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By *o-j OP Couple
over a year ago
Outskirts of Notts |
I've been looking through the photo's on this site ( for research not perving ..Honest ) and a lot of the black and white photo's look stunning and arty .
My question is can photo's be changed to black and white after being taken in colour with a digital camera and will it be as good as one taken in a black and white mode .
Next question do digital cameras have a black and white mode . |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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All of our images started out in colour and with a bit of my editing prowess you see the results. Results are easily achievable with only a little knowledge. Happy to share tips if you need. |
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By *o-j OP Couple
over a year ago
Outskirts of Notts |
"You can take them in colour and change them, take them in B&W.
For me personally, I like the B&W photo with 1 item in colour. It makes a striking contrast."
I think it would be advisable for me to try and get them into B / W before trying anything flash . |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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B&W pics are better with digital cameras if you convert them from colour (desaturate, not convert to mono) and you then have more control over the 3 colour channels to get the exact look you're after.
As a basic guide, I usually find the levels setting and drop the black level down first, then add a bit of lightness until it starts to burn out the highlights (whites or lightest parts of the image), then i slowly add some contrast to make it ping. you can also try adding about 0.1 to 05% blur to soften the image at the end, but this doesn't work for every picture. Open the image you want to work on and then make sure you save it as a copy (so if you've taken a cheeky bum shot, it might be called something like img0001.jpg on the camera, click 'save as' and save it as 'cheeky bum B&W.jpg or something- i suggest in a new folder and not on your desktop). Do everything by eye as each picture is different and start by writing down each stage as you do it- then if you mess it up you just reset and start again.
Theres a basic alternative to Photoshop called Gimp, i think its still free and had quite a decent range of controls and filters last time i looked at it. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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As has already been said you can either do it in the camera (ie the can actually takes a b&w image...if your can has the ability to do it) or you can use an image editor afterwards.
I use Photoshop Elements, but there are lots of free ones - as meat2pleaseu said, Gimp is a really good one that is free, but might be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to image editing. If so then you could try something like Paint.NET which is also free but a bit simpler.
Good luck!  Happy to answer any questions if I can... |
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I don't think Picassa will convert to black and white.
I'm just checking the Serif PhotoPlus free download for you and will let you know.
Gimp and the versions of Photoshop are what many will use but they can be over complicated |
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"Have given it a go please see what you think .
Good , bad or indifferent.
Thanks"
The Lady has done well... there's always scope for improvement -just like sex really, practice makes for more practice!
I'm always up for helping folk take the pics they want..have kit will travel! |
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By *bi HaiveMan
over a year ago
Forum Mod Cheeseville, Somerset |
"B&W can be good, but it can be overdone. I'm waiting for sepia to make a come back.  "
Good call!
Obviously we have the odd B&W pic, but I'm arseing around with some fun retro style stuff at the mo - 60's/70's looking colour.
The joy of digital is that you can mess around with pics to your hearts content til you're happy! And delete if you're not!
A |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"B&W can be good, but it can be overdone. I'm waiting for sepia to make a come back. "
Nothing wrong with a nice sepia shot. Especially in a basque. Kinda wild west saloon dancing girl look  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Paint.Net (that's the name of the application, not a website) has some good features and its free. As mentioned above, GIMP is also good (though more like an alternative to Photoshop, so there is a learning curve. There is also Photoshop Express.
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(though a bit of skin/flesh colour is good to see also 
)
You can also try tweaking the contrast...can add a bit of extra "pop"