B&W Conversion Technique... - Printable Version

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B&W Conversion Technique... - Cailean - Sep 21, 2004

Converting a colour image to B&W (greyscale) is fairly straightforward even with the most basic photo-editing software. To get a really fabulous B&W photo, however, I think more finesse is required. Just playing with the brightness & contrast a little can make a huge difference...

So I have two questions for those of you who do this alot:

1) What techniques do you ALWAYS use when converting to B&W to maximize the effect?

2) What other techniques do you use when you want a specific effect?

(The less Photoshop-specific the answers, the better!)

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B&W Conversion Technique... - Toad - Sep 21, 2004

I know one really great method for getting a B&W that looks really Ansel Adams-ish, but it is very PhotoShop specific.

Use the channel mixer and set it to Monochrome mode - now jack the red and green channels really high - say 150 - 200 (you need to play with this to your taste)

Now drop the blue channel really low - say -200. You will have a VERY dramatic B&W.

I know this sounds goofy but try it and see.

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B&W Conversion Technique... - Cailean - Sep 21, 2004

I don't think I have a channel mixer available to me in Serif PhotoPlus 5.5, but since I just picked up a magazine with SPP6 bundled in it, perhaps I can use your great tip!

BTW, Adams' work (and, later, Brassai's) was what first drew me to photography... hey that sounds like a new topic....

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B&W Conversion Technique... - slejhamer - Sep 21, 2004

Channel mixer in Photoshop is my favorite, with an underlying hue/saturation layer which functions as a colored filter commonly used in B&W work.

Others that are interesting are converting to Lab mode and using only the lightness channel, and of course duo/tri/quad-tones.

You really should upgrade to Photoshop ...

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B&W Conversion Technique... - StudioJ - Sep 21, 2004

'toning it is definitely my preferred choice but to get to that stage it initially starts out using channel mixer like everyone else.

Whatever you do if you do use Photoshop DO NOT use Desaturate or convert it to Greyscale unless you really don't care.

I feel a bit envious of all you traditionalists with your antique idols, all I have to follow in the footsteps of is people like Sante D'Orazio and Helmut Newton. Hey wait, I don't feely gyped at all

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