Black and White pictures using the Pentax K-7

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Hi Pentaxian friends.

It is a little difficult to emphasize on taking black & white pic­tures, when modern DSLR cameras do such a good job with colors. Shooting, or rather, turning your photo to black & white or even sepia tone can make an otherwise bland photo, interesting.

Black & White pictures have gained popularity in the past few years. Perhaps it is because of the nostalgia it projects. Because you only have two colors to worry about, (black & white) you can play with the contrast, the clarity, the vibrance, the saturation and the luminance of colors. In Photoshop Lightroom, which I use, although the luminance is in color, it acts like a filter for black & white photography. Adjusting the blue will darken or lighten the sky. Adjusting the yellow and green will make the foliage darker or lighter and so on. Give it a try.

You don't use Photoshop! You can do the same "in-camera" with the K-7. Here's how:

With the K-7, use the four-way controller right button. A menu appears giving several adjustment possibilities when pressing the four-way controller down button. However, if you press the four-way controller right button again, eight preset settings are available. To the far right, you will see the [BW] icon. Navigate to it with the four-way controller and press the OK button. You are now in the B&W mode. As long as you keep the [BW] settings on, the camera will shoot on B&W. Using the live-view mode, you will actually be able to see the scene in black and white and the file is still saved as a RAW file if you choose to.

You can still modify the black and white photos further, in-camera. Display the image you want to modify further on the LCD screen and press the four-way controller down. Navigate to the Digital Filter and press the OK button. You can use any of the digital filters with the black & white image. You can even stack multiple filters. How sweet it is!

Thanks for reading,

Yvon Bourque

P.S. Learn more about the Pentax K-7 here: Pentax K-7 ebook.