1st attempt at digi-B/W

[Sumoto]

First a couple of questions:

Im still working various combinations of post edit options in PS to get my shots as close to a real B/W photo as possible........not there yet but getting close. Have any of you used the Fred Miranda BW plug in for PS? If so what are your thoughts?

Whats the best way to print your b/w's? Its my understanding that when you "grey scale" or "desaturate" you throw away all your image data that is used to communicate with your printer. Is there a method to re-communicate your image data to get your printer to print with optimum tonal quality?


Here's a shot of my oak tree out in the back yard

[martin-images]

Quite a nice image could do with more contrast, the way to go in PS IMHO is to use the channel mixer, open it, tick the mono box, reduce red to 0 and increase green to about 100% this will remove image noise, then close it and use your dodge and burn tools in the tools pallete, set opacity for both no more than 13%, i never burn or dodge the midtones only the highlights and shadows , using this method will increase your tonal range, you can also selectively contrast sharpen by going to unsharpe mask, set treshold to 0 radious about 55 then amount to where and how much contrast sharpening you require, basicaly by using this method you are doing what was done in the wet darkroom, ie, dodge and burn, contrast control with differant grades here and there [by using contrast sharpening], give it a go this way you will find you dont need programmes for B&W imaging PS will do it all :-)

Take a peek here to see what i mean,
http://martin-images.smugmug.com/gallery/464835/1/18807416

Regards
Martin

[Sumoto]

Thanks for the tips Martin. I'll play with it an post the results later.

[Sumoto]

no comments on best printing methods???

[T.O.]

Martin's tips are indeed very useful...

In any case, what I do for B&W conversion is the following:

1 - open your colour original
2 - create a "sharpness/saturation" layer, just leave it as it is...
3 - create a second "sharpness/saturation" (yes, a second one), and this time put saturation to 0%
4 - click on your first layer, change to "colour", the image will still be in B&W...
5 - adjust the image settings from the layer menu, saturation, hue, brightness...you can ajust the master channel, or choose red, orange, etc....COMPLETE CONTROL!!!
6 - when you get the tones that you want, save the image as JPG or other format
7 - open the latter image, and adjust shadows and highlights, also midtone contrast, if you want, and levels, curves, etc.

It is a short explanation, if you are interested and need detailed explanations write me a mail.

enjoy,
T.O.

[Rendezvous]

As for the image itself, I like the composition bar the black mark in the lower right corner (is it a bird, is it a plane?...).

[Michaelmjc]

It's a good shot, but it definately needs some more contrast to it.

[Sumoto]

As for the image itself, I like the composition bar the black mark in the lower right corner (is it a bird, is it a plane?...).


The black mark is flare.......should'a used a hood.:o

[TeddyLovessss]

i dont know of any dedicated software to convert color images into BW ones, but in PS, the best way to do that i believe is to use channel mixer, assuming that you know how to use color filters for actual BW. the advantage of digital is that you virtually have millions of filters.

here is a shot of mine. 2 versions, one with color, one in BW.
i used to develope & print in darkroom (wet darkroom) so i know if i had taken this shot in film B&W, i wouldn't have gotten that kind of image.


http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=1536550
http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=1536588

[roman_t]

i downloaded shareware photoplugins' bw converter (cool) and bw studio demo(79$) from photo retouche and i saw f.miranda bw tool which looked neat for 29$. i'll stick to ps channel mixer and other actions discribed at this forum too much.