[Tingchaleun]

Greg Gorman is supposedly a portratist legend. He has a pretty impressive portfolio in terms of the various celebrities he has shot for. I was browsing his website and came across how he converts his colour shots into a more appealing B&W using photoshop. I'll reiterate it here. There are 32 steps and i'd say you need a fairly good idea of how to use PS to follow. I got lost at step 7 - in that, i don't know how to do it. Can someone translate please?

GREG GORMAN
CREATING AN ACTION FOR GORMAN/HOLBERT BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSION
1. OPEN A COLOR IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP
2. UNDER YOUR ACTION PALETTE POP OUT MENU, SELECT NEW ACTION
3. NAME THE ACTION BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSION
4. ASSIGN A FUNCTION KEY SUCH AS F1 TO YOUR ACTION
5. SELECT RECORD
6. UNDER THE IMAGE MENU, SELECT MODE>LAB COLOR
7. CLICK (HIGHLIGHT) THE LIGHTNESS CHANNEL
8. UNDER THE IMAGE MENU, SELECT MODE>GRAYSCALE (DISCARD COLOR INFORMATION)
9. COMMAND\CONTROL CLICK ON THE GRAY CHANNEL (TO LOAD THE SELECTION)
10. UNDER THE SELECT MENU, CHOOSE IMAGE>INVERSE TO SELECT THE SHADOWS
11. UNDER IMAGE MENU, CHOOSE MODE>RGB COLOR
12. IN THE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS PALETTE CHOOSE SOLID COLOR

13. SELECT A COLOR FROM THE COLOR PICKER OR FROM THE SWATCHES PALETTE (WHICH I PREFER BECAUSE YOU CAN SAVE A CUSTOM COLOR)

14. YOUR CHOICE OF COLOR SHOULD BE BASED ON THE TONAL RANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN YOUR FINALTONED B&W

15. GO TO YOUR LAYERS PALETTE AND CHANGE YOUR BLENDING MODE TO MULITIPLY

16. BECAUSE YOUR COLOR FILL IS ON A LAYER YOU MAY ADJUST THE OPACITY TO DIAL BACK THE COLOR THAT YOU DESIRE

17. IN ADDITION (IMPORTANT), YOU MAY ADD A CURVES OR LEVELS ADJUSTMENT TO ACHIEVE THE DESIRED CONTRAST

18. SHOULD YOU WISH TO CHANGE THE COLOR OF YOUR B&W “DUOTONE” SIMPLY DOUBLE CLICK THE COLOR FILL AND RESELECT THE COLOR

19. CREATE A NEW LAYEr

20. WHILE HOLDING THE OPTION BUTTON GO TO THE POP OUT MENU AND SELECT MERGE VISIBLE

21. CHANGE THE BLENDING MODE TO OVERLAY

22. REDUCE THE OPACITY TO 20%
23. CHOOSE FILTER-OTHER. THEN SELECT-HIGH PASS. SET RADIUS AT 50 PIXELS
24. DOUBLE CLICK THE NEW LAYER TO BRING UP LAYER PROPERTIES

25. BRING THE BLACK POINT ARROW IN TO 70. NEXT OPTION CLICK THE BLACK POINT ARROW TO SPLIT THEM, PULLING ONE HALF OF THE ARROW BACK TO 50

26. BRING THE WHITE POINT ARROW IN TO 185. NEXT OPTION CLICK THE WHITE POINT ARROW TO SPLIT THEM,PULLING ONE HALF OF THE ARROW BACK TO 205. CLICK OK

27. IF NECESSARY THE OPACITY MAY BE VARIED TO REACH YOUR DESIRED ADJUSTMENT

28. UNDER THE FILE MENU SELECT SAVE AS AND CHOOSE YOUR FILE AND LOCATION (FOR EXAMPLE DESKTOP>NEW FOLDER> BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSIONS)

29. IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO FLATTEN YOUR FILE AT THIS TIME YOU MAY BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE TONAL AND CONTRAST ADJUSTMENTS TO DIFFERENT SETTINGS IN THE FUTURE IF DESIRED

30. CLOSE YOUR FILE
31. STOP YOUR ACTION IN YOUR ACTION PALETTE

32. THIS COMPLETES CREATING YOUR ACTION AND ASSIGNING A FUNCTION KEY. ALL THAT IS NECESSARY TO DO AFTER OPENING A COLOR IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP IS TO PRESS YOUR FUNCTION KEY. ALL YOUR FINE TUNING ADJUSTMENTS MAY NOW BE PERFORMED ON THE INDIVIDUAL LAYERS AS DESIRED

[Tingchaleun]

CORRECTION, now i am stuck on step 12!!
a) where is the "adjustment Layers Palette"?
b) i don't see "solid colour" anywhere.

[Tingchaleun]

I got pass step 12...

[travis_cooper]

I got pass step 12...

So did you get all the way through or are you stuck on another spot now? For those that got stuck on the same steps, step 7 is under the channels palette. It should be another tab in the same spot as your layers palette. In color mode the channels are red, green, and blue. In lab mode they are lightness, a, and b. This is also how I sharpen my pictures, when I do sharpening I would rather do it just on the lightness because it can usually find edges better. So just selecting lightness will basically show you a black and white image. For step 12 the adjustment layer is in your layers palette, it is at the bottom and is a circle that is half white half black, if you click on that, to add a new adjustment layer, it will show several different types of adjustment layers to choose from, in this case you want to choose solid color.

I will have to give this a try when I get home. I normally do some of these steps when converting, but not quite the same way.

[Tingchaleun]

Here is what i did with my B&W follwing (patiently!) these instructions (up to step 18). Although... for some reason, i have yet to reproduce these results on a consistent basis...i keep forgetting steps somewhere. I think you can tell, i choose a light brownish tone... I added the border

UPDATE: See below, scroll down.

[travis_cooper]

Here is what i did with my B&W follwing (patiently!) these instructions. Although... for some reason, i have yet to reproduce these results on a consistent basis...i keep forgetting steps somewhere. I think you can tell, i choose a light brownish tone... I added the border

If you followed the instructions you should be able to get the results every time without forgetting any steps because he teaches you to make it into an action. Next time you want to apply the conversion to your picture just go to the action you created and hit the play button, or hit the key that you assigned to the action. Then as he mentions you just need to go to the layers it created and play with the tone from there. If you do this you'll never miss a step again.

[Tingchaleun]

If you followed the instructions you should be able to get the results every time without forgetting any steps because he teaches you to make it into an action. Next time you want to apply the conversion to your picture just go to the action you created and hit the play button, or hit the key that you assigned to the action. Then as he mentions you just need to go to the layers it created and play with the tone from there. If you do this you'll never miss a step again.

Yeah, this is the first time i've ever created an "action" in PS. um... i must have made a mistake in the action somewhere. lol. but my first try came out pretty good i'd say!

[travis_cooper]

Yeah, this is the first time i've ever created an "action" in PS. um... i must have made a mistake in the action somewhere. lol. but my first try came out pretty good i'd say!

I agree, the conversion looks pretty good. I can't wait to get home and try it. I would work on the framing/cropping for that particular picture though.

[Tingchaleun]

OK, i followed the instructions again. Thanks to Travis, i was able to do it successfully. I found that up to step 19 is adequate for impressive results. The additional steps up to 32 are a little more complicated....I'll do them later.

[xs400]

Thanks for posting this conversion process. I will work on this later tonight.

[daacon]

Wow I like the photo 32 steps gonna have to try that - it is about 28 more steps than I usually try

[Tingchaleun]

Wow I like the photo 32 steps gonna have to try that - it is about 28 more steps than I usually try

it was absolutely worth it.

[Finn]

Wait -- isn't digital supposed to simplify things? Whatever happened to enlarger -> developer -> stop bath -> fixer?

Oh, but I guess I forgot the test strips, contrast filters, focusing, burning, dodging, rinsing, drying...

So maybe digital b&w isn't any more complicated after all!

[J.Scott]

Wait -- isn't digital supposed to simplify things? Whatever happened to enlarger -> developer -> stop bath -> fixer?

Oh, but I guess I forgot the test strips, contrast filters, focusing, burning, dodging, rinsing, drying...

So maybe digital b&w isn't any more complicated after all!

But I used to like the smell of developer in the morning - it smelled like ... success!

The time a person spends in the darkroom is not deducted from their lifespan.

[hinckc]

I agree, the photo looks great!

Can we see the original color image? I think it might help me visualize the results before I tried to map all these steps from photoshop to paint shop pro, assuming they're all represented....

-Chris