Black & White tips

[saqib]

hi,

any books (or even tips) you would recommend to get the best out of moving from color digital images to black and white?

thanks,
Saqib.

[maderito]

There are many tips, tutorials and Photoshop actions on the web. You could start with this brief listing:

Better B&W (Using channel mixer)
http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/b-w_better.shtml

Johny's B&W + Sepia Actions (free download)
http://www.jakerlund.net/index.php

Digital Black and White (good article and free download)
http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/How_to/n_Digital_BW/n_Digital_BW/a_Digital_Black_and_White.html

And from a member of this Forum, Roger Cavanagh's "B+W Variations"
http://www.rogercavanagh.com/actions/variations/02_bw.htm

[abel]

very good link woddy... thanks for the help...

those will come in handy for me.

[saqib]

yes thanks for the help - i will read it up properly over the weekend :)

[msvadi]

http://www.russellbrown.com/tips/photoshop.html

check the "Seeing in Black and White" part. There is a PDF file for download. It describes all the basic conversion methods, including the "hue/saturation filter layers" method. It's a very nice method you can achive quite remakable results with it. I would also recommend to convert images to duotones after the color to black-and-white conversion. Duotones help to eliminate the blue tint that you almost always can see in converted black and whites.

by the way, the ultimate conversion method is "Calculations". I'm not sure if you can find a description on the web. But it is in the Katrin Eismann "Photoshop Restoration and Retouching" book. It's not easy to use, but it gives the best results one can achive.

By the way, some methods, like the "Channel Mixer" have to be used carefully. One can easily get blown out highlights. Use the color sampler tool and the histogram to watch highlighs and shadows during the conversion.

[maderito]

Here's a link to an article in Nature Photographers online magazine which discusses most of the techniques mentioned in this thread, including calculations: http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0103/dw0103-1.html . Obviously, there is a lot of potential here for digital artistry!

[msvadi]

nice article

Here's a link to an article in Nature Photographers online magazine which discusses most of the techniques mentioned in this thread, including calculations: http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0103/dw0103-1.html . Obviously, there is a lot of potential here for digital artistry!