Tweet
Jerry suggested we open a black and white discussion here, so if no one else but us is interested don't blame me! After the embarrasing minimal feedback from my Mythical Lighting action, I'm really feeling sheepish about trying something like this. But I really want new info from others! I have researched BW and played with it a while, and although it may not be something I will use often, I now have a way to do it. I looked through numerous books, including one devoted solely to black and white digital photography, but "50 Fast Photoshop 7 Techniques" had some of the best info.
Those many of you here that are artists are able to envision your desired outcome and arrive at your predetermined destination using a contrast process such as we discussed here: http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...5&pagenumber=3
Those of us without artistic talent, who can only aspire to be good craftsmen, tend to start with the process and see where it takes us. For us there are three absolutes:
1. Few images that you have will be candidates for BW because they just don't have contrast in their nature. Maybe 5 or 10 percent. Great photographers select subjects just for black and white and choose settings accordingly. I stumble into them.
2. Of those images that might work, there is NO one best initial conversion technique that is optimum for all of them.
3. Given the best conversion technique for a specific image, it won't work on the entire image.
Danny provided an action that created individual image comparison copies for many of the standard conversion techniques. I've taken that a couple of steps further and written a PS7 action that puts the results of ten techniques on the History palette. That way they can easily be compared at any size, and more importantly, can be used with the History Brush and/or layers to create the best composite of them. I can't think of an easier or more effective way to do it. If nothing else you'll find out if the image has black and white potential.
Three of the ten are simply the r, g, and b channels. Two are soft blur techniques on the red and green channel. One is the Lab mode/lightness method. Another opens up a channel mixer adjustment layer with some high contrast presets to play with. And three are doubled layers of the red, green, and lab/lightness channels with a soft light blend. The double blends will give you some great results if you haven't edited the image at all. The single layer versions may be just right if you have already pumped up contrast in the color original. All results are flattened except the mixer, but you can always create one-and-a-half blend versions yourself from these results.
To use the product of the action, you should eliminate those snapshots that are redundant or ineffective in their results in order to simplify the palette as much as possible. Then choose the best as your starting point. Look at every element of your image separately and begin to take your favorite parts from each snapshot. I use a very soft and as large as possible history brush. This is a very subjective process. When I am happy with an area I take a new snapshot and erase those that are obsolete. Snapshot "management" comes into play. Ultimately you will need to use curves/levels on all or parts of an image to get it just right. Try it on Amanda's Wagon photo to start with at http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...&threadid=5628
Here's the action.
Those many of you here that are artists are able to envision your desired outcome and arrive at your predetermined destination using a contrast process such as we discussed here: http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...5&pagenumber=3
Those of us without artistic talent, who can only aspire to be good craftsmen, tend to start with the process and see where it takes us. For us there are three absolutes:
1. Few images that you have will be candidates for BW because they just don't have contrast in their nature. Maybe 5 or 10 percent. Great photographers select subjects just for black and white and choose settings accordingly. I stumble into them.
2. Of those images that might work, there is NO one best initial conversion technique that is optimum for all of them.
3. Given the best conversion technique for a specific image, it won't work on the entire image.
Danny provided an action that created individual image comparison copies for many of the standard conversion techniques. I've taken that a couple of steps further and written a PS7 action that puts the results of ten techniques on the History palette. That way they can easily be compared at any size, and more importantly, can be used with the History Brush and/or layers to create the best composite of them. I can't think of an easier or more effective way to do it. If nothing else you'll find out if the image has black and white potential.
Three of the ten are simply the r, g, and b channels. Two are soft blur techniques on the red and green channel. One is the Lab mode/lightness method. Another opens up a channel mixer adjustment layer with some high contrast presets to play with. And three are doubled layers of the red, green, and lab/lightness channels with a soft light blend. The double blends will give you some great results if you haven't edited the image at all. The single layer versions may be just right if you have already pumped up contrast in the color original. All results are flattened except the mixer, but you can always create one-and-a-half blend versions yourself from these results.
To use the product of the action, you should eliminate those snapshots that are redundant or ineffective in their results in order to simplify the palette as much as possible. Then choose the best as your starting point. Look at every element of your image separately and begin to take your favorite parts from each snapshot. I use a very soft and as large as possible history brush. This is a very subjective process. When I am happy with an area I take a new snapshot and erase those that are obsolete. Snapshot "management" comes into play. Ultimately you will need to use curves/levels on all or parts of an image to get it just right. Try it on Amanda's Wagon photo to start with at http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...&threadid=5628
Here's the action.
Comment