B&W, Toning, Soft Focus filters?

[jadams]

Hi everyone-

I've been playing with some Black and White, Toning, and Soft Focus filters for Photoshop from "The Imaging Factory".

I kind of like them, they seem like fun.

Before I spend the money on these, does anyone have any other suggestions for filters/actions for this purpose?

I ran across a bunch when I did a google search, but without a recommendation from someone I wasn't sure which are good. I picked these up because they have a 30 day trial.

Here's a link to a few shots that I just ran through to see what happened....

http://www.pbase.com/jadams/filter_tests

I'm trying to decide if it's better to run soft focus filters and stuff in post processing, or to put an actual filter on the lens before the shot. I can't make up my mind...

Now if only I could find some filters to put in scratches, tears, and tape marks.. hehe :)

Thanks for your help,

Jasper

[Ken Fong]

For B&W, have you also looked at Silveroxide.com?

Are you thinking about Piezography output as well?... pretty impressive stuff (at a cost however, you will need to dedicate one of your inkjets into a B&W unit.) See inkjetmall.com for samples.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Jasper,

There are several options for B&W that I can think of:

1. The free "convert to grayscale" in LinearSharpen.

2. The free channel mixers from www.digidaan.com. The trick is to find them on his site. :)

3. The inexpensive PS actions from Fred Miranda at http://www.fredmiranda.com/BW_filters/index.html


Also worth checking out are these articles:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/b&w_better.htm

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/duotone.htm

Regards,

[jadams]

Nice links! Thank you....

The articles are exactly what I was looking for.

Jasper