options for capturing black&white and sepia images, something my Nikon
> D100 does not.  How does a digital camera do that?

As Diane said, it's a simple conversion in the camera, but better done
manually after the fact. Different images have important detail in different
color channels, so for best results you should always look at the three
color channels separately, and try various mixes of them, for the best
effect. For instance, to dramatically darken a blue sky, you use primarily
the red channel, and sometimes even subtract some of the blue channel. But
there is no single conversion formula that produces the best result for all
pictures, so stay away from B&W conversion in the camera. That's a toy
function, invented by marketroids for appealing to novices.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...

Don't do it.  It just throws out information;  the quality is the same.  If
you later wish you had the shot in color, you have it.

Seth 

==-----Original Message-----
==
==
==My friend says that his Kodak point-and-shoot digital camera 
==has options for capturing black&white and sepia images, 
==something my Nikon D100 does not.  How does a digital camera 
==do that?  
==
==

Hello Donald,

Something else to consider, I use a Canon Pro-1 which has the BW
option and also captures in RAW mode, which I use almost exclusively.
When shooting RAW the color info is preserved in BW mode.  The Pro-1,
not being a DSLR, has a tilt-twist preview screen which I use like a
miniature view camera.  So I shoot in BW mode, which allows me to view
and compose the scene in BW, which I like very much.  When I do raw
conversion I restore the color so I can have full control in the
Color-to-BW conversion in PS.  So it's the best of both worlds.  

Working in the field with a tripod and a miniature view camera that
"sees" in BW is quite an experience.  In January I spent a few days in
Death Valley Nat'l Park working that way and loved it.  Got some
excellent photos.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm