black and white newbie question.

Stovepipe

Hi all,
this is probably the bonest of newbie questions but here goes: how do you get black and white photos from a digital camera? Given that there's no B & W film, how is it done? Is it done in the computer after the shot is taken or does the camera's computer do it?
Can you set, for example, a compact Fujipix to do it?
regards
Stovepipe

TinyExplosions

Yes!

Basically, most cameras have a feature that will allow you to shoot in black and white, or you can do it in post once the image is on your computer

Ghost Train

some people say it better to shot in colour and do the black and white conversion after on the computer

but it can be easier to compose and take a black and white shot using the black and white mode on the camera

BopNiblets

Ya B&W is included in probably every image editor, I recommend Paint.NET: http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

magicbastarder

as regards how to get *your* camera to do it, it varies from camera to camera. check under image settings or colour settings or similar, or as a fallback, there's always RTFM.

Heebie

I wouldn't bother "shooting" black & white in the camera. I'd convert later in Photoshop (PS in my case.. others might use other tools.)

I tend to use a channel mixer layer in photoshop to "mix" down to black & white, and I always use the highest bit-depth my source material will support for starters. (My cameras shoot 14-bit per color-per pixel, so in Photoshop that is 16-bit per channel per pixel, going to 24 or 32 per channel wouldn't be useful.) More bits = more shades of grey... less haloing and such.