Basic tips/techniques for conversions?

[Loa]

Hello,

I've been browsing through this forum and I must say that I'm seeing black&white images in a whole new light: I love them!

I've been testing out conversions in PS3, mainly using B&W, Curves and Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers. I'm failry satisfied with the results, but most of the images posted in this part of the forum are a lot better.

I'm guessing there are ways to get better B&W images, both from a change in shooting strategies and PS3 converting/editing techniques.

I've looked around but haven't found a tutorial or tips thread. Have I missed them?

Thanks,

Loa

[D.Rodgers]

Have you seen Rense's plugin for photoshop.
I can attest to the quality results from what I've seen here.
http://www.photocamel.com/forum/mode...l-members.html

[Loa]

Hello,

Thanks for the link. I already posted on that thread, but I'm a mac user and I can't get that pulg-in... :-(

Loa

[Rense]

Loa,
Post one of your color photo's and we talk you the way to B/W ...

[Loa]

Hello,

Thanks for the offer Rense.

Here's one I really like.

Thanks again!

Loa

[Rense]

well here we go:

step 1: see the light: desaturate the colors (because the colors can distract from the real lightness) and indicate where there is too much light (blue) and too little light (rose)


step 2: get the tonal range oke: apply levels: pull in black/white points a little. This image has been taken in full sun, lower the gamma somewhat


step 3: get the basis right: split channels and look for the most contrast (red and green mostly with portraits)


step 4: combine the information: I choose to add the darkest parts of the red channel to the green channel (calculations source1 =green channel, source 2=red channel, blending=multiply)


step 5: apply the light: dodge with a large soft brush the rose regions, burn the blue regions


step 6: make it work: add a little grain 5% gaussian, remove the color burn under his left eye


step 7: hold it together: burn the edges (new layer gradient fill using foreground to transparannt angle=90 another new layer this time angle = 0, merge down the gradiebnt layers, set blendmode to soft light opacity 20%)
et voila:
.

[Loa]

Hello Rense,

Thanks a lot for this tutorial!!! As a bonus I learned a few new PS things I'll have to learn to get familiar with.

Any tips when "shooting" with B&W in mind?

Thanks again,

Loa

[Rense]

No thanks needed Loa, it was a nice thing to do.

Mind you: this conversion is only one possibility. I could alter the imageimpression completely by using different techinques.

Maybe other forummembers also want to have a go at this shot.

There are quite few tricks for shooting B/W, I need some more time to write these up.

[D.Rodgers]

Originally Posted by Loa

Hello Rense

Any tips when "shooting" with B&W in mind?

Thats a tough question as it really depends on the style of your images and your B&W techniques .
Theres a few rules I follow, blown highlights can be exaggerated in a black and white also anything to do with the sky really needs clouds . Grey mid -day bright toneless sky's become very boring in b&w.
That said I blow highlights on purpose to get an old feel to my images .I like the bleed that it offers.
The other thing is colors theres three to be concerned with rgb thats it .This are you primary colors when adjusting for b&w.
I look for scenes that are heavy in red and green its gives me more tonal range in my conversions I tend to create darker images.


This is the best advice I can give.Practice and try diffrent things shoot overexposed ,underexposed and all things in between.
Take a image open it up and try oversaturate the colors before you process it and see what happens when you start converting ,its like magic flat tones disappear and it becomes more artistic etc.

Then when you have a style you've honed in on ,it's much easier to shoot for your conversions because you know what to expect.

I hope this helps Rense already covered the conversion process and he knows much more then me on that.
Good luck and looking forward to seeing some conversions.

[D.Rodgers]

styles vary so much .
Using a Nikon nx capture converter I chose a heavy red filter to darken the green in the trees to bring the subject forward

[Lee4145]

Channel mixer method. Monochrome and slider values of R = 40 G = 50 B = 10

Nothing else. No mask, no blending, nothing.

[Lee4145]

And this one is a split channel thing as Rense described. I threw away the blue channel completely.

I just stacked the Red on top of the Green and put a mask on the Red channel at 70% so some of the dark would show through. Then I used a black brush to paint in a little more of the green channel where I wanted it. Primarily on his face.

[Rense]

.. Rense already covered ..

That is really optimistic: I didn't even cover 10% of the possible ways to convert to B/W.

[Rense]

that is a nice conversion Lee4145.

[Rense]

Good tips from mr. Rodgers.
In the weekend I will share some more tips. For now remember the golden rule:
film: expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights
digital: expose for the highlight, develop for the shadows.

This is the first step on to the path of a good exposure (and by the way also the first step to the zone system (don't be afraid)).

B/W also affects composition and you can play tricks with light by using filters.

boy this sounds like a 5day course.

[D.Rodgers]

Originally Posted by Rense

Good tips from mr. Rodgers

boy this sounds like a 5day course.

I'll grab a desk in the back.. Perma student

[Loa]

Hello,

Thanks all for the added info and conversions... So many way to do this. In some way, it's a lot more open than editing a color image. Very interesting!

Loa

[Loa]

Hello,

Forgot to ask: about the expose for shadows and develop for highlights...

I've never really used film. I'm old enough, but I wasn't really into photography before the digital revolution.

I'm not sure I understand the difference in the digital world. The way I read it now is this: for digital, expose the highlights correctly (thus getting a darker photo), then correct the darkness with an editor.

I've read somewhere that with a digital camera, we should "expose right", thus getting brighter images, which we then "darken" with an editor.

Right now I'm not sure which is better!

Loa

[Rense]

It is weekend, so here are my tips:

Making a B/W is all about the distribution of gray matter (pun intended ).

At shooting time, this distribution has two aspects:
[1] where on the image do you see things (translates to composition)
[2] what is the light-value of the gray (translates to exposure and filter use).

Effects on composition
Going from color to B/W is a difficult thing to grasp, because the development procedure determines the final appearance of these two distributions.

Lets illustrate this with the following (hypothetical) situation.
Suppose I found some chips of paint and made a composition like:

Original Paint chips


not a great composition but it will do for this tutorial.

If I convert this in photoshop (by image|mode|gray scale) I get:
Gray conversion

all the same value gray, and so a dull composition.

The gray scale conversion is a monochrome color mixer with value: 30%Red+59%Green+11%Blue simulating the relative high absorbance of the cones for the value green
(see this link for more info ).

In searching for these paint chips I did my utmost best (only the best is good enough for the camel ) to find specific colors so that a conversion to Agfa 200X film (simulated by channelmixer settings: 18%Red+41%Green+41%Blue) would give the same grayvalue (try it in PS if you don't believe it):
Agfa 200X conversion


So here we have an image that can be converted in two complete different ways to the same B/W image.

In setting up the composition you have to see through this whole proces to get it right for the final image.

You learn it by practice, but you can also use some tooling for this (all based on a wratten #90 filter): Contrast viewers. In this way you can really (learn to) see in Black and White.

Since we loose color information it is worthwhile to pay attention to the recognition -subconscious or not- of building blocks like graphical shapes and distribution of light.

This brings me to the second part: what is the light-value of the gray?

This light value is determined by the choosen exposure and the fact that you can increase or decrease the lightness by using filters.

First the exposure.
I assume you are shooting digital. In that case you have to expose for the highlights and develop for the shadows.
I use spotmetering and meter the lightest part of the scene that I want to have some texture (in the zone-system nomenclature you place this highlight at zone IX).

Suppose this is f/8;1/30s @ISO 100. Since the meter thinks that this lightness value equals 18% gray (that is regarded as zone V in zone system parlance), you have to let in 4 (=IX-V) stops more light. Keeping the same aperture value this gives: f/8;1/4s@ISO 100.

Finally the use of filters.

In order to enhance some colors, you can add a filter at exposure time.

To understand this well, you have to know these three basic facts:
[1] An filter enhances (i.e. lightens up) the same color as the filter and darkens the opposite color.
So a yellow filter will lighten yellow colors and darken the blues.

[2] There are three important filters: yellow,red,green.
[*] yellow is used for landscape/water scenes in order to get the blues right
[*] red is used for darkening the sky
[*] green is used for rendering leaves and portraits.

[3] each filter comes in different strengths, for instance a yellow filter is normally #8 that gives a correction to panchromatic films, but there is also a stronger version (often designated as #12) that has the nickname: minus blue filter: virtually all the blue light is absorbed.

For more info on filters, check out the following links:
[*] Tiffen Black and white images
[*] chapter 5 of Ansel Adams book: The negative
[*] the free opanda photo filter tool
[*] the just recently released expensive but real good: Tiffen filter Dfx suite

To make the story complete you can see below the paint chips image as throug a yellow/red/green filter:
Yellow filter

Red filter

Green filter


To get you going, some old filmsettings for the channelmixer:
Film %R %G %B
Agfa 200X 18,41,41
Agfapan 25 25,39,36
Agfapan 100 21,40,39
Agfapan 400 20,41,39
Ilford Delta 100 21,42,37
Ilford Delta 400 22,42,36
Ilford Delta 400 Pro 31,36,33
Ilford FP4 28,41,31
Ilford HP5 23,37,40
Ilford Pan F 33,36,31
Ilford SFX 36,31,33
Ilford XP2 Super 21,42,37
Kodak Tmax 100 24,37,39
Kodak Tmax 400 27,36,37
Kodak Tri-X 25,35,40
Normal Contrast 43,33,30
High Contrast 40,34,60

Finally, you could check out this book for checking out both the conversion process and the setup for B/W photo's.

[Loa]

Hello Rense

Thanks again for the updated and added info. I'll start playing around in PS even more! Not sure I'll go into filters too much, as Iw ant to keep a full-color original. But maybe I'll get myself one of those contrast viewers.

I'll run out of photos to play with soon! (nah... don't think so!)

Thanks

Loa