Black and white portrait photos.

Artygirl

I have been asked to take some black & white portrait photos for a new theater company for them to use on their website. I usually take photos in color and then turn them to black & white in photoshop if I want to (I like that flexibility). My problem is that the theater company wants to edit the photos because the subjects will have a blue screen behind them. I don't know whether to shoot them in black & white to start with so I can see what they look like. Also, with the stage lighting and the blue screen, I am not sure if the lighting will be right. They know I am not a professional and understand that the photos won't look like they were taken in a studio, but I don't even have a separate flash gun, only the built-in flash. I still feel obliged to do my best for them, so any tips would be much appreciated.

bruto

I would take B&W originals in Raw form. That way you can try out lighting and whatnot to see if you can get them right, but you can convert the Picture control of any raw image in post with View NX2 or Capture NXD, without penalty. That includes adding or removing filter effects. In View NX2 you must launch the picture control subprogram to find the filter effects. In Capture NXD, they will be in the menu whenever you switch your image to monochrome.

If you can't get the black and white images to look right, one possibility might be to convert them back into color, then alter the color before reconverting to black and white.

I'd try without flash first, but there's no harm in trying it both ways. Good stage lighting should work pretty well.

Artygirl

Thank you Bruto, I will try everything you said and let you know how I got on.