Desaturated colour digital photos don t look quite the same as black and white film-based photos. Why not?
Black and white film is not equally sensitive to all colours across the spectrum. Different films have different spectral sensitivities (ie: respond more to some colours than others), and experienced black and white photographers are very familiar with the tonal qualities of such films and papers. For that reason taking a colour picture and removing all the colour information (ie: desaturating it) will not yield exactly the same results as using actual photographic film and paper. The differences are subtle but noticeable to the experienced eye. You can, however, simulate the effect of using traditional black and white film by desaturating colour channels independently in Photoshop or some other image editing program. There are also third-party plugin modules offered by various small software developers which can achieve this effect as well. And, as noted above, the EOS 350D/Digital Rebel X/Kiss N Digital can also apply colour filters algorithmically to achieve traditional black and wh
Black and white film is not equally sensitive to all colours across the spectrum. Different films have different spectral sensitivities (ie: respond more to some colours than others), and experienced black and white photographers are very familiar with the tonal qualities of such films and papers. For that reason taking a colour picture and removing all the colour information (ie: desaturating it) will not yield exactly the same results as using actual photographic film and paper. The differences are subtle but noticeable to the experienced eye. You can, however, simulate the effect of using traditional black and white film by desaturating colour channels independently in Photoshop or some other image editing program. There are also third-party plugin modules offered by various small software developers which can achieve this effect as well. And, as noted above, some later EOS bodies can also apply colour filters algorithmically to achieve traditional black and white effects.
