B&W conversion

[Manny]

What do you use or what steps do you take to convert y our digital image in ps?

I like to desaturate and then delete channels A and C then tweak the levels. I've found it gives me better darks and whiter whites.

[Charloto]

I usually use either the channel mixer or the Rob Carr Color to B&W Conversion Technique

[jeffkohn]

First look at the individual R, G, and B channels to see what they look like and which channels have better tonality/contrast for the subject or center of interest. Then use a Channel Mixer adjustment layer in grayscale mode to set the mix of channels for the look I want. Then to further tweak, put a curves adjustment layer underneath the channel mixer layer so that I can further adjust the tonality/contrast of the individual channels. (For instance, increasing the constrast in the green channel by adding an S-curve, or giving a boost to the shadow details in the Blue channel, etc). Sometimes I'll also use a Hue/Sat adjustment layer underneath the channel mixer to play around a bit more by seeing what a change to the hue will do to the image. Sometimes if you want to get really fancy you can use more than one Channel Mixer adjustment layer along with some masking, for instance if you want to use a certain channel mix for the forground and a different mix for the background. There are just so many possiblities with this aproach, the variations are endless.

[markperez]

I have Juancho do mine



or I used optikverve labs plugin

[engstrom]

Originally Posted by markperez

I have Juancho do mine



or I used optikverve labs plugin

Mark, I love that picture! Did Juancho do that one or was it the optikverve plugin? If it was Juancho hopefully he will chime in and tell us what he did.

[markperez]

Juancho did it. I took the picture and he converted it for me. It is my favorite picture of my best friend.

[jheiliger]

I use Greg Gorman's method. You can find it here: http://www.gormanphotography.com/bw_conversion.pdf

Look around on his sight... the guy is an AMAZING photographer. I use this method almost exclusively because it gives you an INSANE amount of control over the contrast/density of the image.

Took me about 2 minutes to build an action for it. PM me if you need help...

Joe

[Manny]

cool thanks, I'll try both methods. I'd like to see which gives me better darks and lights.

[engstrom]

I just tried Greg Gorman's method - very impressive. The one thing to keep in mind is the PDF was written for Macs - when it says to hold down the Option key use the Alt key on Windows. That goes for pretty much any Photoshop instructions though.

[h00kemh0rns]

Originally Posted by markperez

Juancho did it. I took the picture and he converted it for me. It is my favorite picture of my best friend.

Yeah my favorite too

[markperez]

Originally Posted by h00kemh0rns

Yeah my favorite too

LOL watch it!

[Digital Prophet]

There is a really thorough article on this very matter in the November/December issue of Digital PhotoPro. I don't know it is on the shelf yet since I subscribe. But if it is grab yourself a copy.

Prophet out.