Color to B&W conversion / Best technique w/ Photoshop

[carrawayphotos]

I do a great deal of black and white work, in fact it's my prefered method of

photography. I have recently made the switch to digital, and was curious as to

the best method of converting a color photgraph to B&W digitally. I use Adobe

Photoshop CS2 and I am an adavanced computer user. My CS2 has been juiced up

with several thousand filters and plug-ins, so I have a great deal of options.

If there is anyone out there who uses the same software and regularly converts

color to black and whit I'd love to know how you do it. So far, I have not

found, or maybe not properly used, a B&W filter that seems to do the job right.

[roger_kallet]

I recommend reading Michael Freemen's book, "Mastering Black & White Digital

Photography."

[larry_kincaid1]

Take a look at the www.1clickactions.com/ website for a set of actions for PS. The name is 1click. Developed somewhere in Great Britain. I first saw it recommended here. It's reasonably priced and emulates a variety of traditional black and white films. I gave it a try. It's easy to use, fast. If you don't like the look of the Delta 100 transformation, you can try HP5 or Tri-X, etc., and take your pick. Then you can further refine the image with curves, etc. in PS. I also have the HP5 filter offered by Silver Oxide. Sometimes I have a hard time deciding which one looks better. Last but not least I'd try to do it myself in PS, but frankly I don't think its worth the time and effort when a variety of actions will do it for you. Examine all the steps in the 1-click actions for, say, the Delta 100 emulation and you'll notice that it's doing all the things that are recommended you do yourself in PS.

[tidy]

two great plug-ins that i use are:

 

1. <a href="http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/index.html">alien skin's exposure</a>

- simulates film stock - both b&w and color ...

2. <a href="http://www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro/usa/entry.php?">nik colorfx</a>

- numerous filters including several b&w ...

 

of all the plug-ins i have tried for b&w conversions, i keep coming back to these ...

 

there is always the old stand-by of using the channel mixture and going grayscale ...

[Craig_Cooper11664875449]

Charles,

 

I have done a lot of this although mostly now Im using B&W film. Basically, I dont believe you'll get the best results using batch processing results to convert; each image is different and requires different treatment. Furthermore, conversion applications that purport a Tri-X or Delta feel must begin with a premise that the colour image you begin with is colour-representative of the original scene, which in almost all cases is not, otherwise the application cannot know how to map tones and, therefore, your tonal positions cannot be accurate anyway.

 

A number of tools exist and like many people I'd certainly recommend "Convert to B&W Pro" from the Imagingfactory. What you can do in PS is pre-filter the image to suit your preferred tastes but many times different parts of the image could do better with alternate pre-filtering. Just mark different conversions as a <History> state or take a snapshot then consecutively paint the tonality into the image with the History brush.

 

Its also a good habit to get into with pre-filtering (as with any tonal adjustments) to scan the image to see where you are loosing detail - are shadows blocking up or are highlights blowing out? Personally, I only work in 16-bit mode only in PS7 and have no need for layers working directly on to the final image. I use the curves to effect dodging and burning, again making adjustments considering only one part of the image; then marking this as a history state and then slowly paint the tonality in with the history brush.

 

Although many digital capture B&W images are very good, I still find in general the tonal range and tonal transitions of tradition B&W emulsions cannot be repeated with digital. As for IR, you cant emulate IR on any image once captured regardless of filter - it must be done in the camera.

 

Craig

[emre]

I desaturate in my RAW converter, Bibble: http://www.bibblelabs.com/products/bibble/plugins.html

[robert_brake1]

I like the following. Relatively simple and fast once you get used to it with a great deal of

control. You can build an action to do the bulk of the layers:

 

http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/phs8bwconversion.pdf#search=%

22phs8bwconversion%22

[pico_digoliardi]

Here's the action for Photoshop.

 

Put in your actions folder and enjoy.

 

http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/downloads/bw-conversion.atn

[mike dixon]

There is no <b>best</b> way to do b&w conversions in Photoshop (just as there's not one <b>best</b> b&w film). I've found the AlienSkin Exposure conversion tool is generally quite useful, though their presets don't exactly match film. I've used other methods that also work well. It really depends on the look (and workflow) you want.

[david_banks2]

I second the vote for "Convert to B&W Pro" from the Imagingfactory

[steve foster]

If you have a history of using a wet darkroom then I would suggest having a look at the B&W plug-in available from www.powerretouche.com with this plug in you can emulate different paper grades and different films like TriX or Delta etc. I do not use it but I have heard very good things about it. In fact if you are into using plugins as you obviously are they have a whole suite of plugins dedicated to the photographer.

[www.tshw.cn]

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<img src="http://www.twf269.com/upload/upfiles/200648205358_03.jpg">

 

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[steve_bingham]

My favorite.

Image - Adjust_ Channel Mixer. Click on monochrome and adjust to suit. It is like having a box 0f 100 color correction filters! Just make sure all the sliders add up to 100% total - or not for an unreal look. If you are familiar with using colored filters with B&W film, this will take you back to the good old days - only a bunch quicker!

[vbsmiles]

The best way is what is asthetically appealing to you and simple enough for your personal experience in photoshop. Desaturation of course isn't the best way to meet asthetics, but for some, its the simplist form to start out with.

 

From there you will want to learn how color influences b/w. And the best way to start understanding it is just use a 50% gray on top with color blending. In fact, this is the method that Canons built in b/w uses.

 

When you are ready to go gun hoe, there are still Many many ways to perform the same ideas. If film reproduction interest you, then yes, it's alot easier just to have premade schemes.

 

There is the "Russle Brown method" Which is pretty easy to understand and quite fexible.

 

There is the luminance and color channels that can be used independantly

 

There is the channel mixer which probably has the most flexibility ( or perhaps combined with the curves )

 

With the channel mixer you can create your own little presets. Why use an action unless you are performing much more complex ideas?

 

I have 2 tutorials on B/W in PhotographyCorner that might be interesting to people. Not only does it show you how, it teaches a little bit about theory, and a way to think about it.

 

http://www.photographycorner.com/tutorials/color/basic-b-w-the-next-step

 

http://www.photographycorner.com/tutorials/color/b-w-2-1-the-channel-mixer

[brianchapman]

Here's a link to a bunch of actions that people have published for converting to black and white. There are several that combine many of the different flavors of conversion in to a single action so you can quickly see the results of the different methods. Although cumbersome, it can be very helpful for learning the differences between the methods and also developing the workflow that works best for you.

 

http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm#BW_Conv

 

One thing that's important to note is that many of the methods can be 'improved' by using additional conversion layers and masks so that different areas of the image can be converted differently.

 

Today (this changes regularly!) I use several gradient map layers in combination with the channel mixer to do most of my conversions.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Brian

http://www.brianchapmanphotography.com

[vbsmiles]

Gradient maps can be nice, especially for color toning.

[gonefrompn]

http://www.gormanphotography.com/gorman.html

 

I like Greg Gorman's method. There is a tutorial on the link above. Take some time to look at the picture while you're there...

 

It's a bit difficult, but I get good result with it. I managed to find one "prerecorded" action on the internet somewhere, but I don't recall where.

[photographer lori]

I just posted this same question, before I saw this! Duh! :)

[charliecrusan]

This is a tutorial of how to process photos from color to black and white. It helped me a few years ago. At the end there is a free set of black and white actions for photoshop.

 

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/n_Digital_BW/a_Digital_Black_and_White.html