My first stab at B&W film look with Photoshop

[fwhitesides]

Sometimes it looks cool to have a slightly grainy, slightly soft image in B&W. I shot a vast majority of my film exposures on B&W and developed at home, and this is an attempt to duplicate those results. (I'm also working on a process to duplicate the "pushed" look with B&W film.)

Here's the method I used (with Photoshop CS, by the way):

1. Started with RAW file (although JPEG or TIFF should work the same)

2. Image > Calculations*:

i) Choose "RED" for first source
ii) Choose "BLUE" for second source
iii) Blend Mode = "Multiply"
iv) Opacity = 75%
v) Result = New Channel**

3. Image > Mode > Grayscale

4. Filter > Blur > Gausian Blur:

i) Radius = 0.5 pixels

5. Filter > Noise > Add Noise:

i) Amount = 1%
ii) Distribution = Gaussian
iii) Monochromatic

* You'll have to play around with these settings depending on how balanced your color channels are (or aren't).

** Alternately, you can opt to have the result open in a new document. This is not critical to the process.

Here's my first processed image using this "technique":
http://megarant.no-ip.com/blog/archives/CRW_2149_bw+grain.jpg

This is Version 1.0, and I'm continually tweaking the process. I'll keep you posted with updates and breakthrough.

[maderito]

Sometimes it looks cool to have a slightly grainy, slightly soft image in B&W.

Your image comes up very underexposed on my monitor before and after I load it into Photoshop. Was that your intent?

After adjusting the contrast in PS, I can see the effects you were trying to achieve. You're right ... it does look grainy and on the soft side.

What's the rationale for combining the Red (relatively clean) and Blue (relatively noisy) channels? To emphasize the noise?

The multiply blend mode of two different RGB channels darkens the image in a manner that would be unpredictable across different color images. The overall change in image tonality is not corrected by reducing the opacity to 75%.

Perhaps you could achieve what you're trying to do better in the "Channel Mixer" using the monochrome mode. Or maybe, I'm missing the point :?

[fwhitesides]

Your image comes up very underexposed on my monitor before and after I load it into Photoshop. Was that your intent?

Not really. My monitor is horribly un-calibrated. Also, I hadn't made any adjustements to contrast or levels yet. I'm quite hasty sometimes.

What's the rationale for combining the Red (relatively clean) and Blue (relatively noisy) channels? To emphasize the noise?

No. The purpose was to combine the two channels to get a new channel that looks better than either of the originals. It's just a way to get some control over how the conversion to grayscale happens.

The multiply blend mode of two different RGB channels darkens the image in a manner that would be unpredictable across different color images. The overall change in image tonality is not corrected by reducing the opacity to 75%.

I realize this. That's why I noted that differing settings would be required on different images, depending on a whole load of factors. As far as opacity goes, I just poked around with it until I liked the way it looked.

Perhaps you could achieve what you're trying to do better in the "Channel Mixer" using the monochrome mode. Or maybe, I'm missing the point :?

I like the look of color to grayscale conversion better through Calculations than when it comes through the Channel Mixer. Maybe it's psychological. The whole point of this exercise was to figure out a way to make a color digital photo look like B&W film. There are lots of ways to do it, but occasionally I like to reinvent the wheel. The upside to this is that I get good feedback from knowledgeable folks like yourself.

Thanks.

Edit: Here's a slightly tweaked version of the same pic. I adjusted levels and a slight bump in contrast.
http://megarant.no-ip.com/blog/archives/CRW_2149_bw+grain2.jpg

[maderito]

Here's a slightly tweaked version of the same pic. I adjusted levels and a slight bump in contrast.
http://megarant.no-ip.com/blog/archives/CRW_2149_bw+grain2.jpg

Nice tweak ... I like it :) ... and thanks for your detailed replies.

[fwhitesides]

Nice tweak ... I like it :) ... and thanks for your detailed replies.
No, thank you for the in-depth probe into the reasons for my Photoshop forays. My experience with PS is extensize, but almost all of it has been focused on prepping photos for the web, which is almost the opposite of what I want to do with it now. Lots of relearning and rethinking are required, although a lot of the skills are built on the same concepts. Thanks for making me think about what I was doing.