[john carter]

Is anyone interested in B&W conversions (from DSLRs)? I would like to see some sharing of techniques. I will start. I use a preset Tri-X channel mixer then I adjust levels. I now go to brightness/contrast. Then the final move is to set UnSharpMask at 20-50-0. If it still isn't 'right' I go to curves. Here is on of mine, I used this one because it was a tough one: Display photo - photo.net

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Last edited by john carter; 06-08-2007 at 05:50 PM. Reason: gammar & to add image

[PDL]

check out this thread

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/post-your-photos/6838-anyone-else-use-the...arge-pics.html

It has sort of slacked off - but to answer your question ---- yes some of us are very interested in B&W using DSLR's or any digital imaging system.

PDL

[Paul_C]

Okay, here's a quick rundown on a recent success. I love this image. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Started with a 16-bit AdobeRGB base, used lens correction to deskew it a bit, and PK Sharpener's capture sharpening at "digital high-res, superfine".

Stamped a merged-visible layer (ctrl + shift + alt + e) and on it did the conversion to black and white using the t-max 100 preset in the alienskin exposure plugin (which has become my go-to plugin for just about every image now). This turned out not to need tweaking in the plugin at all, the t-max 100 preset was fine for this image.

After that I used a couple of gray overlay layers for dodging and burning. Add a layer filled with 50% gray, set to overlay, and paint on it with a soft brush set to between 5 - 20% opacity in white or black for dodging and burning respectively.

(Tip: [ and ] keys decrease and increase brush size, while { and } decrease and increase brush hardness. A little practice with one hand on the keyboard playing the hotkeys and one hand on the mouse painting quickly becomes a *very* smooth and natural way to work. It's a great way to effectively paint layers into each other via layer masks, for dodging and burning, or for anything that requires you to go to a brush.)

Hammered ctrl + shift + alt + e again, copied it to a new document, did a selenium quadtone on it, and copied it back to the original PSD as another layer. The new document is needed because you first have to convert the original 16-bit RGB to 8-bit grayscale and then to duotone. I like to keep my precious bits which get blended into the result.

Duplicated the quadtone layer - set one blending mode to luminosity and one to color. Playing with the opacities of each of these let me control very effectively just how that quadtone "took" to the image.

After this mashed on ctrl + shift + alt + e again and did a "local contrast enhancement" with a low-power, high-radius unsharp mask. I always run it with a slightly higher power than what I think I want and compensate by adjusting the layer's opacity. It's easier to fine-tune, I think.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Paul

House #1 - Mountain View, CA. 2007

[john carter]

PDL those are great images, and Paul C. thanks for the workflow. I like the Mountain view house. We have a few like that around Danville, CA. Maybe, I'll try to duplicate using your method.

[jmax]

I'm glad to see that some here are doing b&w from digital. I'd be interested in seeing more work. I've been printing b&w digitally for some time from medium and large format scans, but I've just purchased a K10D which is my first serious (i.e., non point and shoot) digital.

I was recently involved in a b&w digital print exchange with 14 other photographers. Some of the prints were from negative scans and some were from digital cameras. While the workflow information dealt mainly with printing, one of the best prints in the exchange was from a digital photographer that said he used Greg Gorman's method for b&w conversion:

http://www.gormanphotography.com/bw_conversion.pdf

[john carter]

At one point in my messy career as a digital color B&W converter, I had 12 different methods of conversion. Some were very simple, others were just crazy. Greg Gormans was fine, but I wanted some method that I controlled. I have settled on MY method which is very briefly shown above. Everybody has there own 'tricks' doing conversions, I gave one of (not) mine, using UnSharpMask 20-50-0. One of my other ones is getting the color image in TIFF 16 by way of RAW the best it can be. Then convert. I have some other 'tricks' some my own and some from other people. Keep posting.

[db2]

I've been using Picture Window Pro, which is great as it handles Raw and JPEG's in the same setup. I think the secret is to use RAW files because of the greater bit depth, which gives better tonal range. I know I'm probably the last person on Earth to realise that but hey, it did get there! PWP let's one put a colour filter over the image and I simply try them all till I like the result. Then a little unsharp mask.

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