Congratulations to Kathryn @aponi for winning the last camera settings challenge on metering!! Kathryn asked me to host this week's challenge and she specifically asked if it could be on shooting in b&w.
This will be similar to the camera settings challenge I hosted on in camera picture styles, but this will focus strictly on monochrome/b&w. For this challenge, if you typically shoot in RAW, you're going to need to shoot in JPG unless you have a Canon camera and have the Digital Photo Professional software installed on your computer (because with that software, which should have come with your Canon dSLR camera, when you transfer your images to your computer, it will open the RAW images with the settings you used in camera, whereas things like Lightroom will open your RAW image in color and not in b&w). I'm not a Nikon guy (or Sony) so I've never had dSLR experience with anything but a Canon, so I don't know if other brands have similar software.
One thing I have learned about shooting in monochrome and adjusting my settings in the camera, is that when I do use Lightroom (or even Nik Silver Efex Pro when I had the trial version), I get much better results than if I convert to b&w in post, and also better results than if I tweak the RAW file in post. There is something to be said for shooting in monochrome and adjust sharpness and contrast, etc from the get go.
If you did not participate in the camera settings challenge I hosted regarding altering picture styles and settings in your camera before, you will need to turn to your trusty manual (or google it) to see how to do this for your specific model.
For this challenge, I'm going to have you do specific things to see how the different settings affect the image. You will take 5 shots of the same thing. For the first shot, you will use your cameras monochrome settings without changing anything. For the second shot, you will increase the contrast to the max. For the third shot, you will turn contrast down as far as it will go. For the fourth shot, you can do whatever you want with the contrast, but you will increase the sharpness and use the red filter. For the fifth and final shot you will increase the contrast however much you like, turn sharpness all the way up, select no filters, and use the blue tone.
**update** If you shoot colorful subjects in b&w, you'll gain a better understanding of the effect these settings have. Especially if you have 2 colors on opposite ends of the color wheel in the shot (like red and green, for example)
Make a collage using your 5 images of the same object/scene and tag it CSC21 when you upload it.
Challenge starts today Feb 7th and ends Feb 17th at 10:00pm EST. I will then select 5 finalists and post them in a voting thread. So you will have a full 10 days for this challenge.
Okay, that explains a lot! I haven't used DPP since I got CS5 and was frustrated about my monochrome settings not showing up the other day. And I'm with @northy about the not having to post process, fun!
I think I would like to try this but I have not done any of these challenges yet so please permit me one question. All of these settings I can change in my camera before I take the five photos. Then we are to post them with no post processing. Do I have this understood correctly?
Jeff! Are you a mind reader? This is an area of photography I have never ever tried before. Always process from colour to b&w in photoshop and am never happy with the results. Thanks so much.
Oh fun! I often take multiple pics of the same thing with different settings when I'm trying to learn something or figure something out: this sounds like fun! I'll have to write this down or I'll forget when I'm out and about and see a subject (not that I'm out and about much lately though...*sad face*)
I would love to do it but have a minor problem. I am using film this month and yes I can use B&W film and I have a red and a green filter which I could use but don't think you can change the contrast on a film camera - can you?
I have been fiddling today and found the monochrome settings, sharpness and contrast but am having no luck with finding the 'red filter' and 'blue tone'
I have lost my manual, I have googled red filter but it just wants me to purchase filters, is there another way of descibing this? or does my camera not have it? I have a panasonic lumix G10 dslr
Thanks :)
@jsw0109 great challenge and fits so well with the flash-o-red February challenge that I'm attempting at the moment.
I have a Sony DSLR and if the Sony software is installed on PC then the RAW files can be opened and imported with the B&W settings from in-camera too. Just for anyone out there using Sony DSLR or SLT.
@monika64 I would think all dSLR cameras have it. there's a way to access it, but each camera will have a different way of accessing it... when you select monochrome, there's a setting for contrast, sharpness, filter, and tone.
@jsw0109 I don't do my own developing and printing - I get it trade processed although I could maybe over and underexpose the image and use a green filter instead of a blue one.
@jsw0109 As for Nikon, if you use View NX2 (bundled with the cameras) or Capture NX2, uploading raw files will bring the Monochrome Picture Controls along with the shots you upload with Transfer 2.
I still like to shoot in RAW and edit and convert in Adobe Camera Raw 7.0. I can't speak for anything but Photoshop, but yes, Photoshop, even CS6, B/W conversion really stinks. There is a great chapter in Scott Kelby's recent "The Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Digital Photographers" (pp 154-169) on getting the best results out of Camera Raw 7.0's vastly superior capabilities. Another reason I like to do this is to use its superior Noise Reduction capabilities on RAW files. It can operate on JPEGs out of the camera, but not nearly as efficiently. Camera noise reduction shooting functions are of minimal use I find, apart from being annoyingly slow, at least on my NIkon D5100.
I'll certainly try your challenge and promise not to cheat! Thanks for hosting this interesting challenge.
Here is my first attempt.
I shot this from inside the house - I'm actually building up my courage to do an outside shot - we had a blizzard so it won't be far from my house.
This isn't very easy to see I'll have to do a different type of collage next time.
@nadaa I was debating whether or not to explain what the red filter will do in the challenge instructions, or letting people discover it for themselves. It all depends on the color of what you're shooting what type of effect you'll get from the red filter.
@myhrhelper it may benefit you greatly due to the blizzard, to set up a still life in your house and do this challenge. Especially if you have various fruits to include (apples, bananas, limes, oranges)...
I am glad you did not. It was a fun surprise, and now I want to try it on different things to see the different results. Also, if you have time, I would appreciate any critique.
I've updated the instructions... @nadaa caught on to the change from using the red filter... and from looking at the subjects some people are shooting, the red filter's use may be lost on some of you by shooting things that aren't real colorful. Try to include something red and green or yellow and purple or orange and blue in your shot and you'll get a much better understanding of what the filters do when shooting b&w.
I took these and then came home and saw your message. I will try it with still life as well.
Thanks Jeff!
Start Top left - that is basic monochrome no adjustments - the right top is +3 contrast, middle right is -3 contrast, bottom right is sharp at 8 Contrast at +1 and the red filter, bottom left is the sharp at 9, contrast +3, no filter but added the blue tone.
@jsw0109 I did a couple shots on some glass vegetables (decoration) with the changes and I can see how the red filter makes a difference when actually using different colors in the shot. This of course doesn't have much color to work with. When I have time I'll try on something with colors in it and post. Maybe this is a good excuse to buy some flowers :)
Top left: monochrome
Bottom left: monochrome with max contrast
Middle: monochrome with minimum contrast
Top right: monochrome with -2 contrast, +2 sharpness, red filter
Bottom right: monochrome with +2 contrast, max sharpness, colour temp set to 2500k
Had a play with this at lunch time but the place is very monochrome to start with, so shall have another go doing this in a setting with different strong colours.
Couldn't find blue tone for the life of me in the manual or in-camera menu. So tried adjusting colour temp in white balance...any tips? Filters are under white balance too but adjusting the colour temp didn't really produce a blue tone.
@bmnorthernlight maybe all dSLR cameras don't have tones for monochrome (they're generally wherever sepia is). I supposed you could use tungsten white balance, but I don't think that would actually make a difference.
i did this before i saw the suggestion to use something with colour... not sure this was the best subject for the challenge, but it was stuck in my mind and needed to come unglued ;p
I'm going to have to try this this time around. I just got a little disheartened in my sleuthing abilities, because I realized there was a WHOLE set of picture management that I hadn't even seen yet. I've been watching this project for a while guess it's time for me to participate. :D
Here's mine. I chose this subject because it had bright pink, purple, green and blue squares. The circular card is pink and I noticed how the red filter affected it (bottom middle shot). The collage had an extra space so I did a sepia version.
This was a bit footery for me so apologies for the lack of effort in creating a collage. Including a colour version might have been useful as a point of reference for people viewing this thread that maybe aren't taking part but that might be too much of a giveaway :)
Covered in fluff so best viewed small :)
Ok, this isn't great but I did get some shots of dog in the yard. I had no idea what the sharpness & contrast thing was about at first but I found it when I consulted my camera manual - that thing is quite useful from time to time.
top left: max contrast
top right: min contrast
middle: whatever setting I had going on when I went outside
bottom left: increase sharpness with red filter
bottom right: max sharpness, no filter, blue tone
Well. . .first of all I will read the directions more carefully, try again with a more colorful subject and CERTAINLY load the Canon DPP software on my iMac! I had to search through about 6 or 7 applications on my computer before I found one that wouldn't automatically take my monochrome images from the camera and convert right to CR2! And poor Jeff even carefully warned about this. . .silly me!
I found that I was most pleased with the highest contrast to the shot. . .
@lyno I have found that in many instances when I shoot in monochrome I do prefer max contrast... but there are subjects and conditions in which max contrast seems to ruin the image. I'm not going to say what just yet, because I want people to be able to learn through exploration
@jsw0109 it could be, I kind of rushed it. I also may have had something totally random going on with the white balance. I'll see if I can figure out what I did.
Ok, here it goes... Sorry I could not figure out how to write on each image to label on picmonkey not accessed through this site.
Large left: Basic monochrome
Middle top: Maximum contrast
Left top: Minimum contrast
Middle bottom: Red filter, increase sharpness a bit, mid contrast
Left bottom: Blue tone, maximum sharpness, increase contrast a bit
I just used some fake flowers with a variety of colors like red, pink, white, and orange with green leaves on a grey TV, and with a yellow background.
This challenge is doing my head in!! Others seem to be getting it. I have a Nikon D5100, and cannot find a monochrome setting. All I can find is a monochrome effect that you apply after you have taken the photo. Is this what I'm supposed to be doing? Also.....how do I change the contrast? Is that the saturation? Thinking this one is going to end up on the too hard basket!!
ok this time with no blue tone
raining like crazy today so this was an indoor thing
top left: max contrast
top right: min contrast
middle: normal setting
bottom left: increase sharpness with red filter
bottom right: max sharpness, no filter, blue tone
I don't have a Nikon so I don't know how to do it, I thought I could find it. This is just a tease really in that it shows that it is possible with your camera but I didn't see how they did it, just that they did it.
@aponi
Thanks for that Kathryn, but it looks like these settings are for a more advanced camera than my D5100. I have been through the manual, and all the settings on my camera, but I don't have those options in the menu. Thanks for taking the time to find that though :)
@iqscotland
YOU ARE A LEGEND!!!
Thank you so much for that. I thought I had read the manual back to front and front to back, and all I could find for monochrome was in the effects bit.
I have no idea what Active D lighting is...but have now turned it off and as you said....the monochrome is there!!
@iqscotland
I also found sharpening and contrast. Will just have to wait till tomorrow to try it out.....after I write down what I just did to find all that :)
Here's my first attempt! The gnome has a red hat, yellow shirt and blue pants
- Top left: standard monochrome
- Bottom left: contrast increased to the max
- Top right: contrast reduced to the minimum
- Bottom middle: sharpness increased + redfilter
- Bottom right: contrast max, sharpness max + blue tone
@onie I feel your excitement. I googled for a like an hour trying to figure out how to do contrast and such on my 5100. When I found it in the picture controls, it opened up so many possibilities. :D
Interesting experiment! As a newbie, this is my first challenge - been good to get to know my camera a bit better and see what it can do!
Have not worked out how to put text into the collage -
so from top right - original monochrome
Middle - contrast to max
Bottom right - contrast to min
Bottom middle - max sharpness + red filter
Bottom left - max sharpness + blue tone
Hmmm... I seem to be the only one to put the colour version into my collage - but don't have time to change it now!!
I have tried to enter this competition (my first one!) and have tagged my photo as instructed - but it's not appearing here! Do I need to do anything else with it? Thank you...
@bjw my first too..do not know whether it is compulsory to post here or if tagging is enough? But to put your shot here, you cut and paste the information which is in a little box below the exif info....then add it into your comment box in this discussion...
@jsw0109 yeah... i thought about playing around with that, but i was also trying to make dinner and figure out a shot for my main album ;p
nik silver efex has the various filters and i often click thru them to see if i like the result... i've noticed that a blue filter will do all sorts of bizarre things - mostly renders photos super dark... and the red or green (i think) tend to lighten faces... i have trouble seeing the elements of a colour, so i have a hard time predicting ahead what the filter will do...
This has been a real education as I never use B&W in camera. I will do now a little more when the time comes. @jsw0109 this has been a great CSC this month. Loving it. This and the EOTB are two of my favorites at the moment.
@jsw0109 Thanks Jeff. i'd quite like to but I don't seem to be able to!! Have tried cutting and pasting but doesn't want to work. Am I being stupid? Is there a trick? Thanks...
@myhrhelper@jsw0109 I found the monochrome. I found the contrast, sharpness, I used a red filter (hope it wasnt a setting) but i have no clue how to get a blue tone. Is that in camera or post?
Here's mine! (I added the color, so you can see why some lights are changing differently than others.)
Top left: color, Top right: Monochrome, default
Middle left: Monochrome, maximum contrast
Middle right: Monochrome, minimum contrast
Bottom: Monochrome, default contrast, and maximum sharpness
Bottom left: red filter
Bottom right: blue tone
@debrac notice how the red filter kinda ruins your shot? Have you figured out what the red filter is doing? If you have, you can probably figure out when to use it and when not to (or when to use the green filter instead)
@jsw0109 Yes, but thanks for the green hint. I always seem to have trouble with that. My mother is a painter so I grew up knowing that blue and yellow make green...not so in the world of photography, though. Yellow is no longer a primary and green isn't a secondary. Old knowledge dies hard.
I finally got my entry done. I expected to see a greater effect with the red filter but I think the combination of my poinsettia being slightly pink and not enough green in the photo threw off the contrast. I need to try again with a more contrasty subject.
1. Original photo in color
2. B&W; no adjustments
3. B&W; Contrast high (+3)
4. B&W; Contrast low (-3)
5. B&W; contrast +1, sharpen +5, red filter
6. B&W; contrast +1, sharpen +9, no filters, toning blue (5).
@jsw0109 Just a question on this. Why does my red filter claim to drastically increase contrast in B&W and this challenge seems to say it ruins B&W? Were you using a filter on the lens or a setting?
@jannkc Its a setting. In the pre-digital world it was a filter that you put on your lens to prevent light from the red spectrum from passing through. So it depends on the subject. If you're shooting a subject with a lot of warm colors and no cool colors everything will start to blend together. You'll notice that red objects end up the lightest when using the red filter. So if you have a background that is mostly blue and subjects that are blue, green, purple and just a little bit of warm colors, the red filter will darken the background, create more of a difference between the blue, green and purple parts and lighten up the warm colors. Or if you want to create a wild effect, you can take a shot of an apple tree (with red apples) and the apples will all end up really light and the leaves will be darker.
When changing the settings in the camera, you don't always need to select a filter, but once you understand what the filters do, you have the knowledge to know when a filter will either enhance the shot, or create an interesting effect.
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I have lost my manual, I have googled red filter but it just wants me to purchase filters, is there another way of descibing this? or does my camera not have it? I have a panasonic lumix G10 dslr
Thanks :)
I have a Sony DSLR and if the Sony software is installed on PC then the RAW files can be opened and imported with the B&W settings from in-camera too. Just for anyone out there using Sony DSLR or SLT.
Now off to find my manual.
I still like to shoot in RAW and edit and convert in Adobe Camera Raw 7.0. I can't speak for anything but Photoshop, but yes, Photoshop, even CS6, B/W conversion really stinks. There is a great chapter in Scott Kelby's recent "The Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Digital Photographers" (pp 154-169) on getting the best results out of Camera Raw 7.0's vastly superior capabilities. Another reason I like to do this is to use its superior Noise Reduction capabilities on RAW files. It can operate on JPEGs out of the camera, but not nearly as efficiently. Camera noise reduction shooting functions are of minimal use I find, apart from being annoyingly slow, at least on my NIkon D5100.
I'll certainly try your challenge and promise not to cheat! Thanks for hosting this interesting challenge.
I was most surprised by the effect of the red filter. One more thing to study as to why it has the effect is does.
I shot this from inside the house - I'm actually building up my courage to do an outside shot - we had a blizzard so it won't be far from my house.
This isn't very easy to see I'll have to do a different type of collage next time.
For my next attempt I will use a better collage.
@myhrhelper it may benefit you greatly due to the blizzard, to set up a still life in your house and do this challenge. Especially if you have various fruits to include (apples, bananas, limes, oranges)...
I've updated the instructions... @nadaa caught on to the change from using the red filter... and from looking at the subjects some people are shooting, the red filter's use may be lost on some of you by shooting things that aren't real colorful. Try to include something red and green or yellow and purple or orange and blue in your shot and you'll get a much better understanding of what the filters do when shooting b&w.
Thanks Jeff!
Start Top left - that is basic monochrome no adjustments - the right top is +3 contrast, middle right is -3 contrast, bottom right is sharp at 8 Contrast at +1 and the red filter, bottom left is the sharp at 9, contrast +3, no filter but added the blue tone.
Top left: monochrome
Bottom left: monochrome with max contrast
Middle: monochrome with minimum contrast
Top right: monochrome with -2 contrast, +2 sharpness, red filter
Bottom right: monochrome with +2 contrast, max sharpness, colour temp set to 2500k
Had a play with this at lunch time but the place is very monochrome to start with, so shall have another go doing this in a setting with different strong colours.
Couldn't find blue tone for the life of me in the manual or in-camera menu. So tried adjusting colour temp in white balance...any tips? Filters are under white balance too but adjusting the colour temp didn't really produce a blue tone.
@jsw0109
@jsw0109
@jsw0109
Covered in fluff so best viewed small :)
top left: max contrast
top right: min contrast
middle: whatever setting I had going on when I went outside
bottom left: increase sharpness with red filter
bottom right: max sharpness, no filter, blue tone
I found that I was most pleased with the highest contrast to the shot. . .
Large left: Basic monochrome
Middle top: Maximum contrast
Left top: Minimum contrast
Middle bottom: Red filter, increase sharpness a bit, mid contrast
Left bottom: Blue tone, maximum sharpness, increase contrast a bit
I just used some fake flowers with a variety of colors like red, pink, white, and orange with green leaves on a grey TV, and with a yellow background.
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raining like crazy today so this was an indoor thing
top left: max contrast
top right: min contrast
middle: normal setting
bottom left: increase sharpness with red filter
bottom right: max sharpness, no filter, blue tone
I don't have a Nikon so I don't know how to do it, I thought I could find it. This is just a tease really in that it shows that it is possible with your camera but I didn't see how they did it, just that they did it.
Thanks for that Kathryn, but it looks like these settings are for a more advanced camera than my D5100. I have been through the manual, and all the settings on my camera, but I don't have those options in the menu. Thanks for taking the time to find that though :)
Make sure Active D lighting is off to get access to all the settings:) @onie
YOU ARE A LEGEND!!!
Thank you so much for that. I thought I had read the manual back to front and front to back, and all I could find for monochrome was in the effects bit.
I have no idea what Active D lighting is...but have now turned it off and as you said....the monochrome is there!!
I also found sharpening and contrast. Will just have to wait till tomorrow to try it out.....after I write down what I just did to find all that :)
- Top left: standard monochrome
- Bottom left: contrast increased to the max
- Top right: contrast reduced to the minimum
- Bottom middle: sharpness increased + redfilter
- Bottom right: contrast max, sharpness max + blue tone
Interesting experiment! As a newbie, this is my first challenge - been good to get to know my camera a bit better and see what it can do!
Have not worked out how to put text into the collage -
so from top right - original monochrome
Middle - contrast to max
Bottom right - contrast to min
Bottom middle - max sharpness + red filter
Bottom left - max sharpness + blue tone
Hmmm... I seem to be the only one to put the colour version into my collage - but don't have time to change it now!!
I might would try another shot. Thanks for choosing this theme. :)
ok - i think this one does a better job of showcasing the differences...
nik silver efex has the various filters and i often click thru them to see if i like the result... i've noticed that a blue filter will do all sorts of bizarre things - mostly renders photos super dark... and the red or green (i think) tend to lighten faces... i have trouble seeing the elements of a colour, so i have a hard time predicting ahead what the filter will do...
My first go at a competition - hope you like it...
Sorry Jeff, couldn't make the collage work.
Top left: color, Top right: Monochrome, default
Middle left: Monochrome, maximum contrast
Middle right: Monochrome, minimum contrast
Bottom: Monochrome, default contrast, and maximum sharpness
Bottom left: red filter
Bottom right: blue tone
1. Original photo in color
2. B&W; no adjustments
3. B&W; Contrast high (+3)
4. B&W; Contrast low (-3)
5. B&W; contrast +1, sharpen +5, red filter
6. B&W; contrast +1, sharpen +9, no filters, toning blue (5).
When changing the settings in the camera, you don't always need to select a filter, but once you understand what the filters do, you have the knowledge to know when a filter will either enhance the shot, or create an interesting effect.