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MrAndMrsIzzy

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Was going through some old negs that hadn't been scanned to see if there was anything there that should've been scanned and possibly edited. Came across this one. Night shot of Manhattan captured from the Jersey side of the Hudson. Full image includes piers on the Jersey side (lower half of the full scan) but I cropped them off in the post-scan editing process.

 

Misc19x27A-1SmallPnet.jpg.ef9005f54af1ef54e20b348f7ab9471a.jpg

Izzy From Brooklyn
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I like the b&w better too.

As for the noise. I don't have a separate noise reducing program, but I did try to reduce it in PS. Didn't work out too well. Not sure what the problem was (me, the program, age of the neg, cheapy scanner, etc.), but it just didn't look right. I'd done that part of the editing on a separate layer, so I deleted it and printed out what was left. I edited the image to print out at about 10x4.8 on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, and it looked ok. Not museum quality I grant you but not bad. That being the case I'm letting it go for now.

Izzy From Brooklyn
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I’d watch the conversion to black and white. It’s noisy to begin with in color, and that increased significantly when you converted. As importantly, note the whites when you converted to b/w. Look at how blown out many of the highlighted areas are in the b/w that weren’t so in the color version. Detail that is in the top of the ES is gone in b/w. Softness in the cloud just above it is completely graphic white in the b/w. Nuance the conversion paying careful attention to details as you do so and I think you’ll find more possibilities for yourself. If the b/w had the benefit of the technically better color version, it would strike me as more powerful, but as it stands, the b/w just appears to me to be full of unnecessary unsightly white sore spots.

"You talkin' to me?"

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I’d watch the conversion to black and white. It’s noisy to begin with in color, and that increased significantly when you converted. As importantly, note the whites when you converted to b/w. Look at how blown out many of the highlighted areas are in the b/w that weren’t so in the color version. Detail that is in the top of the ES is gone in b/w. Softness in the cloud just above it is completely graphic white in the b/w. Nuance the conversion paying careful attention to details as you do so and I think you’ll find more possibilities for yourself. If the b/w had the benefit of the technically better color version, it would strike me as more powerful, but as it stands, the b/w just appears to me to be full of unnecessary unsightly white sore spots.

 

Hmm! I see your point Sam. Question ! When I converted to B&W (as opposed to plain old grayscale), I flipped through the various filter options and went with "Infrared" then went into curves and chose "Strong Contrast". Might those two picks have added to the problem.

Izzy From Brooklyn
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That’s a very strong likelihood. I don’t use preset conversions, but don’t know what your options are with the software you use. I convert basically using color channels, so I can direct how each of many colors converts to grayscale. Then I use levels and curves to get to the degree of contrast I want.

"You talkin' to me?"

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That’s a very strong likelihood. I don’t use preset conversions, but don’t know what your options are with the software you use. I convert basically using color channels, so I can direct how each of many colors converts to grayscale. Then I use levels and curves to get to the degree of contrast I want.

 

PS\CC for most of it but I've only been using it for a little over a year and learning is a slow process. I also use Elements 2020, PSP 2020, and CS3 (the CS3 is on an old XP machine), but as I said the bulk of my editing (at least 90 maybe 95 % is on CC).

Izzy From Brooklyn
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In PS, you can use the raw converter even on a file that’s not raw. Look into it for black and white conversion. It gives you a lot of choice and flexibility. Simply go to OPEN, and then choose OPEN AS RAW. I’m sure there are many tutorials out there. Hers on I quickly browsed that might be helpful. A search will find others. As always, when working even with color channels, you have to be careful about pushing too far, because you can blow out highlights, muck up shadows and introduce noise when you do.

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/introduction-camera-raw.html

"You talkin' to me?"

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In PS, you can use the raw converter even on a file that’s not raw. Look into it for black and white conversion. It gives you a lot of choice and flexibility. Simply go to OPEN, and then choose OPEN AS RAW. I’m sure there are many tutorials out there. Hers on I quickly browsed that might be helpful. A search will find others. As always, when working even with color channels, you have to be careful about pushing too far, because you can blow out highlights, muck up shadows and introduce noise when you do.

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/introduction-camera-raw.html

 

Thankyou!

Izzy From Brooklyn
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