RAW and Monochrome and the use of red/green filters

[ryanlikealion]

Today i've been shooting in RAW and in Monochrome with a green filter (in camera.)

When I open my files in photoshop it doesn't look as good as it does when I open it straight from the SD card.

Now, i know that the RAW files appear in clour when first opened - you have to take the saturation level to 0. Does it also cancel out the use of the filter? i.e. is this something you sort post production when shooting in RAW?

[brianxlt]

When shooting digital there is no real reason to shoot in monochrome. As you stated you have to adjust the saturation from color to B&W anyway. It would be better just to shoot in color and adjust in post as you will get better conversion and more control. As for using a B&W filter on a color image might bring out more detail when you convert it, but never tried it so I'm not too sure.

[ErikUngerPhotography]

While shooting B&W in RAW will still result in a color image, it can be nice to still set the camera to monochrome to get an overall feel of how the image will look in B&W. If your intent is to have a B&W then why look at it in color on your LCD screen? It doesn't make a difference, but it doesn't hurt either. It is purely personal preference. Of course that changes when shooting jpeg.

You mentioned the filter was done in camera? If this is true, and not a filter in front of your lens, then it is again just to give you an idea of what the image could look like. When shooting RAW, in camera filters and settings (such as monochrome) are not actually applied to the RAW image. What you see on your camera LCD, and probably when you first open the image from your card, is the jpeg preview. RAW images require processing to bring out their full potential. This is why people who are just learning about RAW and how to process it shoot both RAW and jpeg. This allows them to work on the RAW images, but they have the camera processed jpeg if the RAW processing isn't working for them.

One last thing. There are several ways to turn a color image B&W. While just taking the saturation down to 0 will work, it doesn't give you as much control over the image. Not sure what version of PS you are using, but there is a B&W adjustment layer that allows you to control the tone of individual colors. This gives you far more control of how the B&W image will look. I have not used ACR in a while, but LR3 has the same feature that can be applied to the RAW image itself.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by ryanlikealion

i know that the RAW files appear in clour when first opened - you have to take the saturation level to 0. Does it also cancel out the use of the filter?

You didn't say what kind of camera you're using. The following is for Canon, but similar comments almost certainly apply to other brands.

Raw files contain the data from the sensor. That data is independent of the JPEG processing parameters like B&W, filtering, picture style, contrast, saturation, sharpness, white balance, etc. It's just sensor data. However, Canon does add the information about what the various JPEG processing settings were as metadata (notes) on the file. Also, the embedded JPEG preview reflects the JPEG processing settings.

If you open the Raw file in a Raw processing program that knows how to read the metadata notes about the JPEG settings, the program will probably used those as the initial settings. Canon users will find this to be true of Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software, for example. If you open the Raw file in software that doesn't know how to read the metadata notes, then it'll just display the Raw data with whatever its "normal" settings are. In the middle, there are a number of Raw-processing software packages that know how to interpret the White Balance setting but ignore the rest.

Also, some Raw-processing software will temporarily stick the JPEG preview image up until it's finished analyzing and interpreting the Raw data. This will give the effect of a flicker of B&W (if you shot in B&W mode) before the image turns back into color.