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Just been reading a book on digital mono photography where the author advises shooting RAW and then viewing in mono in camera in order to visualise tonal balance etc.
This seems to me to be a sensible, useful idea (apologies if old hat and obvious)
After giving it a try I found it a useful process to use if I am unsure whether or not an image will work in mono.
Of course as you are shooting in RAW the camera only displays a mono JPEG so the original RAW image stays intact.
Bill
I used to do this Bill (well I did a quick in camera conversion), but I don't bother now for 2 reasons. The in camera conversion doesn't always show the potential of every image as it just desaturates the image, the second reason is I now tend to know when I'm shooting what will look good in mono.
I do have a few mono presets set in Lightroom, I will quickly scroll through these. That I find more usefull, as I can gauge what method/colour channels I will use when I do the full conversion.
But if you have problems visualising it setting to mono in camera for the view isn't a bad idea ( obviously record in RAW).
Quote: I don't bother now for 2 reasons. The in camera conversion doesn't always show the potential of every image as it just desaturates the image, the second reason is I now tend to know when I'm shooting what will look good in mono.
Quite agree Nick.
Normally I don`t have too many problems visualising in mono but I am at the moment trying to adopt a different way of "seeing" mono and find that it`s a useful technique if it`s not clear to me if it will work or not.
After trying it I thought it may be useful to others as well.
Quote: I should think it depends very much on the quality of the screen on the camera and in bright daylight some can be difficult to view the tonal range.
Also agree Wynn, a lot depends on the camera and Ambient light.
Bill
That was the advise I was given but I found I could adjust the tones easily when processing so I normally look for composition now.
Shoot using Jpeg + Raw with Jpegs set to one of your B&w settings.
Works well with my x10, loads of setting as well, B&W with yellow filter, B&W with red filter etc.
Canon 5dmk2. I've only ever used it set to RAW, maybe it has to be set to jpeg to see all the options? After a rather embarrassing incident with a young man at a camera repair shop who suggested I read the user manual, particularly the part referring to custom function blah blah, I have tended to leave well alone! ![]()
I`m not familiar with dslr settings, but I quite like the film simulation modes built into my x10.
Provia, Astia, Velvia
Black and white
And Monochrome with three settings, with yellow, green or red filter.
I think this is what most of us would want, you can still apply these effects to raws later on, or process the raw images in camera.
Here`s a bit about it, they talk about the x100, but this also applies to all other camera`s in the x range.
http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2012/6/7/fuji-x100-monochrome.html
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