B&W Conversion C&C

nameandanumber

My first time trying to convert to B&W. It's harder than it bloody looks :rolleyes:

Any tips or C&C?

Ta



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AnimalRights

Not an expert on B+W conversions and it's kinda hard to explain the way I get to mine the way I like them but maybe #2 needs more blacks/detail.
#3 seems the best conversion.
Love the composition of the whole three though.

DavidLane

How are you doing your conversions.... I try photoshop...channel micer and then adjust curves/levels at the end.

David

enzyme

Do you have Photoshop and if so which version?

Crispin

#1 and #3 are the best conversions.
#2 lacks punch. maybe try to drop the exposure slightly and add more contrast. but a really nice image: like the position of the horse and rider in the frame.
I really don't like the vignette type frame thing thats going on but thats a personal thing.
really nice images, think I will try a few more B and W's with all this grey weather we've been getting!

melekalikimaka

some more black and more whites needed i think to make em more black and whitey....kinda grey looking, i agree bout the viggetting... tis too square to pass of as real viggetting so its kinda distracting

nameandanumber

Yeah I'm using CS3 at the moment. And to convert I'm using Image > Adjustments > Black & White. Then playing with contrast, shadows and highlights.

Going to look for some tutorials now as I've seen some killer B&W conversions lately.

Thanks lads...

melekalikimaka

ah yes theres the problem, hit channel mixer, click momochrome and fiddle

nameandanumber

melekalikimaka wrote: »

ah yes theres the problem, hit channel mixer, click momochrome and fiddle

That's cool, thanks, I hadn't used the channel mixer before.

Okay take 2 below. I gave it a wider crop, eased up on the vignetting and 'fiddled' (tee hee) with the channel mixer.

Whaddya think?

enzyme

The way I always do it on CS3 is a bit more complex but if you get it right the result is way better. It's not destructive which means you are doing the changes on a different layer. So you can completely mess around.
1 Go to the layers palette on the bottom right of the screen.
2 Add a hue/saturation layer to your background layer.
3 Take the saturation to zero.
4 Again make your background layer current and add a second hue/saturation layer. Don't change any values.
5 Set the layer blending mode to colour. (See the little drop down menu directly below where the layer tab is. By default it says normal)
6 Double click on the little thumbnail of the second hue/saturation layer and mess around with the hue. You get much better results. You can also tweak the brightness and saturation.

BTW there are really cool new filters on cs4 where you can convert to BW with really good results.

nameandanumber

enzyme wrote: »

The way I always do it on CS3 is a bit more complex but if you get it right the result is way better. It's not destructive which means you are doing the changes on a different layer. So you can completely mess around.
1 Go to the layers palette on the bottom right of the screen.
2 Add a hue/saturation layer to your background layer.
3 Take the saturation to zero.
4 Again make your background layer current and add a second hue/saturation layer. Don't change any values.
5 Set the layer blending mode to colour. (See the little drop down menu directly below where the layer tab is. By default it says normal)
6 Double click on the little thumbnail of the second hue/saturation layer and mess around with the hue. You get much better results. You can also tweak the brightness and saturation.

BTW there are really cool new filters on cs4 where you can convert to BW with really good results.

That's some good work enzyme, thanks!

I'll continue playing around with it alright and see what happens, a good B&W shot is hard to beat.