every shot – it’s a time-consuming business. Second, even if you are planning on post-processing, there can be real value in using your camera’s mono mode to give an initial idea of how well your shots will work out, to help fine-tune your compositions. Finally, with the in-camera processing controls now available, and some of the more attractive ‘filter’ modes, it’s possible to get attractive results out of the camera with no further manipulation. What’s more, if you shoot monochrome using either a compact camera or a compact system camera that uses electronic viewing, it’s possible to see exactly how your pictures will turn out before you press the shutter button. This can be useful, as it helps you ignore the distraction of strong colours when composing your images. You can also see more easily how different processing settings will impact your image. Much the same can be achieved by shooting with a DSLR in live view, as opposed to using the optical viewfinder. In this article I’ll be looking in detail at shooting in monochrome mode, exploring the options available and offering some tips on how to get the best results.
How to shoot monochrome on your digital camera Setting your camera to shoot in black & white is usually very straightforward. Simply locate the camera’s colour mode setting, and change the output to monochrome. Different manufacturers call these settings by different names, though, and some also have several different variants of their black & white mode. If in doubt, check your manual (as always). It’s important to understand
particularly suited. For example, in dull weather, switching to black & white can give better results by emphasising the shape and form of your subjects. In strong, bright light, it can emphasise the interplay of light and shade. Monochrome can also come in handy under mixed lighting. If you have both natural and artificial light illuminating different parts of the scene, or different types of artificial light, then those areas of the image will show colour casts. This is something that our eyes and brains don’t perceive, so it looks particularly unattractive. In some cases it can be fixed in post-processing, using local corrections to remove the strongest colour casts. But often a simpler solution is to convert to black & white, which removes the distraction of mixed lighting. Switching to monochrome can also be useful when shooting This shot includes unattractive mixed lighting: blueish daylight and orange under artificial light at high ISOs, artificial light. Switching to mono overcomes this quickly and easily particularly with low colour like’ – there are no hard-and-fast temperature sources such as that, unlike with film, switching the rules. However, it’s important to camera to monochrome is purely tungsten bulbs. Such light is understand that shooting in a processing setting. The sensor strongly biased towards the yellow monochrome is a rather different is still recording images with full end of the spectrum, and lacking art to working in colour, as some colour information, and if you in green and blue. The result is shots that look great in colour look that, when trying to make a record raw files they’ll still include dull in black & white, and vice all of it. It’s just the JPEG output correctly balanced colour image, versa. Indeed, getting effective that’s monochrome. the green and blue channels have results in mono often requires a The manufacturer’s own to be strongly amplified, giving an fair bit of practice. raw-processing software will unpleasant increase in image Shooting monochrome removes noise. But if you deliberately set normally recognise your intention the distraction of colour from your the ‘wrong’ white balance and to shoot in mono, and display the photographs, reducing them to images accordingly. However, if shoot in black & white, this can the essentials of light and shade. you’d rather have a colour version reduce such problems with noise. This means that it’s naturally of the shot, it just requires In-camera monochrome better suited to some subjects changing the setting back. processing settings rather than others – obviously, if Third-party processing software Most cameras these days have colour is important to an image, will most likely display your files in such as red flowers against green plenty of settings for tweaking colour, but will happily process the look of your monochrome foliage, then removing it can them into black & white. images, and while they give lots of destroy the picture’s impact. But When to shoot mono? control over how your pictures will likewise, when colour distracts One question that beginners often from the subject, shooting in turn out, they can equally look ask is when should they use black mono can be a real improvement. daunting for new users. Here we’ll & white, rather than colour. The take a look at what they do, and There are, however, some simple answer is ‘whenever you situations to which monochrome is offer tips and recommendations on how to use them.
Menu settings Brand Canon Fujifilm Leica Nikon Olympus Panasonic Pentax Samsung Sony
Menu option Setting Picture Style Monochrome Film Simulation Monochrome Film Mode B&W Picture Control Monochrome Picture Mode Monotone Photo Style Monochrome Custom Image Monochrome Picture Wizard Classic Creative Style Black & white
Noise reduction and sharpness Tweaking noise-reduction and sharpness settings can accentuate or suppress noise, especially when shooting at high ISOs. To some extent this can mimic shooting with fast, grainy film. All cameras are different, so it’s difficult to make specific recommendations here. But try turning down the noise reduction and turning up the sharpening to get grainier, grittier images. 43