. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating Monochrome Images with Your Color Camera Back
You can use your color camera back to create monochrome images. To do so, begin by exposing as you would for a color capture. There are then two methods you can use: convert to gray scale, and green channel.
Convert to gray scale. This is the preferred method, for it offers the best tonal rendition of the image, and should be used with color images that do not have high gain or noise levels. (High noise levels in images can be caused for a variety of reasons, for example by extended exposure times.) To use this method, click COLOR CORRECT “on” in the driver, and acquire the image normally. Then choose GRAY SCALE from the Photoshop MODE menu to discard the color information. You are left with the monochrome image.
Green channel. Use this method for color images that contain high noise levels. (High noise levels in images can be caused for a variety of reasons, for example by extended exposure times.) To use this method, click COLOR CORRECT “off” in the driver, set BALANCE to NONE in the driver, and then acquire the image. In Photoshop 2.5 and later, choose GREEN from the CHANNELS palette menu. In earlier versions of Photoshop choose SPLIT CHANNELS from the MODE menu and work only with the data from the green plane.
These actions produce a sharper image than reducing the other color levels to zero, since half of the pixels in the imager are green. As a result, the green plane has the most information when images are acquired in Photoshop.
