black&white Best Program for Converting Color to Monochrom

[HarleyTusk]

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Hello,

I was wondering what you guys thought, converting color photos from a Leica M10-P to (B&W) Monochrom photos. What post production program is best? Which proses is best for converting images. (MAC Computer)

also,

Which program is the best for editing Monochrom images? Basic Editing functions to more complex editing? (MAC Computer)

Thanks!

Robert

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[marchyman]

IMHO Best is in the eye of the beholder and the mouse/tablet/pen of the editor.

I use Lightroom Classic.   I first edit in color, then convert to B&W.  Once in B&W I may tweak the B&W mix, in effect adding filters after the fact.   On rare occasions I'll do further processing using Silver Efex Pro -- I bought this in the days when NIK was selling the program -- it may have been updated during the Google years.  I'm somewhat surprised that it that still works in Lightroom.

[zeitz]

Agree that the best is in the eye of the beholder.  Photoshop allows working in Lab color space and offers Channel Mixer which Lightroom does not.  I doubt either of these are used much anymore.  I just was at a photo workshop with Alan Ross who has printed Ansel Adams negatives from 1971 to present.  Alan simply uses a B&W layer in Photoshop adjusting the six color sliders for B&W conversion based on the color content of the base image.  (He never uses the filters.)  Then some Dodging and Burning.  Then some minor adjustments in Curves to get an S-shaped profile instead of flat.  That's it.

[Jeff S]

Same answer I provided here...

Most people end up endorsing whatever software they take the time to learn and get comfortable with.  But the user is still the key.  Otherwise we’d all produce the same results with the same hardware/software. How boring that would be.

Jeff

[jaapv]

On 10/31/2019 at 1:39 AM, HarleyTusk said:

Hello,

I was wondering what you guys thought, converting color photos from a Leica M10-P to (B&W) Monochrom photos. What post production program is best? Which proses is best for converting images. (MAC Computer)

also,

Which program is the best for editing Monochrom images? Basic Editing functions to more complex editing? (MAC Computer)

Thanks!

Robert

Whatever it takes to get the results you want. Sometimes very little, sometimes extensive editing. All major editing programs offer good to excellent B&W editing controls.

If you have to ask this, have a look at ON1, which offers tweakable presets.

[pedaes]

Simple answer - Silver Efex Pro

[HarleyTusk]

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On 10/31/2019 at 11:48 AM, marchyman said:

IMHO Best is in the eye of the beholder and the mouse/tablet/pen of the editor.

I use Lightroom Classic.   I first edit in color, then convert to B&W.  Once in B&W I may tweak the B&W mix, in effect adding filters after the fact.   On rare occasions I'll do further processing using Silver Efex Pro -- I bought this in the days when NIK was selling the program -- it may have been updated during the Google years.  I'm somewhat surprised that it that still works in Lightroom.

Thanks! Very helpful comments! I’m new to this so it all helps!

[Bobitybob]

21 hours ago, pedaes said:

Simple answer - Silver Efex Pro

And if you don't mind the last version developed by Google then you can get it for free here http://dl.google.com/edgedl/photos/nikcollection-full-1.2.11.dmg.  It can be used as a plugin for Lightroom etc or as a stand alone for tiff and jpg files (drag them to the app icon to open) and be mindful that it is a 'destructive' editor so make a copy of your image and work on this just in case you want the colour version as well.

[pedaes]

3 minutes ago, Bobitybob said:

And if you don't mind the last version developed by Google then you can get it for free here http://dl.google.com/edgedl/photos/nikcollection-full-1.2.11.dmg.  It can be used as a plugin for Lightroom etc or as a stand alone for tiff and jpg files (drag them to the app icon to open) and be mindful that it is a 'destructive' editor so make a copy of your image and work on this just in case you want the colour version as well.

Just for completeness would mention if used as a plug-in with LR is non destructive and has option to use LR adjusted version.

[farnz]

On 11/2/2019 at 4:05 PM, pedaes said:

Just for completeness would mention if used as a plug-in with LR is non destructive and has option to use LR adjusted version.

The same with Photoshop.🙂

Pete.

[ianforber]

On 11/4/2019 at 4:42 PM, farnz said:

The same with Photoshop.🙂

Pete.

Same with Luminar 3. I use SFX Pro as a non-destructive plug-in with Luminar (for prob 70% of my images)

Ian

[jaapv]

On 10/31/2019 at 8:09 PM, zeitz said:

Agree that the best is in the eye of the beholder.  Photoshop allows working in Lab color space and offers Channel Mixer which Lightroom does not.  I doubt either of these are used much anymore.  I just was at a photo workshop with Alan Ross who has printed Ansel Adams negatives from 1971 to present.  Alan simply uses a B&W layer in Photoshop adjusting the six color sliders for B&W conversion based on the color content of the base image.  (He never uses the filters.)  Then some Dodging and Burning.  Then some minor adjustments in Curves to get an S-shaped profile instead of flat.  That's it.

I do use LAB, Channel Mixer and Layer Blending...  . And usually two passes of Curves. Once to lift the midtones and then linear contrast.

For converting to B&W I use ACR (profile: flat) and tweak the tones in the colour sliders - then off to Photoshop for cropping, curves, creative sharpening, end sharpening and whatever else takes my fancy.

[ianman]

Iridient Developer is all I ever need. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of all the others but the results are just as good, if not better.