How is this soft black & white effect achieved?

[davidclick]

<p>HI :-)<br>

The pic I really like is this:<br /><a href="http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/blk-white-soft-how-rachael_zpsfdb887e4.jpg">http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/blk-white-soft-how-rachael_zpsfdb887e4.jpg</a><br>

And my question is please... what filters have been applied here if this was post produced via photoshop? <br>

Thanks,<br>

David</p>

<p> </p>

[yanavas]

<p>In the old days this was achieved by stretching stocking over the lens.</p>

[carbon_dragon]

The skin effect reminds me of infrared film.

[Spearhead]

<p>Negative clarity was probably used to soften, either in Lightroom/ACR or in a plug-in, which may not use that terminology. Toning was obviously used with a B/W conversion, simple to do in many applications. Border effects were applied, there are also many ways to do this.</p>

[howard_m]

<p>As Jeff said, it looks like 2 tone split-toning and some variation of negative clarity or local contrast either via ACR/LR Clarity or some plug-in like Efex that has something similar.</p>

[davidclick]

<p>Thanks for help so far guys, if it helps Ive got Photoshop CC (latest version) ive had "some" success with Gaussian filter but not able to replicate yet ;-)</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Try using negative clarity in ACR rather than the Gaussian filter. This isn't exact on that photo, but the workflow is simple:</p>

<ol>

<li>Negative clarity in LR 5 (can do the same in ACR.) I probably should have gone further with this to emulate the photo you linked to, but you can see the effect.</li>

<li>Toning in Lightroom (easy to do in PS.)</li>

<li>Some "old school" effects done in Analog Efex, but it doesn't sound like that is important to you. </li>

</ol>

<p><img src="http://spirer.com/images/softandtoned.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="525" /></p>

[CharlesBecker-Toronto]

<p>good tip about negative clarity; thanks Jeff!<br>

cb :-)</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

Select the dark tones, copy them to another layer, blurr that layer to taste, and perhaps give it a tint as well. Combine with transparancy and/or fill as required to create the effect you want.<br>It used to be created, not by using a black stocking over the camera lens, but by using a soft filter over the printing lens for part of the exposure.<br>Use it often, and people may begin to confuse your photos with those of Corbijn. ;-)

[Brad_]

Negative Clarity. Easy. Peasy.

[JRCrowe]

<p>In Photoshop you can create a duplicate layer, blur it, then create a layer mask and paint away the blur which may be more precise if not wanting to blur the entire photo or control the amount of blur in certain areas of the photo. I like Lightroom most of the time myself. With Lightroom you can use a series of brushes with varying amounts of minus Clarity. In Photoshop you can use successive brush strokes to remove small amounts at a time and its reversible by switching from black to white color. You can further control it by changing brush opacity and flow.</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

If you only copy the part you want to blurr, control that blurring, there is no need to paint away anything. Saves a lot of work. So select before you copy to a new layer.

[Spearhead]

<p>The example he gave is soft all over. No need for layer masks, selections, etc. People seem to want to make this complicated and it's really simple. Or, as was said earlier, "Easy. Peasy."</p>

[davidclick]

<p>Wow thank you for all your replies, was hoping it could be done in photoshop :-( So I'm now downloading Lightroom - Big thank you to Geoff Spirer!</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

Why do you think it can't be done in Photoshop?<br>It, of course (!), can.

[davidclick]

<p>Yes I can see now that it can be achieved in Photoshop. I Googled the acronym ACR and to my delight that means Abode Camera Raw, yipee ive got the software and have just began to tweak negative clarity on the dashboard :-)</p>

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>Why do you think it can't be done in Photoshop?<br />It, of course (!), can.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br />Q.G., can you show us a few you have done in Photoshop, thanks. It will help to understand the differences with the LR/ACR methods.</p>

[rona_right]

<p>It's really hard to say exactly what filters were used to get that effect and more than likely it's a combination of several. That said, you may want to look at NIK Software Color Effects. That tool is loaded with filters that I'm sure with a lot of trial and error, you could get to a combination of some that will result in something very similar.</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Can you give an example with the Nik filters that does something better than the negative clarity approach? It would be good to see how it compares.</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

Jeff, maybe you could post a 'plain' image and we all can apply our own method and post the results here? Would make a good comparison if all examples started out the same.