Your best B&W Conversion

[Andy]

OK Gang - let's have your best B&W conversion method.

Here's the image, courtesy of a SmugMug pro who wants to learn how to do better B&W with Photoshop CS2.



Let's have your best conversion. Do you fancy Petteri's Methods? Or, do you prefer Greg Gorman's Methods? Or, do you have your own you'd like to share

Remember, lay our your steps. This guy really wants to learn!

[edgework]

Originally Posted by Andy

OK Gang - let's have your best B&W conversion method.

Here's the image, courtesy of a SmugMug pro who wants to learn how to do better B&W with Photoshop CS2.



Let's have your best conversion. Do you fancy Petteri's Methods? Or, do you prefer Greg Gorman's Methods? Or, do you have your own you'd like to share

Remember, lay our your steps. This guy really wants to learn!

Is this the original, or is there a color version? Much of the technique of enhancing a B&W conversion is to modify the relative strength of channel information to take advantage of contrast differences from one channel to another. Starting with a neutral image eliminates that possibility. If it is the original, the lightest area is reading 35%. Why so flat? Are we talking about conversion, or simply image enhancement?

[Andy]

Originally Posted by edgework

Is this the original, or is there a color version? Much of the technique of enhancing a B&W conversion is to modify the relative strength of channel information to take advantage of contrast differences from one channel to another. Starting with a neutral image eliminates that possibility. If it is the original, the lightest area is reading 35%. Why so flat? Are we talking about conversion, or simply image enhancement?

OK - let's call it image enhancement - this is the only file that's available. Thanks!

[4labs]

I highly recommend image factory conversion software. http://www.theimagingfactory.com/dat.../info/cbwp.htm

Upped the contrast with the multigrade slider.

[edgework]

I have to go do holiday type things with the family; I'll put up my steps later. This is the kind of image where you "Try A, try B, try C, and if that doesn't work, Try X, Y and Z." I think I tried them all.

[DavidTO]

Here's mine:



I did that almost entirely with curves. I knew I wanted to deepen the blacks and increase the range of contrast in the image. I also made a second layer and added a touch of HIRALOAM...Rutt explains it better elsewhere in this forum, so do a quick search on it...

[david_h]

And mine.

I thought this couple would go well with a "gritty" old film look.
Use Kevin Kubota's BW enhance/warm action, added some grain, used curve adjustment to add a bit of contrast. Added vinguette.

[4labs]

one more try using same software and a toning layer.

[burke]

I did a curves bump, a channel mixer adjustment, and lastly a 'defog' (USM)

[DoctorIt]

I'm always interested in b/w conversion too... remember, Andy said "lay out the steps." I'm seeing lots of attempts at a better conversion here, but not a lot of tutorial.

[4labs]

One of the reasons I like image factory is because of its simplicity. Through the use of sliders you can control exposure,contrast, it even will mimick the effects of different types of film such as ilford delta or kodak tmax or triX. I also liek teh different filters that mimick the use of filters that you would use with BW film. I alwasy use the red when converting pics of Sam and it removes all the red blotches without having to spend alot of time with a healing brush or clone tool...

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by DoctorIt

I'm always interested in b/w conversion too... remember, Andy said "lay out the steps." I'm seeing lots of attempts at a better conversion here, but not a lot of tutorial.

I'm guessing that's because this is a B&W image. So mostly it's a Curves thing. If we could get our hands on the color original, then we could play with all the different conversion styles and compare results.

[DoctorIt]

Originally Posted by wxwax

I'm guessing that's because this is a B&W image. So mostly it's a Curves thing. If we could get our hands on the color original, then we could play with all the different conversion styles and compare results.

are you ever not sooo right?

[edgework]

Originally Posted by DoctorIt

I'm always interested in b/w conversion too... remember, Andy said "lay out the steps." I'm seeing lots of attempts at a better conversion here, but not a lot of tutorial.

Okay, here're the steps I followed.

These faces were so compelling, I wanted to do something more than just adjust shadows and highlights. I admit that i read a bit more into the image than might have been there in the original; on the other hand, the original is so flat, it's just begging for a creative enhancement.

I wanted to bring out sharp contrast in all areas of the spectrum, without plugging shadows or blowing out highlights. A simple "S" curve wouldn't do the trick, though I'm not at all certain that the steps I took constitute the best approach. it's just the way I evolved the image, trying one thing, then another, compensating where necessary.

The lightest area in the original is reading 35%, along the top strap of his undershirt, so this curve



had a lot of room at the bottom end to stretch out the range. The shadows are already fairly dark so there was much less room to increase contrast there.



This is about the best a single curve could expect. A more irregular curve might address the specific ranges more effectively, but since there is no area that doesn't require enhancement, there will always be flat pixels somewhere inconvenient.

A trick I like to use, when I know I'm going to apply some severe sharpening at some point, is to use Soft Light mode on a slightly blurred version of the image. I merged to a new layer and applied Gaussian Blur at 1.8 pixels, then turned the layer to Soft Light. This has a slight smoothing effect without obliterating detail. It also cranks up the contrast dramatically, usually losing the shadow detail, so I followed up with Shadow/Highlight with Amount 90, Tonal Width 19 and Radius 44, bringing things to this state:



Next a series of sharpening moves starting with HIRALOAM with Amount 18, Radius 38.4 and Threshold 3 (with apologies to Rutt for being so thick about seeing the usefulness of this move. I saw it referred to in a tutorial as "Localized Contrast" and suddenly everything clicked.)

Then I appled a light USM with Amount 92 and Radius .5, followed by a sharper version with Amount 138, Radius .8. This second sharpening operation was confined to the crucial detail with this mask, derived from the Find Edges filter:

,

and also split up between the light halos and dark halos (see Rutt's Sharpening Tutorial), bringing us to this point:



But his beard and eyes look like they're made out of coal and there are some other black spots that look ugly. I tried another Shadow/Highlight move but couldn't confine it to the specific areas that needed a touch of detail brought back, so I went back to the initial step after the first contrast move, copied the image from that point, applied the same USM settings as the previous step and moved the layer on top, hiding everything with a mask. Then, some selective brushwork brought back just enough detail where needed, but leaving the main contrast as is.



Then I used this Dodge/Burn layer in Overlay mode to play around with the lighting, trying to make it more dramatic. I use various sized brushes at 8-15% opacity with my pen in pressure mode.



A final minor contrast curve, some eye work to simplify the flash dots and enhance the irises, and a gradient map for tone, and this is the result.

[warszawski]

My goal was to stress a "man" character for a man and bring him a little bit harder, and to stress a "woman" character for a woman and bring her a little bit softer. I had to recover the "history" twice in order to do "equilbrate" my workflow for this picture. I am quite satisfied with the result achieved considering my initial goal. As this is very subjectif, eventually please drop a line what you do you think about my workflow and achievement.

[DavidTO]

Originally Posted by warszawski

As this is very subjectif, eventually please drop a line what you do you think about my workflow and achievement.

I think you did pretty well with him, but that you went too far with her.

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by warszawski

My goal was to stress a "man" character for a man and bring him a little bit harder, and to stress a "woman" character for a woman and bring her a little bit softer. I had to recover the "history" twice in order to do "equilbrate" my workflow for this picture. I am quite satisfied with the result achieved considering my initial goal. As this is very subjectif, eventually please drop a line what you do you think about my workflow and achievement.

He looks terrific. Nice work. She looks too blanched out, too white, not enough detail. Seeing your palette is very helpful, thanks for doing that.

[Netgarden]

Great work, I even like the solar looking one of them. But I missed her freckles on the last one. She lost her rugged character. I'll have to try them in PSP. I use the Clarify tool alot<<<
Lets see if I can get this done before 2006. brb

OK, this was fun challenge:

I used the Clarify tool twice[no. 5 and then no. 1], the brightness/contrast set at about 10/14 twice, noise reduction tool , and then unsharp mask. I also removed her spot on the face and sharpened their eyes a tad for a sparkle, with the sharpen brush[30%], one click on each eye.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Netgarden

Great work, ......

Happy New Year, Linda!!! Nice to see you again!

[Netgarden]

Originally Posted by Andy

Happy New Year, Linda!!! Nice to see you again!

Hi Andy! Hope all is well. Thank you Nice to see you around too! I'm still kickin' hope to post more.