Since I'm new to really truly using digital, besides with a point and shoot camera, I've been really interested to learn more about how digital works with black and white - and since Amin set up this nice forum which clearly hasn't been getting enough use, I thought I'd post a thread here in hopes of gleaning an education from some discussions.

I don't own Photoshop or anything else, really. Right now all I have is the iPhoto software on my MacBook Pro so I'm really a neophyte. I may well find it's "good enough" for me, but in the mean time I'd love to hear from you all who already use your cameras for black and white.

What do you do, is it always best to process it in your computer with software vs in camera?

What are the different softwares you use and why do you like one vs. another?

I just found this article which I'm sure will be helpful: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/a...and-white.html though I know nothing about Mr. Cooper.

Any and all pointers welcome on this trek into the new photography.

Hi BBW,

I use Lightzone for all of my B&W conversions... it has a very simple B&W tool, well worth a trial - and we've had a generous discount for Olympus Photo Safari Group members (which you can access here.) - note, let me know if you take the trial, and I'll try to get the discount renewed.

Lightzone is a wonderful post processing application, and excellent value for money.

Cheers

Brian

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Founder, Olympus Photo Safari Group
http://www.ukphotosafari.org

Many thanks Brian, I will look into it for sure. And I did notice that now lapsed discount but will let you know if I go for the trial. Any discounts are always greatly appreciated.

There are many ways to convert. I'm using Nik Software's Silver Effex.
It will plug in to Photoshop or Lightroom and for you, it's also a stand alone program.
At the moment and probably for some time, there's nothing better.
Shooter

Will check that one out, too. Thanks Shooter!

There are many, many ways to convert to B&W in digital. I have tried quite a few of them, and I still don't consider myself very good at it. I still find it much easier to get a pleasing B&W look in film than I do with digital.

For the most part, I just use the built-in B&W conversion tools in Lightroom, but I also like Alien Skin Exposure for B&W conversion. Alien Skin Exposure, while costly, is a very cool program. It allows you to simulate a variety of film stock, both color and B&W. While I'm not sure the simulations are accurate, I enjoy trying them out on different photographs and seeing the result.

Appreciate your plug for Lightroom, too, Amin. I was just looking at their demonstration videos... I enjoyed their "zone mapper", among other things. It seems as though it is fairly easy to learn and though it may not have as many options as say Photoshop, that's probably a good thing for me. I'll check out the other software you mentioned as well.

At this point I'm reading and learning and bookmarking.

Actually, the zone mapper is for LightZone (Lightcrafts product), not Lightroom (Adobe product) . These days, I do almost everything in Lightroom (version 3 beta).

Right, sorry about that!

I've been reading about Lightroom too, as well as Photoshop Elements. So many choices!

Since I have a Mac I was wondering about which would work best and not be too overwhelming, and possibly work with iPhoto - though in time I may not care about iPhoto anymore... Research shall continue and hopefully more helpful info here, to.

Well, at least ya have a Mac. That's a break.
You can download LightRoom for free and try it out.
There are many free Adobe movies you can watch to get a grasp on the program but really, ya just need to thing about what you want to do, then do it.
It's like a Mac, very intuitive....
Shooter