C&C Please BW Conversion

[sunnygirl]

Welcome C&C as I seem to struggle with BW conversion
Here is original

1.

[sunnygirl]

My 1st attempt - seems a bit flat to me.

[Nathan]

i'm not sure how this will look on your monitor... last time i tried a black and white on this uncalibrated monitor, it turned out too dark on others.

this isn't a pure black and white... i applied a warming filter at 25%. first thing's first, i masked the man's shirt and flowers to bring back some detail, then merged the layers, adjusted contrast, sharpness, and added noise.

[sunnygirl]

Thanks, Reign, unfortunately it looks really dark on my calibrated monitor, however I think I can see what you are trying to achieve. I was way wrong and I ran it through Noise Ninja, instead of adding noise.

[Nathan]

i really need to buy spyder2... sorry about that

[sunnygirl]

Sorry tamtanium yours is even darker on my monitor. Are you PP the original or my darker BW, maybe thats why they are coming up dark

[chauncey]

If you have problems with your base image, blown highlights, your conversion won't improve things.

Anticipation of a conversion starts when you squeeze the shutter.

[fadetoblack22]

i'm not sure how this will look on your monitor... last time i tried a black and white on this uncalibrated monitor, it turned out too dark on others.

this isn't a pure black and white... i applied a warming filter at 25%. first thing's first, i masked the man's shirt and flowers to bring back some detail, then merged the layers, adjusted contrast, sharpness, and added noise.

I don't think this looks better than the OP's version. Kind of looks like a bad flash shot on my monitor.

[Nathan]

This was my second attempt at a black and white version. I guess I'm not sure of what it is really that I want to achieve.

[fadetoblack22]

I added a few touch-ups to show how I think it should look:

Method:

1) Hold down alt and click the new layer button in the layers area.
2) Select overlay and tick the 50% gray box.
3) Now select a nice soft brush and lower the opacity to between 20 and 30%
4) Press "D" to set the palette to B&W. Paint on the image as if you are dodging and burning.
5) If you make a mistake switch to the opposite colour.

[dkord]

image deleted

[fadetoblack22]

Here's the tweaks I made in CS3, took about 15 minutes.


yeh, that looks good! although I think their skin looks too dark.

[sunnygirl]

I don't think this looks better than the OP's version. Kind of looks like a bad flash shot on my monitor.

My histogram stated at capture that there were no blown highlights, however the grooms shirt was very shiny. I personally think I could have turned down flash compensation a bit more.

I will try a few different conversions using the tips given here and see what I get.

Thanks everyone, your C& C is appreciated.

[Nathan]

The groom's shirt in the original picture isn't bad at all... I just thought it better to tone it down a little in a b&w because it stands out a little too much, in my opinion... I was careful to note, however, that the flowers details seem lost in the original post... look at mine and you should see more detail.

I looked at the my edit on a calibrated monitor and I'm not too concerned about how dark it is. I would lighten it up a notch, but I like the high contrast and grainy look.

Otherwise, I think the image does suffer a little from direct flash (if that's where all the shiny spots on the face, flowers, almost blown shirt cuff, etc... comes from)

[dkord]

Yeah, the faces can be lighten, but I would check the histogram again, it was definately climbing up the right wall on these jpegs. Could be the background highlights too.
Soft bounce would of help control the harsh lights.
Glad you've moved on, I'll delete my conversion.

[12stones]

Here's my take. First, there are definitely highlights blown in this image. Just look above the groom's shoulder. Also, the lighting on their faces could be softer. I fixed the shiny spots. Then it's a desaturation, and levels adjustment, with some tone mods.

[sunnygirl]

Agree 12 stones that lighting on face could have been softer, but with lower flash compensation some of the early shots were too dark (harsh tropical afternoon sun), that's why they I put them under the trees. I have a lumiquest small softbox for flash but I normally only use that for inside shots. Maybe that would have worked?

Is there any easy technique to remove hot spots from the face, I have tried cloning but ends up patchy?

BTW I really like this conversion, thanks!

[Nathan]

Here's a 2 minute fix. I'd do this on the color then convert to b&w. If you have ACR, then you can recover a lot of the detail in her face by sliding the recovery bar... I did it a little less than half way. The easiest, easiest fix... though technically may produce so so results... is what I did next. In Photoshop, open a new layer. Color sampled areas around the hotspots. Colored in the spots. I color sampled a few areas and colored those in (her lips, her right eye, his face). Then I reduced the layer fill. Lastly, I took the eraser and set it on a decent size brush and 10% strength and dabbed the areas if they looked unnatural.

Again, just a 2 minute fix. I think there are better ways, but this is the easiest method I've found.

[sunnygirl]

Thanks, Reign, great 2 minute fix with desired result - cool. I'm all for the easiest option, I shall definitely give it a go.

I use recovery tool in LR which I did initially but I think I have played around too much in CS3 and didn't recheck histogram. My reasoning I suppose is I prefer the white vs grey look of BG shirt in original, IMHO, even if a little detail is lost. Probably not the correct thing to do, though.

[Nathan]

I see your point... I overdid it with the shirt. Overall, my image is kinda dark... makes it look more like an evening shot with artificial lighting than afternoon.

Oh, and if I was unclear before... color on the blank layer... not the original photo... and change the fill or opacity of that blank layer, too

[sunnygirl]

Overall, my image is kinda dark... makes it look more like an evening shot with artificial lighting than afternoon.

Nothing wrong with getting more mileage out of a single image!

Oh, and if I was unclear before... color on the blank layer... not the original photo... and change the fill or opacity of that blank layer, too

Thanks, I would of got into strife. Probably will anyway, LOL

[Nathan]

Amazing what sort of tutorial videos are out there. I found this one that showed me that technique. Masking, however, is generally better... but this was fast and easy to learn.

http://tutorialbucket.googlepages.com/psflashhotspots.html

It has more steps, but I skip them sometimes.

[sunnygirl]

Terrific - great tutorials for all of us who love visual learning. Well worth checking out and I have bookmarked this one. Thanks again