Is there really a difference between shooting a photo in color, then converting the shot to B&W with Photoshop, vs. shooting it originally in black and white?

Assume digital cameras here

In digital probably not.

In film...YES!!!

the short answer: yes there's a difference.

the long answer can be found here: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fet ... 0BdML&tag=

i personally think if you're good at photoshop you can get it looking just as good. there's a trick with converting to lab color and extracting the lightness channel i learned a while back. then tweak curves.

I would say yes, though I'm not an experienced photographer by any means. Shooting in b&w is a limitation of sorts, which forces you to be more creative with light & contrast. I would think you would approach the subject differently.

I do a lot of b&w newspaper work, and it's really a good idea to get a very balanced and good contrast in an RGB image before hitting Image > Mode > Grayscale.

Oh shit, I forgot about that. It's a pretty good trick. Another is to check your RGB Channels, sometimes one is a pretty good b&w on its own.

Also, it should be asked are you using Point and Shoot or SLR?

P&S

film is so much warmer.
i will never stop loving it.

interesting...

See, this argument stops right there when you said P&S. The article pertains to SLRs, and since you don't have manual exposure (I'm guessing), then the point is sort of moot. Personally, I would just do an experiment and shoot the same frame in both B&W mode and color, and then play with photoshop and see which one you like better.

I do have manual control, though certainly not SLR level

But ya, will experiment

right on. Post yr findings. I'd be interested to see results/willing to help.

shoot it in color, then convert it in photoshop to bw. if you shoot it in bw only, you don't have the option of having it in color as well. i like to convert the colors myself, so if i want it sepia toned, i can adjust the amount of sepia.

and ayah is right...film is the best. although you come out stinky after 8 hours in the dark room.

i don't like the image mode grayscale. i rather go to image, hue saturation, and desaturate manually. i then have a nice warm tone, depending on how i choose to tint it.

I dropped my new £500 camera yesterday and it hit the ground hard from a four foot drop. I almost went into trauma.

Fortunately I think it survived the fall. That you Fuji for making your shit tough enough to survive my ineptitude.

Jesus fucking Christ, I'm still shaking just thinking about it!

isn't this a "4 color" b & w image?
so it's not really b & w but much richer and you can lean it toward warm or cool.
it's truly THE best way to print b & w intead of flattening it out with grayscale unless of course that's your only option for the project.

I don't disagree with your method, but when I'm sending to a newspaper, it's gotta be grayscale. I was getting at the ol' Image>Mode>Grayscale isn't the best way to get b&w, so we are on the same page here, m'lady.

sometimes a designer's gotta do what a designer's gotta do.