Black and Whites

[images_in_light_north_west]

<p>What have you found to be the best method for producing the best black and whites, I have tried CS4 and Lightroom but am not satisfied, here is an example of mine, I use a Mac, any help would be appreciated. Thanks Ross<br>

<img src="http://rossmurphy.zenfolio.com/img/v6/p990525478.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[zac_sanders]

<p>I personally use lightroom. I use Quad tone rip to print and get perfect black and white.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Beautiful shot. On my monitor, it's lacking a bit of tonal range. What is it you want to change?</p>

[hakon_soreide]

<p>On this screen, this looks just like the way I would have processed it. I am admittedly looking at the crummy screen of the cashier machine at work. At home, it might be different. I really like the picture, except for the little piece of ground in the lower right corner that feels a little bit distracting and slightlyoff balance to me. There is no way to crop it out, and no way to reshoot the scene as it is, of course, and others might like it, so you'll have to keep it, I guess.</p>

[monika_epsefass]

<p>What I usually do is to convert into grayscale, duplex (or triplex) the image with colours like aubergine and cream, reconvert into RGB and then process through the channel manager in the layer menu for monochrome. You'll get deep deep blacks, lovely but controlled whites, and a neat range of beautiful grays. Nevertheless, it's high-contrasty. My portrait picture has been processed that way.</p>

[colin turner]

<p>http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00U3mX</p>

<p>Patrick knows his stuff.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>here's my prefered method, for the whole story and visual example, go to this link after..</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00SdHV</p>

<p>lots of arguments about the method i use and Silver Efex..but in the end you get the same result, free or for 300$..depend what you want and if you want to learn and understand or use a plugin (as a side note i also have Silver Efex, it was a gift, but i still rarely use even if its well done)</p>

<p>Heres a quick how to for bw creation that i use everyday..as a action. I will keep it short and sweet, because i have to go back to work after ; )</p>

<p><strong>STEP 01_</strong> adjustment bw tool to create your bw style, using the different sloder to get the effect you want, you can then save them for future use as preset and save again a lot of time. I have create some for nature, lansdscape, portrait, architecture, all of those can be of course refine later, and of coruse i could use the lansdscape one over a portrait and see whats up with it..the point is i have multiple set alreayd done and ready for the action (by the way if you want them, get my email by clicking my name and i will send you teh link..for <strong>FREE</strong> ) By using the bw tool you could depending of your setting also play with the contrast of a scene.</p>

<p><strong>STEP 02_</strong> adjustment layer curve to get the density / contrast you need to add more pop to the image, a simple curve without setting just click OK, set is blending mode to soft light and voila! nice contrast..then use the opacity slider to get it where you want. Or do it manually like normal and adjust the density / contrast at the same time. You can create a generic S curve and press OK, so if you run it as a action, this generic curve will be applied, and easy to refine.</p>

<p><strong>STEP 03_</strong> add a layer fill with gray 50% set the blending mode to soft light, select a brush with the size you need to paint area of your image for the dodge & burn pro way. Set the opacity of the brush to 40% that will give you the option of multiple pass on the same area to create dimension on your dodge & burn..like in real life. Use the foreground white to dodge, and the foreground black to burn. This is the finition step so take all the time you want to get to where you want. No automatic plugin can do this for you, so even with SilverFX, you should still use this last step as part of your workflow.</p>

<p><strong>EXTRA01_</strong> For the vignette, i will explain 1 way of doing it, simple. I use 2-3 method myself depending of what i want. Create a adjustment layer curve, no setting, press OK, set the blending mode to multiply, fill the white mask with black, use the linear gradient tool and discover the area you want the vignette to appear on. Adjust the layer opacity to suit your need.</p>

<p><strong>EXTRA02_</strong> if you want some<strong> film grain simulation </strong> (i know nothing is like the real deal bla bla bla, but for most user who dont know film and dont want to know film, its the closest way of creating it other than scanning a real film and pasting this frame to there images) Anyway, zoom to 100% add a layer fill with gray 50% set the blending mode to soft light, go to noise enter the number you want for the effect you see on screen you like and use gaussian and monochromatic for the setting, i like 5 to get a ncie effect, but i also like 10-15 for a more drama look, then OK. Go to filter / blur / gaussian blur and add around .5 to the grain, it will give it a more organic look. Drop the opacity of this layer to around 80%. the reason why i put it as my last step is because it can also cover banding if you have gone too far with your bw tool setting (the blue area is really fragile, and sometime you can see banding there)</p>

<p>Et voila! A 3 step bw conversion (+ 2 extra in need) that can be set as a action and run in no time on multiple file taht you have at any kind of sie and resolution.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[patricklavoie]

<p>another one for fun ; )</p><div></div>

[images_in_light_north_west]

<p>Thanks Patrick, would like those actions, maybe I just need to understand CS4 better, would rather learn it than buy more software, will drop you an e-mail.<br>

Ross</p>

[bernardwest]

nice work patrick. just putting a comment in here so I can access this thread when needed in the future.