Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: RISKAS on June 10, 2006, 06:43:48 pm

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: RISKAS on June 10, 2006, 06:43:48 pm

Hi fellows!
What is the best way to make B&W photos with a canon 300d and the photoshop cs?
For me,in dark room and 35mm film are easyer,or not?

Riskas

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: Tim Gray on June 10, 2006, 09:35:45 pm

a relatively basic video tutorial is here:

http://www.radiantvista.com/video_tutorials/ (http://www.radiantvista.com/video_tutorials/)

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: larkvi on June 11, 2006, 03:21:36 am

Quote

Hi fellows!
What is the best way to make B&W photos with a canon 300d and the photoshop cs?
For me,in dark room and 35mm film are easyer,or not?

Riskas
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=67885\")

If you have a good deal of darkroom experience, I would suggest [a href=\"http://www.theimagingfactory.com/data/pages/info/cbwp/cbwp.htm]Convert to Black and White Pro[/url], as it uses a darkroom-inspired interface, and tries to make the decisions as similar as possible (except without the smell, the mess, the wet, and the dark).

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: Hendrik on June 11, 2006, 01:31:15 pm

There are many plug-ins/actions available that can aid you. Remember that all wizardry from plug-ins or actions are normal PS edits, available to everyone. I also use a plug-in from http://powerretouche.com/ (http://powerretouche.com/). Fred Miranda also has good plug-ins/actions: http://www.fredmiranda.com/actions (http://www.fredmiranda.com/actions) There are many more.

There is no ‘best way’, so my suggestion is to do a google search and experiment with PS. When you’re not satisfied, you can buy an action from someone …and experiment some more.

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on June 11, 2006, 02:40:04 pm

I second larkvi's suggestion of Convert To Black and White Pro. The interface is simple, effective, and intuitive, and it gives lots of just the right kind of control. It is one of the best plugins around, IMHO.

Eric

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: 61Dynamic on June 11, 2006, 02:44:39 pm

The best way depends on your tastes, but the Channel Mixer is typically the most popular and the most flexible.

My Digital B&W series (http://www.dynamicartwork.com/articles/digital_bw) covers all the methods I know of (other techniques can stem from these or combine them) for converting a color image to BW in Photoshop.

Some tips to remember:

• Shoot Raw. Digital suffers in capturing highlight detail compared to film which is very important for BW. Shooting Raw allows you to retain as much detail as possible. You also benefit from having as many as 4,000+ luminosity levels to work with (when converted to a 48-bit file) vs 256 with a jpeg (Figuring Bit-Depth (http://www.oaktree-imaging.com/bit-depth)).
• Add contrast. You will loose contrast during the conversion process regardless which technique you use. Some images more than others. Adding contrast with curves may be necessary in many cases.
• Blacks. Adjust the black point and don't be afraid to clip some blacks. Solid blacks in a BW image gives the eye an anchor and can drastically improve an image.

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: john beardsworth on June 11, 2006, 02:58:53 pm

Another firm vote for the Channel Mixer adjustment layer - one or more - and to advise you not to blow money on actions or plug ins that pretend to simulate a particular film.

As Daniel says, don't be afraid to lose contrast a little during the conversion process. Don't clip either highlights or shadows at that stage, only later with a Levels adjustment layer, when the clipping can easily be reversed.

I'd generally try to avoid blown highlights with b&w. Following on from what Daniel says about clipping blacks to anchor the image, the eye is drawn from the shadows and to the lightest parts of the image. If these are blown, it often detracts from the result.

John

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: RISKAS on June 11, 2006, 06:27:18 pm

THANK YOU VERY MUCH GUYS.i'LL TRY EVERY FORMS AND SEE WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR ME.

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: plugsnpixels on June 15, 2006, 11:08:49 pm

Check the list of plug-in options under the B&W Conversion heading here (http://www.plugsnpixels.com/imageeffects.html). I've provided screenshots and results from each.

I agree; Convert To B/W Pro is very excellent.

PS: Tim, thanks for posting your link! Fantastic stuff. I added you to my Links (http://www.plugsnpixels.com/links.html) page under Photoshop tutorials.

Title: B&W Photos
Post by: Jonathan Wienke on June 18, 2006, 10:16:51 pm

Quote

I second larkvi's suggestion of Convert To Black and White Pro. The interface is simple, effective, and intuitive, and it gives lots of just the right kind of control. It is one of the best plugins around, IMHO.

And I third the recommendation, for pretty much the same reasons.