One Wedding: "Dreamy" B&W Digital Conversions

[fotografz]

Having received a fair amount of private e-mails asking how to do those "dreamy" B&W

conversions from digital files, I thought to post an answer here for those interested in the

technique ... and show how the technique was applied it to one wedding for B&W album

images we're printing right now. These were from this past Saturday's wedding

assignment. The link is here:

 

<a href=http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=524341>B&W</a>

 

 

 

The technique used is a combination of how you shoot: let the color temp go warm and

be a bit more red in the color file ... especially the skin. Basically, use just enough fill-flash

and let the tungsten ambient light prevail. If outdoors, just process the files to the warm

side or use a warming filter. The more pinkish the skin, the "dreamier" and blemish free it

will be after the next step...

 

 

 

In Photoshop go to the Channels window; at the top right there's an arrow; click on it and

scroll to split channels. It'll provide separate blue, green and red channel B&W images.

Often people use the green channel for B&W (and I did so for a couple of the images in the

linked folder) ... but I've taken to using the red channel for the look shown in the linked

folder above.

 

 

 

You usually can discard the blue channel image. BUT keep the green one to use for some

layered work if necessary. For example, if the subject is wearing red lipstick, their lips will

be very pale in the red channel image. I then simply select the lips from the green channel

image, feather it 4-5 pixels and drop it into the red channel version. You don't have to be

really precise when selecting ... it's exactly the same image, so it always fits. Adjust the

layer to work with the base image and flatten the file. Then convert the whole file to RGB.

 

 

 

Now adjust using Levels, or whatever you use to adjust tones, and consider using the

Selective Color controls under Image Adjust ... where there are separate Black, Mid-tone

and White controls. Shadow/Highlight is often helpful also because black tuxes tend to be

dark in the red channel image.

 

 

Hope this answers the folks who inquired ... and anyone else interested in this technique.

[stacy]

Wow Marc- these are beautiful photos- and very good information! Thanks so much for sharing...I'll post my try with your method :) Not quite dreamy, but I wasn't shooting for tungsten, so that could be my problem.<div></div>

[scott squire nonfiction]

Stacy,

It may not be perfectly dreamy, but it's an excellent conversion nonetheless.

 

This is something I've been struggling a bit with myself, and I'm going to work on Marc's

procedure. Thank you, good sir! Wonderful work, and generous as ever.

[todd1664878707]

Thanks Marc. That was very generous of you. As always, your images are amazing!

[daydreamsart]

Thanks so much, Marc! I've always admired your B&W and wondered how it was done. I just tried it out on a senior portrait I'm working on. I adjusted tones with the selective color and a bit of shadow/highlight. Also used some of the green channel and set it to multiply, reducing opacity to about 50%. I had never used the "split channels" before. Cool! Thanks for sharing.<div></div>

[fotografz]

Nice job Cindy. Maybe just a touch more contrast ... unless the web compression flattened

it a bit (which it did on some of my shots also). Try a print, you'll be amazed.

[jairy hunter]

What am I doing wrong?<div></div>

[juliet_sequeira___san_jose]

i tried as well.. and here's a before/after<div></div>

[jon jacobson]

For those that have never shot B/W film with a red filter probably are having a difficult time understanding what's happening digitally.

 

A red filter on a lens will cut out the color red reaching the film, and the hue is neutralized. (Is that a legit short explanation?) To digitally "desaturate" the image to B/W, the red still looks dark. Marc is recommending using the ambient light to give the skin tone a natural tint of red (& obviously yellow, but it doesn't matter here) and then "simulating" a red filter. Likewise if you take a color film image, and process it in black and white, the red will look dark.

 

The below image: first is the original color, and then digitally converted to B&W, the second simulating a blue filter, and the third simulating a red filter. I used the channel mixer, 100% red & 100% blue, respectively. Notice how the red and blue shirts change.

 

When adjusting with the channel mixer, it becomes "eye of the beholder." When I'm editing 8 bit and not using an action, I like the Virtual Photographer plug-in.<div></div>

[colleendonovan]

Thank you, thank you, Marc!! You will forever be my hero!!!

Colleen

[kari douma]

Thanks for posting this! I don't have time to try it now, but deffinately will soon!

[jfr]

Thanks for posting this Marc. I always used quite a bit of red in my BW conversion, but never used this much. I tried it out and it looks beautiful, can't wait to see the print.<br><br>

 

Maybe it is possible to make your method even easier. I believe that with the action I posted in the image below, it is possible to avoid having to split the channels and make it a bit faster with a little more control.<br><br>

 

I always used the action below to make BW conversions below. I make two adjustment layers with the settings from the image below. One is there to imitate the filter layer and must bring in the red in this case. The other is there to convert it to BW (called the film layer).<br>

When you set the Hue of the Filter layer to about 45 (whatever looks good to you) you imitate the 'red channel' and the Saturation between 35 and 65 (whatever the image needs) for the adjustment of the grays and blacks, otherwise done in Selective color or levels. This way you can go a bit in between green and red to give the lips some color.<br>

If you do want to copy the lips or another part of the image, you could let the action create a green layer as well offcourse and either create a layer mask or copy the lips and delete the green layer afterwards completely.<br>

If you want to change the hue and saturation afterward, you can just double-click on that layer offcourse. <br><br>

 

This way it speeds up the conversion and the results look the same to me.<div></div>

[cjbryant]

yes, can you post the action link so that it can be downloaded.. thanks

[fotografz]

Sorry, I'm not tracking how the above action is faster than clicking on "Split Channels" and

instantly having three images to compare and evaluate on screen. The Green Channel

often is better than the Red one depending on the lighting. More importantly, no two

images are the same unless shot in sequence. Seems to me an action would be slower, and

may not be the correct action for a given image.

[kari douma]

Alright, here is my try. I used the lips off the green chanel to get them a little darker. Are they too dark? I love this look, but it is time comsuming! I hope I can get faster at it! The first one is how I would have done it before I learned this, the second is Marc's way.<div></div>

[sandra_henderson]

Which version of Photoshop are you guys using because in P7, I go to Image - Adjustments - Channel Mixer and there is not arrow that scrolls to "split channels". It already has a Red, Blue, and Green output channel set at +100% for each color. Boy, do I feel so ignorant.

[fotografz]

Wrong place. See my step-by-step in the other thread where you asked about this.

[fotografz]

Much better IMO Kari. It'll get a lot faster after doing a couple of them. I did over a

hundred yesterday, including multiple layers. Took about 5 hours total ... including

printing them ... which added about a couple of hours to the process.

 

BTW, printing these conversions using an Epson 2200 with Matte Black ink on Enhanced

Matte paper is spectacular looking. Almost a platinum feel. Very romantic looking.

[jasonsmith]

Thought I would have a go at this myself. This image was shot in Tungsten light and was quite warm. How did I do?

[jasonsmith]

In downsizing and converting the profile to sRGB it seems to have lost a little dreamyness...

[jasonsmith]

Sandra

 

The "Split Channels" option is located in the Channels palette. Just click on the little arrow in the top right corner of the pallette and you will see it.

[matthewkane]

Wow this makes B&W digital comparable to film. Finally! Thanks.

[fotografz]

Jason, start with sRGB before doing this technique, not after. sRGB is a narrower color space

and will alter the look of most edited images.

 

Or, if you must convert after working on an image in PS, go to File > scroll down to "convert

to" rather than "assign" in PS. Then when the color space dialog box opens, scroll to sRGB

and select it. "Convert to" usually more closely maintains the on-screen image while

converting the RGB color space to sRGB. If you "assign" sRGB it almost always significantly

alters the look of the image.

[deepblue]

What a great effect. Thanks for posting this.

[jennifer valencia]

I just found this thread & tried it out - awesome! Thanks for sharing this technique.

 

Jennifer