Best way to do B & W

[petedam]

I'd love to learn some really good ways to do B&W.

Thanks.

[dcclark]

My favorite way to convert a color shot to B&W is using the Channel Mixer tool. Both Photoshop and Gimp have this (and others as well, just mentioning two common editors). The tool lets you turn a color photo B&W by determining how much the red, green, and blue parts of the image contribute to the final tones of grey. By using this, you can get some extremely dramatic results. For example, if you don't use much (or any) of the blue channel, a blue sky becomes dark, almost black -- with white clouds.

Here's a tutorial with some info, here at DPS.

[fantasmic2tek]

In my opinion the best way to do B & W is take the shot in B &W.

[AoxoA]

Originally Posted by fantasmic2tek

In my opinion the best way to do B & W is take the shot in B &W.

Why? To apply the one .jpg curve in the cameras computer to the color picture you've taken?

B & W in digital requires PP, much like it did in film.

AoxoA

[petedam]

Originally Posted by dcclark

My favorite way to convert a color shot to B&W is using the Channel Mixer tool. Both Photoshop and Gimp have this (and others as well, just mentioning two common editors). The tool lets you turn a color photo B&W by determining how much the red, green, and blue parts of the image contribute to the final tones of grey. By using this, you can get some extremely dramatic results. For example, if you don't use much (or any) of the blue channel, a blue sky becomes dark, almost black -- with white clouds.

Here's a tutorial with some info, here at DPS.

Thank you for the link to the tutorial.

[kencaleno]

Simplest way,and with good contrast:

- Black & White conversion from colour

Ctrl+J
Image> Calculations
Background layer
Red
Background Layer
Red
Multiply
New channel
Image> Mode> Greyscale
flatten/save

Regards, Ken

[inkista]

Cambridge in Colour explains three basic ways to convert to B&W: using the Channel Mixer, a hue-saturation adjustment layer, and the lightness channel in LAB mode.

I'm with dcclark--I prefer the fine control of the Channel Mixer.

I'm also with fantasmic2tek, with one slight modification. I have difficulty previsualizing in B&W, so I will put the camera into B&W mode (usually with a red filter 'cause I like dark skies) if that's how I mean to compose the picture--it helps me to see what I got and lets me know if I need to adjust and reshoot on the spot if I need to. But I will only shoot in B&W if I'm using RAW. When you shoot in B&W in RAW mode, all of the color information is kept, so that if you decide you'd actually be happier with the color version, you can get it all back, and you have the full range of data to work with in post-processing so you can do color filters/channel mixer tricks and if I decided the red filter was a bad idea, I could "take it off" in post as it were. If you're shooting in JPEG, the color information's been discarded, and you're stuck with what you shot.

[BryanC]

Originally Posted by inkista

Cambridge in Colour explains three basic ways to convert to B&W: using the Channel Mixer, a hue-saturation adjustment layer, and the lightness channel in LAB mode.

I'm with dcclark--I prefer the fine control of the Channel Mixer.

I'm also with fantasmic2tek, with one slight modification. I have difficulty previsualizing in B&W, so I will put the camera into B&W mode (usually with a red filter 'cause I like dark skies) if that's how I mean to compose the picture--it helps me to see what I got and lets me know if I need to adjust and reshoot on the spot if I need to. But I will only shoot in B&W if I'm using RAW. When you shoot in B&W in RAW mode, all of the color information is kept, so that if you decide you'd actually be happier with the color version, you can get it all back, and you have the full range of data to work with in post-processing so you can do color filters/channel mixer tricks and if I decided the red filter was a bad idea, I could "take it off" in post as it were. If you're shooting in JPEG, the color information's been discarded, and you're stuck with what you shot.

It's been the way I have ended up doing it, also. Shooting in RAW, in b&w, which gives me the instant feedback and feeling in the field. Then, changing it back to color in RAW on the computer and using the the Channel Mixer method to convert to b&w (which I learned here on DPS, thanks so much!). As mentioned, more control and can have some dramatic results converting with the channels.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by petedam

I'd love to learn some really good ways to do B&W.

I don't think that you can do better than to buy John Beardsworth's book Advanced Digital Black & White Photography.

That book is almost entirely about how to convert color photos (mainly Raw) to B&W in post-processing (mainly using Photoshop CS3 or CS4). Beardsworth covers a number of different ways of doing the conversion.

[kencaleno]

Originally Posted by fantasmic2tek

In my opinion the best way to do B & W is take the shot in B &W.

That's rubbish-if you make the shot in Black and White you have lost 50% of information,that will enable you to control the conversion from color to black and white to get tonality correct. Ken