Shooting in Black and White

Last week I went on a photo walk with some friends and learned a great tip (thank you Suzanne) that I thought I'd share.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am taking Tracey Clark's Picture Black and White class.  So lately I've been thinking about my images monochromatically.

It never occurred to me to change the setting on my camera to actually take the photo in black and white.  I usually do everything in post processing.  But the beauty of changing to black and white while in the field is you get a sense right away as to whether the composition and color effect works with your subject.  Below is a sample of images taken straight out of my camera that shows a color  version and the same subject in black and white.

Making the change in the field was easy to do on my Canon.  Just change the Picture Style from S (standard) to M (for monochromatic.)