B&W conversion

[rockpics]

I just learned two new ways to make digital B&W. My old way favorite way is to use channel mixer. I usually use about half of the red channel and half of the green channel to approximate a yellow filter, but sometimes I vary that a little depending on the results I'm getting. Last night I learned how to make B&W using lab color. On a jpeg, convert to lab color, delete the "a" and "b" channels, and then convert to greyscale. The other new way I learned is to make two hue saturation layers on top of the background layer, desaturate using the top one, and use the second one to control the amount of sepia. Here are three samples using all methods. The top one is channel mixer, the second one is lab color and the last one is hue saturation. Which do you prefer?

[jeffkohn]

Tough call. First shot has good overall contrast, but some of the highlights are a teensy bit too hot. The second one seems a little softer (maybe due to different sizing?), and is somewhat lacking in contrast. On the other hand the skin tones are smoother. Third one has good overall tonality (maybe raise the skin tones just a hair).

[rockpics]

Thanks for looking and your comments, Jeff. I added some brightness and contrast to the skin on the hue/satruation conversion.

[Angelo]

I find the sepia (#3) has more life and the whites appear less blown out.
The 4th image is (almost) a duplicate of the Sepia.
Exceptional...

[jeffkohn]

I like the new edit.

[brad]

I have a B&W plugin that I love, actually... would love to see the original color and run it on the pic for comparison.

[rockpics]

Thanks Angelo and Jeff. Here's the original, Brad. I'd like to see what the plugin does.

[brad]

This is the free B&W plugin from http://www.photo-plugins.com

(It looks similar to the channel mixer result, but maybe not quite as much contrast.)

[rockpics]

Thanks for the link Brad. I redid the channel mixer to tone down the highligts, and it looks very much like your result.

[m_mphotography]

I like the third one.

[brad]

Ya, it does, Jill... I like the converter because it does more than just Red/Green/Blue like the channel mixer... has more fine controls.

[kula23]

Very nice pose. I like you edit it. Nice job!

[MicWayWal]

I love the channel mixer version best. My bias: I like a strong contrast and range in B&W, like the old #4 & 5 filters on the variable contrast papers of long ago.

CM seems to have a greater number and better gradation of tones from Black to White than the others. I especially like the way CM handles B&W outdoors with all the green around.
The others seems softer and muted. I like a strong and bold B&W.

[rockpics]

I tend to be a contrast junkie too, Michael. Thanks for adding your opinion.

[BrokenBiker]

I really enjoy the challenges involved w/ B/W conversions. There are so many different methods, and no one is necessarily better than another. More often than not, it depends on the pictures and the desired end product.

But...that being said, my favorite conversion is what's called the Gorman method and is based on luminosity, not color. That site has a lot of info on B/W conversions w/o being too technical. Very cool.

For some reason I can't find the action file, so I'll just list the steps. Like Jill's second example, it involves converting to Lab color mode...which, by the way is my preferred mode for color corrections.

Anyhoo...here it goes:

- Duplicate the image
- Image>Mode>Lab color
- Channel tab>Select Lightness channel
- Image>Mode>Grayscale
-- Discard 'a' and 'b' channels
- Hold Ctrl key and click the Gray channel
- Select>Inverse
- Image>Mode>RGB Color
- Layers tab>Create New Layer>Solid Color
-- My action defaults to the darkest black color; it can be changed later
- Change blending mode of Solid Color layer to Multiply
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to create a duplicated merged layer
- Change blending mode of new merged layer to Overlay
-- Set opacity to 20%
-- Filter>Other>High Pass
--- Set to 50 pixels

After the action runs, I will double-click the Color-fill layer to adjust the 'brightness' of that layer as necessary. This action often creates a dark B/W image.

Then I'll add a couple of masked Brightness/Contrast layers to taste, create a new merged layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) and USM as wanted.

I know it's a lengthy process, but as far as actions go it works very well on a wide variety of pictures.

Here's my attempt: