Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and White?

[The Old Man]

Hello Gents!

Been a long time reader of this forum and it helped me a lot in making the transition from film to digital and finding an interest in beauty retouching. Today I need your help. A specific type of black and white conversion technique keeps eluding me. It is soft and light yet contrasty and retains deep blacks and smooth transitions all the way from grey to black. I have a link to an example below, to me this is the kind of black and white that appeals to me but how do I achieve this? Thanks for your help!

http://static.squarespace.com/static/53a9b1c9e4b0bcc18cd0f9b9/53a9b1ece4b08d1007776f99/53ab2666e4b0b8c5567a9b77/1403725469263/IMG_0062v.jpg


(Image is by Billie Chiasson)

[Flashtones]

Re: Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and Wh

Note the histogram, there are no true whites or blacks. It is shot contrasty and processed flat.

[skoobey]

Re: Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and Wh

Play with the black and white points in curves. It has NOTHING to do with the conversion.

[Aladdin]

Re: Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and Wh

There really is nothing to it, no much processing, the BW treatment is none-event, nothing special at all, If any other processing beside the BW conversion, It could be a levels adjustment layer on the top and the output black point was pushed a bit to the right, same as what skooby said, except, I like to use a hammer to kill a fly :P

[Leejihun]

Re: Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and Wh

How could i see tutorials in this web site?

[vicariousphoto]

Re: Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and Wh

I simply play with the B+W adj layer until I get what I want. I also would suggest a total saturation layer and then making a B+W and adjusting to taste.

[imacdonald3]

Re: Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and Wh

Love this look. Personally, I'd bring up the clarity a bit in camera raw to give it a little contrasty grit. Then I'd use a gradient map layer to change the coloring. If my sampling is correct use the hex code 332c25 for the dark and dad8d6 for the light. I can put this into an action if that'd help.

[imacdonald3]

Re: Achieving this soft yet contrasty Black and Wh

Insomnia plays to your advantage. Here's a link to a super basic action with the gradient map I mentioned.