# D7000 Black an White advice needed



## charlie76 (May 9, 2012)

Ok...so I just ordered my first "real" digital SLR camera.  Not like I can afford it, but I got a D7000.  I have only shot b and w film my whole life, but now I got this digital.  Is there anything I should be considering when shooting black and white with this camera?  Maybe I am just out-of-touch with digital cameras, but I am worried that the richness of nicely developed film will be lost!!!   Does anyone else have any suggestions or tips or anything regarding the D7000?  It better not take them a month to ship it!!!!


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## thebasedsloth (May 9, 2012)

Shoot in color, The convert to black and white later. It gives you much more control and allows for much more contrasty images


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## SCraig (May 9, 2012)

thebasedsloth said:


> Shoot in color, The convert to black and white later. It gives you much more control and allows for much more contrasty images


Better yet, shoot in color and leave them that way (I can't stand B&W).

But, yes, I do agree.  Don't give that much control to your camera.  Shoot in color and then convert them to YOUR tastes, not the camera's tastes, in post processing.  Plenty of software available that will give you far more control over the final image than just allowing the camera to do it.


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## zamanakhan (May 9, 2012)

SCraig said:


> thebasedsloth said:
> 
> 
> > Shoot in color, The convert to black and white later. It gives you much more control and allows for much more contrasty images
> ...



Area ya kidding?! i love B&W!!!!
Simply shoot raw than use aperature, light room or even iphoto to convert to raw. Simply use covert to b&W and then go to the saturation levels and play with the color levels to change contrast between colors. That is simply it.


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## shady195 (May 9, 2012)

As said, leave the images in color and then convert to B&W later. A great piece of software for black and white is Nik Silver Efex pro, its a plugin for photoshop/lightroom and has some amazing tools in it for black and white.


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## 480sparky (May 9, 2012)




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## 2WheelPhoto (May 9, 2012)

Google: *Silver Efex Pro 2*

Download free trial

Enjoy epic B & W conversions.


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## charlie76 (May 9, 2012)

Awesome....thanks for the great advice.  Shooting in color and converting later makes sense.  Did someone say they don't like B and W?!?!?!?!?!  

I ordered my camera last night...anyone know how long Nikon is gonna take to ship it to CA?  I'm losing my mind not knowing!    

Thanks everyone...


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## SCraig (May 9, 2012)

charlie76 said:


> Awesome....thanks for the great advice.  Shooting in color and converting later makes sense.  Did someone say they don't like B and W?!?!?!?!?!


Yeah, that was me.  I grew up shooting and processing it.  When it got to the point that people could process color prints in a simple darkroom I switched to color and never looked back.

These days B&W does absolutely nothing for me.  If a forum thread has "B&W" in the title I don't even open it.  I find it totally boring and honestly have no interest whatsoever in it.


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## thebasedsloth (May 9, 2012)

Some images are better in B&W, some are better in color.. Color can distract and take focus off of the subject in some cases, As can the lack of color.
That's just how I see it.


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## charlie76 (May 9, 2012)

SCraig said:
			
		

> Yeah, that was me.  I grew up shooting and processing it.  When it got to the point that people could process color prints in a simple darkroom I switched to color and never looked back.
> 
> These days B&W does absolutely nothing for me.  If a forum thread has "B&W" in the title I don't even open it.  I find it totally boring and honestly have no interest whatsoever in it.



I see.  I grew up doing it because color was too complicated to develop (for me at least).  I see you are using the Nikon D7000.  My last camera was an N90S, but yesterday I ordered the D7000 as a college graduation present to myself....my first digital SLR!!  If you have any suggestions or tips for using it, that would be great.  Thanks for the comments.
 Charlie


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## 480sparky (May 9, 2012)

SCraig said:


> ....  If a forum thread has "B&W" in the title I don't even open it.  I find it totally boring and honestly have no interest whatsoever in it.



Even when the discussion is about B+W filters?


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## SCraig (May 9, 2012)

480sparky said:


> Even when the discussion is about B+W filters?


OK, I stand [somewhat] corrected 



charlie76 said:


> I see.  I grew up doing it because color was too complicated to develop  (for me at least).  I see you are using the Nikon D7000.  My last camera  was an N90S, but yesterday I ordered the D7000 as a college graduation  present to myself....my first digital SLR!!  If you have any suggestions  or tips for using it, that would be great.  Thanks for the comments.
> Charlie


You'll enjoy the D7000 once you get accustomed to the differences.  It is an excellent camera with plenty of features and capabilities.  Outstanding low-light capabilities, and plenty of room to grow.

There are some differences between digital and film though.  A few that come to mind:

Digital doesn't have as much dynamic range as film, and there's nothing much you can do about it.  You can't change to a different kind of film or adjust the film type to the situations.  What you have is what you get.  You can, however, do a great deal in post-processing with software.

Forgot about setting ISO / ASA for a roll of film.  You can change the ISO any time you want to and as much as you want to as long as you  understand the consequences.  Going to higher ISO means more digital noise which is roughly the digital version of film grain.

Expose for the highlights, post-process for the shadows.  That's the reverse of negative film where you normally meter for the shadows.

It costs the same to shoot one shot or 500.  Exactly nothing.  No film to buy, no processing costs, nothing.  Shoot as much as you want.


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## charlie76 (May 9, 2012)

SCraig said:
			
		

> OK, I stand [somewhat] corrected
> 
> You'll enjoy the D7000 once you get accustomed to the differences.  It is an excellent camera with plenty of features and capabilities.  Outstanding low-light capabilities, and plenty of room to grow.
> 
> ...



Yeah...any film speed at any time is gonna be a strange feeling....can't wait to get it in the mail.  Thanks a lot for the input...especially about exposing for the highlights.

Charlie


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