well im trying to take some decent b&w.. any pointers?

[ohiopyro]

i just got a new camera for my birthday and i am trying to take some good black and white shots. the camera is a canon rebel XT. if anyone has any inside info on taking b&w with thta camera i would greatly appreciate the help

[ohiopyro]

here is a link to more pictures i took over the weekend
http://photos.lynchfireworks.com/tristate%20final.html
tell me what you think

[mikemikeb]

I suggest taking all photos in color and convert to grayscale as desired in post-processing (and keep the color file handy aftrward), because you may otherwise miss out on a great color opportunity. Sure, it’ll take up more space on your memory card, but not much more, and once the photo is converted to grayscale/black and white, it’s practically impossible to re-colorize it correctly.

Besides, you’d be surprised what color can sometimes do! Would you want a black-and-white version of this?

As for your photos, some of them were good, and some weren’t. Either those fireworks weren’t too good, or you need to slow down your shutter speed to get more fireworks in in some cases. Zooming out can often help with fitting in fireworks, and remember to shoot at f/5.6 on the Av setting if you’re using the kit lens.

I’ll tell you though, fireworks are probably the most difficult things to photograph, because their behavior is wildly unpredictable. I probably couldn’t have done better than you.

[ohiopyro]

thanks mikemikeb .. yeah i was zoomed all the way out with an 18-55mm lens, and i was as far back as i could go without having a bunch of trees in the way. i will try your idea next time with the f/5.6 on the AV… i was using manual and really only trying to get a single break in each picture so i could give pictures to the people who made the shells. but i will try getting more breaks in each shot next time
thanks again

[mikemikeb]

You’re welcome, ohiopyro.

I just got this additional thought in my head: With fireworks, take the pics in RAW and make a single-shot HDR out of them. Since I’m not a very talented post-processor, I’m not sure how to do this correctly, but I do know it’s possible. I suggest private messaging SaintDiluted and/or chakalakasp and asking for advice on how to do it.

Good luck!

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