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I am a great believer that when shooting in colour, colour really matters. Reds, Yellows and Blues stand out well and add impact to an image. Duller colours respond better to Black & White.

What do others think?

When shooting in black and white it good to try and see in black and white... look for light and dark...

Duller colours, if they have still got good contrast, would respond well to a B&W treatment... but IMHO you never know what responds well until you try

Color, i think that color contrast created by colour pairing complementary hues creates the illusion of higher contrast without a reduced tonal range. Saturation can be boosted by a quality polariser.

B&W impressed because of its higher tonal range than color, but as digital doesnt have the dynamic range of film (especially B&W film), and hence is more susceptable to burnout, i would suggest that a carefully composed, diffused light/ lower contrast image will offer the better results.
Thats just a generality.

I'de say if you want to shoot quality B&W you'd still need to use film( for now but technology changes so fast!).

mind you, this is just a educated guess (i dont have a DSLR ).

That is the general impression that I get...

One of my goals is to set up a small darkroom and do some B&W film stuff...

I dont think I could ever go back to using a lab to develop film....

The Nikon D1 allowed you to take B&W Tifs and I often thought the results from the B&W direct were better than the colour pics.

Chris

I agree Oneputt with your colour assessment, but I feel for B&W stuff, dull or muted colours leads to a muddy image. I also feel short depth of field is very hard to do convincingly in black and white - it lends itself to a fuzzy look. B&W is all about contrast IMHO, of light and composition.

MHD wrote:That is the general impression that I get...

One of my goals is to set up a small darkroom and do some B&W film stuff...

I dont think I could ever go back to using a lab to develop film....

Yeah - forget the mass market color labs !
The pro B&W labs probably wont stuff up your dev, can process to your specific contrast index etc, but it will cost extra $$, and even then may not be to your specific instructions.
If you want 'advanced' techniques, like bleaching etc...you have to do it yourself - but it will be worth it .
It was good enough for Mr Adams!