Hi, I've been playing around with my digital camera for a while now, getting to know all the functions etc. My camera (as do many of us) has different colour features; for instance Neutral, Vivid, Sepia, Black & White etc. I was wondering what is the difference of setting these colours up in the camera as opposite to putting a colour filter or say changing the colour to greyscale in post (Photoshop or the likes). Is there any difference the charged couple device detects and puts the pixel into place of the certain colour, or, because its all digital the process of putting colours and filter washes is minimal to the change in quality of the image? & also, while on this topic, playing around in premiere I've come across some filters: magic bullet and spherex that you can apply to digal images and it simulates the look you would get from film, is there anything like this avaible for photoshop(free or cheap or on trial) I could try out? Thanks a bunch, -Nick AKA darkcr0ss

Nick, I am the least knowledgeable of the posters here who have wonderful expertise with imaging processing software like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and Elements, to name three.

Personally, I take the shot with little or no camera software optomizations. Generally, I have lately found that sharpening images is done better in software than in the camera, to avoid the "halo" effect between contrasty parts of the image.

As for color filters, I do not often use those on my digital camera and take the image in full color. Then, before converting to greyscale I do play with software which allows the image to show as greyscale and select various filter options, such as red, yellow, green, blue.
Once desaturated and converted to grey, the filters do little in my software, since it depends on the colors in the original to do the work...apparently.

I don't see the overall pixel quality degraded by filters, assuming I am using a COPY of the image and do not bother disturbing the original. I can copy the original often as I like and work on copies to see the results..to keep or discard with no effect to the original.

You might consider the optikverve labs "Virtual Photographer" plugin. This was a freebie last time I checked and has numerous and useful settings to mess with.

I generally use software color filters when shooting digital images. I do not depend on the camera for that since once the image is taken and camera settings applied, there is no way to back up. So, I take the full color shot with little camera image optomization and have the image to work with as I desire. Once shot and camera processed, that is all you can work with, whether over sharpened, greyscale or whatever. My simple opinion is shoot it for the best color image then go to software for changes. TomDart.

Message edited on: 06/20/2005 21:24

Attached Link: http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

Dear darcr0ss, I know this is not directly relevant to your post but you might want to check the last images on the post below yours: "Keeping detail in highlights, avoiding blowout with digital?" I did take a picture which was overexposed then a decent one. The lower set of images in that post shows what happens with the camera image and software. Corrections could not in a simple way recover what was done in the camera. What is done in the camera is done, essentially. I wanted to show that highlights lost in camera are lost forever. The lower set of images shows that. Other folks who are much more adept at imaging software will do better than my simple experiment. But it is worth takikng note. So, I try to be careful with any filter on camera with digital imaging. What you get is what you have to work with. I do hope this helps a bit or two. Really glad to have you here on the forum. Best wishes in all your photography. TomDart. Thanks dBgrafix for the link to optikverve. This is a great little plug-in.

Thanks for the tips and advice, i've been playing around with the optikverve filters, its fun! One thing I notice is its good to have the photo a little over-exposed so when the colours wash out the photo, the background fades into whiteness. Now back to my original question, but rephrased a little: I like to experiment with black and white photography. If i greyscale is it the exact same effect as if I'd have b&w set in my camera? Why do cameras come now with different colour filters if its so common to do everything in post nowdays? just curious. -darkcr0ss p.s. I used optikverve as a little experiement on a video clip in premiere pro, - didn't really work turned out all black, any tips on how to fix this?

Depends in my view on the type of camera on a Fuji 4700 I found the camera settings gave a more pleasing image when printed out comapared to Photoshop postwork.. I have not found the need to do anything on an SLR apart from reducing noise on occasion or add a little bit more saturation.. Some of these in camera settings are handy in adverse conditions maybe better to add some blue to a scene that is a tad on the yellow side etc.. Like all things experimant and see what works best for you

danob's advice is sound. My advice is to add colors in postwork if you have the software. That way you have an image with the full color data and detail in case you want use it later. The options in camera are for those who do not have Photoshop or similar programs, or who just need a quick color adjustment. You could try taking different versions of the same image and then play with them to see what works best for you. I'd rather have the control in postwork than let the camera make the decisions for me, but that might not be to your tastes. Good luck!