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Shooting in B&W

I don’t mean ONLY shooting in B&W, but using that to help see what you are capturing in your shots.

All you really need to know when shooting, especially on location, is how the exposure is. So many variables, like sun location and lens flare can come into play. I found the colors made it harder to tell how things were going. I needed more contrast and really see the white and black areas. The colors were dampening the contrast and making it a bit harder to see just how I was doing with my exposure.

I am one of those who also loves B&W. I shoot a little in film and only use B&W. And typically the models or clients are fine with or even love the B&W when I show them the back of the camera as we shoot.

When I’m in studio and tethering I set the B&W captures to small jpg because those transfer to the monitor quickly. Those are worthless images after a shoot because they are so small. They get deleted right after i do my import into Lightroom.

When I shoot without tethering I set the jpg to full size. So basically, I’m taking two images as I’m shooting. Color RAW images as well as full size jpg B&W. Depending on what kind of shoot it is, often the B&W is just done. Perfectly exposed and caught an expression that makes it beautiful and a bit vintage. Often the expression is what makes a photo work, not the retouching and mood setting.

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