Spill the Beans. What's your fav BW method?

[david_h]

I've been trying for ages to find the perfect way to make BW portraits.
This example I made using the channel mixer and it took me way too long to get to this point.
I often see very nice BW jobs here. Does anyone have any great techniques to share?

http://djh.smugmug.com/photos/21430238-L.jpg

[binghott]

YES!

optikvervelabs.com (http://www.optikvervelabs.com/) has a FREE plugin for photoshop called virtualphotographer, it's exactly what you need. tons of different ways to make black and white pics easily. the presets are great, but i always fine tune them. i have a gallery of pictures converted with virtualphotographer here. (http://binghott.smugmug.com/gallery/453338) i think you'll be pleasantly surprised by your results.

here's one of my favorite pics (it's my girlfriend):
http://binghott.smugmug.com/photos/19914979-M.jpg

[leebase]

I like the channel mixer as you've done her (and done well). It doesn't take me much time anymore because I created a script to do it for me. Now all I do is batch process a directory to turn all the files to b&w. Of course, I could do it one photo at a time as well :)

http://leebase.smugmug.com/photos/21120508-M.jpg

Lee

[leebase]

Love that pict of your girlfriend. I like Virtual Photographer as well...though I keep forgetting I have it :)

Lee

[david_h]

Love that pict of your girlfriend. I like Virtual Photographer as well...though I keep forgetting I have it :)

Lee That's funny because I also have Virtual Photographer. I used to use it with PaintShop Pro, but never installed it as a PS plugin for some reason. Thanks for the reminder Barry.

I also found this method at another forum which I rather like:

1. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Just click "ok" on the two boxes that pop up. (layer-new adjustment layer-hue/saturation)
2. Repeat step one to make a second H/S Adj layer
3. Change the blend mode of the top layer to color
4. Open the Hue/Saturation dialog box on the top layer and turn Saturation to –100 to remove the color.
5. Bring up the dialogue box on the second adjustment layer, and use the hue slider to create the b/w look you want.


I’ve found that this I can also change the Saturation and Lightness sliders on that second layer to affect the look as well.

[Angelo]

Maybe I approach this too simplistically but I just select "mode > grayscale" and let the program do the job; then I just make minor adjustments in contrast and/or brightness

[John Mueller]

Sometimes I convert to lab/L channel then grayscale.Back to rgb/ selective color/ play around with black white and neutral.

[photoshow]

I use a gradient map