B&W Conversion and Simulating B&W Filters

[gmitchel]

My "Tip of the Week" for this week demonstrates how to use the PS Channel Mixer dialog for B&W conversion.

I know, there are lots of tips and tutorials on the technique already. Well, this one offers a set of Channel Mixer settings to simulate various B&W filters. I was not happy with the few I tried (Fred Miranda, etc.), so I sat down with a corrected image of a Macbeth ColorChecker Card and created my own settings. I also updated my TLR B&W Conversion action set to include quick B&W conversions using these various filter settings.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/...pOfTheWeek.htm

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mitch

[byRo]

Mitch,
I saw your "Tip of the Week" and got a little worried....
Photoshop basically has no "rights" and "wrongs", which is a good thing otherwise there wouldn't be so much to talk about.
However some tools can be classified as "Highly Unrecommended" (made that up, OK?). Into such a category I put the Brightness/Contrast adjustment.

IMHO your last tip, "High Contrast", gets dangerously close to a Brightness/Contrast control - very quickly provoking black clipping.

It seems that you are aiming at beginner / intermediate PS users, and this part of the Tip may cause problems in unexperienced hands.

[gmitchel]

Hi Ro!

I'm a bit confused. I don't have a High Contrast tip.

I added a quick B&W conversion for high contrast B&W. I agree, it is on the high side. However, a user can just double-click on the Channel Mixer thumbnail and tone down the effect.

How about the other new filter presets? Did you find them helpful?

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,

Mitch

[byRo]

Originally Posted by gmitchel

I'm a bit confused. I don't have a High Contrast tip. I added a quick B&W conversion for high contrast B&W....

Yes, that's the one.

Originally Posted by gmitchel

How about the other new filter presets? Did you find them helpful?

As in everything PS, there are many ways to do the same thing....

Originally Posted by me

Photoshop basically has no "rights" and "wrongs", which is a good thing otherwise there wouldn't be so much to talk about.

So, personally, I would not use a preset that moves the levels slider. I do use negative channel amounts to combat noise in faded B/W photos.
My current preference for greyscale conversion is a Selective Color (Flora's tool) topped by a Gradient Mask... but there are some big threads around here discussing this stuff.