B&W/Monochrome Cameras

Introduction

I’ve been fascinated by the idea of using a monochrome/black and white dedicated camera for a long time. I even considered sending one of my cameras to have the color filter array (CFA) removed from it, so I could use it for black and white only.

There are certain advantages to digital cameras designed, or modified, for capturing monochrome images, and I was close to taking this plunge myself, but then I halted in my tracks. I realized there was something I would miss, so I thought I’d point out why for those of you who might be considering a monochrome camera for yourself.

First, let’s go over exactly how monochrome cameras work versus color ones.

Most all digital still and video cameras use an image sensor that is composed of millions of photodiodes, often referred to as pixels, that are light sensitive. These photodiodes are typically* covered with an array of red, green, and blue color filters as shown below. These color filters are necessary as they provide color information as well as brightness information required to capture a full color image.

Digital cameras designed for black and white only images do not have the array of color filters over the photodiodes on the sensor. This has some significant benefits, so let’s take a look at the benefits before I tell you about what I feel is the drawback.

NOTE: While there are only a small number of monochrome photography cameras you can buy retail, there are some companies, and individuals, that will modify standard cameras by removing the color filter array from the sensor.

Benefits of a Black and White (Monochrome) Sensor

Higher Sensitivity
The lack of color filtration over the photodiodes in the image sensor means more light overall is getting to the pixel sites. Since by its nature, a filter cuts some light from reaching the photodiodes, the lack of them is going to allow images to be captured with less light. This is great for many genres of photography including street, weddings, and others where light may be scarce.

Increased Acuity
In a typical digital color image, the raw image data from the sensor needs to be de-mosaiced, or to put it more plainly, the red, green, and blue color information is merged together to create a final color value for each pixel location. This requires the camera (or your raw developer) to interpolate the data and produce a final image.

Without the need to interpolate the color information, the details in the image are better preserved. This can result in very fine details and an overall “sharper” image**. That’s not to say that there isn’t some processing required for images captured in a black and white only camera, but it’s considerably less when the color information isn’t in the mix.

Less Complicated Processing

Lacking the need to manage, interpret, and output the color information for an image means more streamlined image processing. The adjustments available are going to be limited to exposure and contrast.

Tools like curves, highlights, shadows, blacks, and whites are all going to be available to edit in a black and white only image, but one doesn’t have to worry about white balance, saturation, and other color specific adjustments***.

This is where I have a problem.

Why I Prefer to Convert to B&W

Creative Control

Converting color images to black and white in a raw developer application such as Lightroom or Capture One offers creative control over the final image output that would be very difficult i to reproduce from black and white only data. This is comes in the form of the B&W mixer in Lightroom/Camera Raw or the Black and White Tool in Capture One. I’ll be using the image in figure 2 below for this next example.

These black and white tools allow you to raise or reduce the brightness of how certain colors are represented in the final image. For instance, if you want to bring out the detail and add more drama to the sky, you can lower the blue areas to output darker. Likewise, green leaves on trees can be lightened to appear as they might from shooting in infrared. Figure 3 shows the image in figure 2 after converting to black and white without any adjustments.

There are lots of create ways to use color information to create a final black and white image that has the look and tonality you want. Many of these tonality changes would be very hard to recreate from having only grayscale data and would require masking and a lot of fine detail work.

For instance, using the orange adjustment in Lightroom/Camera Raw is a very effective way to adjust the brightness of skin tones in an image. Also, you can use White Balance to quickly change the overall tone and contrast of an image, which can then be further adjusted using the B&W mixer.

In figure 4 I’ve made specific adjustments to the image using the B&W Mixer. By raising the reds and oranges, I’ve lightened Kevin’s face, and by lowering the yellows and greens I’ve increased the contrast of the vegetation in the background. Also, by lowering the blues and purples, the sky has become more dramatic.

Though these edits could be made using adjustment brushes, masks, etc, it would take a lot more work to select the specific areas to lighten or darken versus just moving some sliders that are based on color ranges. I should also note that there are also tools in Photoshop and other image editors that allow one to make similar adjustments to the Black and White Mixer (Lightroom/Camera Raw) and Black and White Tool (Capture One).

It’s fair to point out that you can use a color lens filter (red, yellow, green, etc.) to adjust contrast on a black and white dedicated camera in the same way we used to do this for film cameras. However, you lose anywhere from one third to a full stop of light, more often the latter, when using these filters, and they only work on one color at a time.

Switch back to Color

One other thing I like about shooting color and then converting is the fact that I can choose to go back and output my images in color if I want to. There has been more than on occasion where I went back to a B&W specific shoot and found I liked some of the shots output in color.

Conclusion

As I wrap this up, I want to make clear I don’t think black and white dedicated cameras are not good cameras, I just don’t think they are good cameras for me. They do offer a great way to look at photographing the world and they excel at capturing fine details as well as offering improved low light capabilities. This applies to both purpose built cameras from Leica and Pentax, as well as cameras modified to shoot black and white only.

If you like shooting black and white and have been considering getting a dedicated B&W camera, I suggest you ask yourself what you’re looking for in your images. Are you needing more sharpness and a little bit better light sensitivity? Have you explored the B&W mixer or equivalent tools in your image processor to see if you can get the results you need?

If you’re still not sure or if you feel you might need a dedicated camera, I would highly recommend, like I would with any purchase like this, that you rent one of these cameras and see if the results are what you’re looking for. It could be just the thing you were looking for, and that’s great

I’ll stick with converting my images, though, and that’s OK too.

*There are sensors use additional/alternative colors for their filter arrays. Also, Sigma’s Foveon sensor used a special property of silicon to measure full color at each pixel site and do not implement a color filter array.

**The images from Foveon based cameras do show noticeably higher acuity in areas of fine detail than color filter array (CFA) cameras. The drawbacks to this sensor technology are tough to ignore though and likely are responsible for Foveon sensor’s seeing only limited success

*** Grading and toning though of course would be an option as it adds color and is not necessarily depending on existing color information.