Best way to turn color pictures into B&W?

[blovitch]

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A really nice method I use myself (I picked up from a conference) is as follows...

 

I have it all compressed into an action, but it involves creating two adjustment layers from the background image (both desaturate) then using the COLOR blend method between these two layers.

 

Clicking on the adjustment for the middle layer will allow you to adjust hue, saturation and lightness giving fine control of tonal values and overall appearance.

[Iron Flatline]

No Peter, I did not script the Action. It can be found here. Note that it describes the Action step by step, but at the bottom is a link where you can download it, and then install it.

[Peter41951]

Many thanks for the link. I've found a useful .pdf file on Greg Gorman's site (under "learn")

 

Greg Gorman Photography

 

and there a lot of routines, which I've not yet tried, for downloading here:

 

Downloads

[John Maio]

Perhaps I missed it, but the Black and White conversion built in to the new Photoshop Beta allows for a form of channel mixing and, as far as I am concerned, makes plug-ins unnecessary.

 

If you have the Photoshop CS2 version (you'll need your serial number), you can download the free beta here Adobe Labs - Adobe Photoshop CS3

[Guest stnami]

The biggest pitfall with B&W conversion is the temptation to convert a shitty colour image into B&W in the hope that it will look better. Sure instantly it may look better but that's usually due to an instant transformation, the composition will not change etc,

I still reckon the best way is to take images with the intent of them being black and white. Though red and blue may look different they may have the same tonal values in B&W, sure some changes can be made with the various channels to alter tonal levels but large areas still look flat. There is only a certain amount of post processing possible and once too much is applied the crispness of the image disappears.

 

The dull thud.......image returns

[fjmcsu]

Jose Luis,

Check this site out.Nice actions for free & informative. Also some other nice free downloads available.

Introduction To The Tone Management System

thanks

Frank

[skimmel]

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There is a pretty good overview on this very topic in the most recent Shutterbug. I'm still reading it over, but it's a nice overview of several methods you can do without a plug-in.

[johnwolf]

...creating two adjustment layers from the background image (both desaturate) then using the COLOR blend method between these two layers.

Clicking on the adjustment for the middle layer will allow you to adjust hue, saturation and lightness giving fine control of tonal values and overall appearance.

 

I use a version of this method also and find it very good. Create two Hue/Saturation adjustment layers, the first one with blend mode Color and the second (top) Normal with -100 saturation. Then vary the hue of the slider of the first layer. Usually staying in the red/blue range gives the best results. The green tends to introduce noise.

 

John

[Guest WPalank]

I'm really liking the new B&W features on CS3. I like the fact that if you right click on a specific tonal range of your image, the cursor turns into a scrubby slider and by moving your mouse left or right you can quickly lighten or darken that specific range. (On the following screenshots, I clicked on the model's forehead and moved the mouse to the right, lightening her skin tone without effecting the rest of the image.):

 

[cmb_]

Some more info on this thread:

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/13013-color-conversion-b-w-photoshop.html

[Guest flatfour]

Steve. I am an admirer of your knowledge and skill with Photoshop etc. I am a newcomer and therfore tend to look for the simplest route to achieve what I require. So I took the colour picture of the racing car and changed it in my simpleton's way. Mode grayscale., Mode RGB, Colour balance, till got it right. This is the result.

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[kamilsukun]

I'm really liking the new B&W features on CS3. I like the fact that if you right click on a specific tonal range of your image, the cursor turns into a scrubby slider and by moving your mouse left or right you can quickly lighten or darken that specific range. (On the following screenshots, I clicked on the model's forehead and moved the mouse to the right, lightening her skin tone without effecting the rest of the image.):

 

 

William,

Capture NX a photo processing software from Nikon which is usable fon any JPEG and/or TIFF file also enables the user to modify a certain area of the image. While doing this it blends the specs of the adjacent area in a a non noticable way. I would strogly reccomend it for partial touches. Aplied to your example above it could change the tonality of the forehead without affecting the lips.

 

It also includes fine alternatives for B&W conversion simulating full spectrum color filters with %100 choices of intensity.

It might be worth trying.

http://www.capturenx.com

Please also see the online tutorial. Excellently prepared and presented in lage size QuickTime.

[Your Old Dog]

Kamil, thanks for pointing that new feature of CS3. I do a lot of B&W and didn't think CS3 held much interest for me until now.

 

I have been using Channel Mixer - mono chrome - 44 -33 -33 on the sliders. Then go to Shadow/Highlight and tweak "midtone" contrast then go to Brightness/Contrast and drop brightness back and bring up the contrast and i get acceptable results. I find my methode works best if the image is slightly underexposed because in the last step I bring up the contrast until I see a pure white anywhere on the image. To me, you can't have a good B&W print with out rich blacks and rich whites somewhere in the picture for referance to all the other subtle values. So many B&W prints to me look flat. If you are shooting in the fog I can understand that but not in any other circumstance.

 

Now I guess I need CS3 !! LOL

[kepstein]

I am using the R-D1, and I frequently shoot in B+W RAW mode. If I use PhotoRAW to process (Epson RAW converter), I never see the image in color. How does Epson process B+W; it looks quite good to my eyes.

 

Thanks,

Ken

[kamilsukun]

Kamil, thanks for pointing that new feature of CS3.

 

Ray,

 

Thenk you for addressing me and very useful information. However it is not me but William Palank who pointed out the facilities of CS3. I tried to make a reminder of a Nikon software, Capture NX which also have some very flexible facilites regarding B&W conversion.

 

One more thing; Andy Piper, in his review of Digulux 2 analysed the B&W preference of Leica and found out that it was close to the values, 35, 55, 10 in PS Channel Mixer. This formula in my humble opinion outputs a very pleasant rusult. Worth to be tried.

[johnwolf]

 

Ray,

 

I've been using the Channel Mixer method, but like your added adjustments very much. Thanks.

 

John

[Artichoke]

there is no best way, but I have foundPhoto-Plugins action for PS a flexible and simple to use action

here is a link B/W Conversion - Photo-Plugins

and here is a conversion from color I did using it

this plugin can add grain, a color filter & a monotone color as well as emulate well known BW film stock (sort of)

while it is free, they do ask for a donation should you find it useful

ATN Central has some 14 B/W converter actions available to try as well

here is a link to this treasure trove for folks using PS Downloads

hope this helps

[Cruewell]

The biggest pitfall with B&W conversion is the temptation to convert a shitty colour image into B&W in the hope that it will look better. Sure instantly it may look better but that's usually due to an instant transformation, the composition will not change etc,

I still reckon the best way is to take images with the intent of them being black and white. Though red and blue may look different they may have the same tonal values in B&W, sure some changes can be made with the various channels to alter tonal levels but large areas still look flat. There is only a certain amount of post processing possible and once too much is applied the crispness of the image disappears.

 

The dull thud.......image returns

 

 

Not my case. If I produce a bad B&W picture it's because I screwed when shooting. Having shot B&W most of my life, I try to become colour blind and see my subject only in terms of light and contrast when my final product is to be B&W. Alas, I don't always succeed.

 

Thanks to you all I discovered Photoshop has a lot more to offer than I was aware of. I am now using Channel Mixer and plan to try out Calculations soon. While I want my B&W pics to look as good as possible, I am not trying to replicate such film features as grain, though I took good note of how much praise Alien Skin got here. So I'll exploit all the PS possibilities before trying something new.

 

One of the cons of digital photography is you have to become a software expert if you want to get the best out of your pictures, and that takes an awful lot of time, and it's not time spent outdoors with the camera in your hands. But there are many pros to digital photography that compensate for that. I wish the day had 36 hours and I only needed 4 of sleep!

[kamilsukun]

No Peter, I did not script the Action. It can be found here. Note that it describes the Action step by step, but at the bottom is a link where you can download it, and then install it.

 

Iron Flatline,

 

Thanks for the link. I downloaded and tried the Action. It works very well.

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Hallo,

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