Black and White Photos

[lukasworks]

<p>

<p>Thanks for all the help.....its been great<br>

I am curious if you guys have any preference on the in-camera black and white filter options when shooting portraits inside and outside, or any advice on any other camera settings that might be rule of thumb when shooting black and white photos.<br>

Thanks Luka</p>

</p>

[kristinsson]

<p>Contrasts makes great black and white photos. A white shirt against a black background or vice versa.<br>

Those kind of things.<br>

Don't worry so much about getting it in camera, shoot raw, and have the picture style set to B/W to get a decent preview, but do the actual B/W conversion digitally later.</p>

[myattphotoandfotoart39]

<p>re; contrast. White shirt/ black tux is a wedding photographers nightmare. But you did say background.</p>

[lukasworks]

<p>Any recomendations on the conversion when converting to B/W in Photoshop....I am after that really nice skin tones that if not done right come out harsh in a black and white<br>

Thanks guys,</p>

[tjfuss]

<p>Luka, the approach to conversion to B&W in PhotoShop will depend on the version you're using. Just comparing the two versions I have (CS2 & CS4), they can each accomplish the conversion through the channel mixer but CS4 allows a much greater degree of control. I find the less flexible channel mixer in CS2 preferable to simply desaturating with the hue/saturation control.</p>

[andrewg_ny]

<p>Agree with Timothy--I also prefer channel-mixer-type tools where you can adjust the contribution of red/green/blue compared to straight desaturation. The other thing is that in the absence of color its that much more important to get exposure and focus right to keep the contrast in the texture visible, and that skin looks like skin--not too white, and not too gray. Skin should normally be about 1 stop brighter than neutral (18% gray, the way most light meters are calibrated for zero).</p>

[nathangardner]

<p>What camera are you using? If it has the ability to shoot RAW, then definitely do this, it will give you a lot more control when fine tuning the image.</p>

[myattphotoandfotoart39]

<p>Skin tones in my experience are the most difficult in digital bw; often a dead kind of gray. I have photoshop elements giving me not many tools. I have no channel mixers (whatever those are). I lasso and manipulate the area such as face to get a skin tone that looks reasonable. The skin usually a dead gray and dark skin caucasion is worse than light caucasion. I usually have to lighten and maybe up the contrast.</p>

[tjfuss]

<p>The channel mixer allows you to map the brightness of parts of the converted B&W image based on the color content of the original. In CS4 one may adjust reds, yellows, greens, blues, cyans and magentas independently.</p>

<p>Without the channel mixer, it's going to be tougher to get good B&W results. The options would be dodging & burning as you've desribed - a Wacon pen & tablet are indispensible for those operations. To go a step further, shoot with the camera in B&W mode if it has one and use filters in front of the lens just as in the good old days with B&W film.</p>

[myattphotoandfotoart39]

<p>Perhaps in my next life I will have The channel mixer.</p>

[lukasworks]

<p>Thanks guys,<br>

I used ther channel mixer really made a difference....<br>

regards Luka</p>

[myattphotoandfotoart39]

<p>Luka; I looked at your portfoilo. Really fine photos. However there are not examples of bw conversion. Could you post (perhaps here or email to me an example of "say cheese" converted to bw with and without "channel mixer".... "without" meaning 100% or just simply enhance->adjust color-remove color and then fix contrast with histogram. I'd very much like to see the difference. If a problem here you could email me the attachments at <a href="mailto:meirsamel@hotmail.com">meirsamel@hotmail.com</a> Thank you.</p>