Nikon D80 - Shot in Black and White

[ShivaSK]

Today I used my Nikon D80, set it to take black and white pics. On the camera they appear black and white and as I shot. However, when I opened them in Affinity 2, all the images appear in black and white. How to download as they were shot, both color and black and white images, and process them? I know I can convert them to b/w, but that's not what I want to do.

Thank you.

[firstdefence]

Welcome to the forum @ShivaSK

So, do you take the image in colour and edit to Black and white on the camera and save or select an effect that takes the image in black and white? if the former, you should have two images on the SD Card, the colour image and a copy greyscale image.

 

 

[DWright]

Hi @ShivaSK,

Welcome to the forum

If you are opening the RAW NEF file in Affinity Photo 2 then these will always be in colour, if you shoot in RAW + JPEG then the JPEG image will have the black & white adjustment applied to it.

[ShivaSK]

Hi @DWright,

When I view on the camera, I can see color and B&W pics. However, in Affinity all the images are color.

May be I am not importing the pics into Affinity the correct way. I am simply Copy from CF card, and then Paste into a directory/folder, and then open them in Affinity Photo and post-process them. If there is a right way of importing them into Affinity, sure the B&W images would be imported as shot and appear in the camera.

What is the correct way to import?

I just downloaded Nikon NX. When I opened the image files, viola....they are as they were shot. From here, the only way to edit them in Affinity is to convert them into TIFF format in NX and go from there.

I thought Affinity could do what NX is doing.

[firstdefence]

NIKON NX is a pretty comprehensive image batch processor, which is something Affinity cannot do, you can also rate the images, tag them and then export them to a folder for further editing in other software. You can apply the same settings to some, many or all images. You can vet the images and discard the ones I don't want. Something else NX Studio can do is display the focus points. In general, the NX studio is NIkon focused.

Affinity can do a lot of things NX studio cannot, in the post process stages such as cloning out faults etc, so although NX studio can do things Affinity can do, there are many things Affinity can do that NX studio cannot.

 

[Old Bruce]

If you are using .NEF files (raw file format from Nikon) then they will be in Colour, RGB. In Photo if you open an .NEF file it will open in the Develop Persona, there is a section there for changing the colour to B&W, it is the Tones tab. Note that it will still be an RBG document. There is an Adjustment Layer available in the Photo persona, as well, for doing this.

I think the JPEG would open as B&W, maybe as Greyscale, maybe as RGB.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, ShivaSK said:

I just downloaded Nikon NX. When I opened the image files, viola....they are as they were shot. From here, the only way to edit them in Affinity is to convert them into TIFF format in NX and go from there.

Well, Nikon NX Studio (the followup of Nikon Capture NX-D & Capture NX2) is Nikon's own imaging RAW converter and so it's no surprise here that Nikon of course knows it's cams and all their internals best here. So the Nikon NX software can treat NEF RAW files in the same manner as their cams internally can do, they know of course all their own company based Nikon Maker Notes specific Exif settings, their Active D-Lighting, Picture-Control-System, AF reference points, filterings ... etc. better as anyone else here.

1 hour ago, ShivaSK said:

I thought Affinity could do what NX is doing.

No, APh has no clues about many of the Nikon specifics here, as it entirely relys on third party knowledge (Libraw & libexif) in order to be able to read certain Nikon camera NEF files at all.

[David in Яuislip]

First post
However, when I opened them in Affinity 2, all the images appear in black and white.

Second post
However, in Affinity all the images are color.

Can you clarify this?

It's a colour sensor and the raw data is a dump from the sensor. It's likely that the raw file contains metadata indicating that a B&W filter was used and the only software that can use that is Nikon's. If you'd like to upload a raw file I'll try it in Photolab but I'll bet it comes out in colour. The only way to get a B&W raw is to use a camera like Leica M Monochrom

[v_kyr]

13 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

The only way to get a B&W raw is to use a camera like Leica M Monochrom

Well it's strictly not the only way, as for example in former times, the Nikon Pro film scanners (Nikon Coolscan 5000, 9000 ...) were able to generate color and/or B&W NEFs (aka RAWs) via it's accompanied Nikon Scan software.

[David in Яuislip]

18 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Well it's strictly not the only way, as for example in former times, the Nikon Pro film scanners

I used to have a D70, whether that could do B&W I don't know
I still have a D300, whether that can do B&W I don't know as I've never read the book
But this discussion is about cameras so I don't see the relevance of the comment about scanners

[Old Bruce]

14 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

But this discussion is about cameras so ...

I have to say that I have lusted after the Leica M Monochrom for over a decade.

But then this is also about NEF files so I'll apologize for interrupting.

[v_kyr]

18 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

I used to have a D70, whether that could do B&W I don't know
I still have a D300, whether that can do B&W I don't know as I've never read the book
But this discussion is about cameras so I don't see the relevance of the comment about scanners

For cams with a color sensor the RAW sensor data will logically be color data. - Though monochrome digital cams are of course not the only way to get B&W raw data.

[firstdefence]

Among other camera's I have a D80 and a D5600. The D80 has a retouch Monochrome option and black and white with filter colours such as red, orange, green, yellow: https://crossgate.nikonimglib.com/dsd_redirect/redirect.do?P=8jiTV82&R=fDdGP43&L=a8nX601&O=4bWC800

[firstdefence]

Forum quote about Nikon D80 and B&W

Quote

If you set the camera to capture B&W, but shoot in NEF+JPEG, you will get a B&W JPEG and a full color NEF raw file that you can convert later in Capture/Photoshop if you want to experiment. The display on the camera will show what you shot in B&W, so you get in that B&W state of mind. But in the background you always have a full-data file. Yet another "fun thing the D80 can do".

...and for any D80 users that wish to take in-camera B&W here is a handy notes page detailing the shooting menu: 

https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80/users-guide/menus-shooting.htm

Side note, because i mentioned the Nikon D5600 earlier. The menu order and naming are a bit different in the Nikon D5600 and it also has a few more options.