Converting to B&W

[John V.]

I have some abstract oil paintings I'd like to experiment with printing out in B&W, maybe on a metallic paper or metallic canvas. I've gone through and read things like http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-black-and-white-photoshop-conversion-techniques--photo-488 and similar.

Anyone have any general advice or do's/dont's when it comes to this type of things. This is all digital. Looking for more proper techniques as compared to time saving. What factors should determine how one goes about this?

[digitaldog]

Watch this video:
http://mulita.com/blog/?p=1244

[Jeremy Roussak]

I have some abstract oil paintings I'd like to experiment with printing out in B&W, maybe on a metallic paper or metallic canvas. I've gone through and read things like http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-black-and-white-photoshop-conversion-techniques--photo-488 and similar.

Anyone have any general advice or do's/dont's when it comes to this type of things. This is all digital. Looking for more proper techniques as compared to time saving. What factors should determine how one goes about this?

It's an interesting article but it doesn't have what is IMHO the single best piece of advice: use Silver Efex Pro.

Jeremy

[PeterAit]

Given the subject matter, it will pretty much all be subjective. There are people here who could give you advice on converting a color landscape or other photo to BW in a way that makes it look like it was taken with BW film, but that's not the case here. There's no "right" way to do what you want except the way that gives the results you like. I highly recommend LightRoom if you have it. Click B&W on the HSL/Color/BW tab and use the sliders to change how each of the hues is converted to gray - very flexible!

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Given the subject matter, it will pretty much all be subjective. There are people here who could give you advice on converting a color landscape or other photo to BW in a way that makes it look like it was taken with BW film, but that's not the case here. There's no "right" way to do what you want except the way that gives the results you like. I highly recommend LightRoom if you have it. Click B&W on the HSL/Color/BW tab and use the sliders to change how each of the hues is converted to gray - very flexible!

I agree. I also have Silver Efex Pro, but I find the Lightroom sliders much easier to get whatever effect I'm after.

[Isaac]

"From Oz to Kansas: Almost Every Black and White Conversion Technique Known to Man"

[digitaldog]

If you can do it at the raw processing stage, and that's oh so possible in LR/ACR as outlined, so much the better.