B&W Conversion

[zona5101]

iso200
f4
1/250

I have a hard time determining the proper contrast when I do a B&W version. Sometimes they look flat, or muddy other times they are too punchy. This one *seems* ok but i'd like additional opinions. Do you think this has a good balance of contrast and grayscale range? Other comments are welcome too.
Thanks in advance.

[SusanH1970]

It's not bad, Bruce - but I suspected there were some clipped blacks and blown highlights. I brought it into CS2 and checked, and indeed there are both.

When doing a conversion, to check for that, I bring up the levels and alt-click on the black slider and the white slider - it shows the points that are clipped and/or blown.

Do you have a SOOC? Her skin is a bit grey/muddy, not too bad, but I'm wondering if the original was slightly underexposed?

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

It's not bad, Bruce - but I suspected there were some clipped blacks and blown highlights. I brought it into CS2 and checked, and indeed there are both.

When doing a conversion, to check for that, I bring up the levels and alt-click on the black slider and the white slider - it shows the points that are clipped and/or blown.

Do you have a SOOC? Her skin is a bit grey/muddy, not too bad, but I'm wondering if the original was slightly underexposed?

The org was indeed underexposed. WHat do you see that clues you in there was clipping? I don't have the sooc shot with me on this computer but i can post it later. I will check for the clipping on the org too. So when you find the clipped areas to you make adjustments or move on to a better exposed image? Thanks!

[zona5101]

here is the SOOC image...
and shutter was 1/160 not 1/250 as i had thought
I checked the clipping in the org, just some highlights but the shadow clipping came from my post work !

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by zona5101

The org was indeed underexposed. WHat do you see that clues you in there was clipping? I don't have the sooc shot with me on this computer but i can post it later. I will check for the clipping on the org too. So when you find the clipped areas to you make adjustments or move on to a better exposed image? Thanks!

Originally Posted by zona5101

here is the SOOC image...
and shutter was 1/160 not 1/250 as i had thought
I checked the clipping in the org, just some highlights but the shadow clipping came from my post work !

When you open up levels and alt-click the sliders, the clipped blacks will show as dark black spots against a white background. If the whole thing is white, then you've got no clipped blacks. The opposite for blown whites - white spots on a black background.

I was able to bring up the image in ACR and bump up the exposure, as well as warm it up, as she looked very cool/blue to me. There were obviously still some blown highlights in the background, but I used the recovery slider a little to bring back what I could before it started to lose contrast (10 is pretty much the cutoff for that).

Hope you don't mind that I played. After bumping the exposure and warming it up in ACR, I brought it into CS2, whitened her teeth a little (lassoed, hue/saturation > yellow, desaturated till it looked right - not too much or you get fake Donny Osmond teeth), brightened her eyes (dup layer, lasso eyes, new layer via copy, set to screen mode, reduce opacity to 50%, soft black paintbrush to erase back everything but the irises), burned the midtones of the background to make the green darker and richer, then did a soft light layer at about 20% to add a little contrast.

Once I had the color image the way I wanted it to look, I did a gradient map conversion, adjusted levels, and did another soft light layer at about 25%. Something's still bugging me about the conversion, but you get the idea.

Let me know if you'd rather I didn't play and I'll take them right down.

ETA: Oh, and I cropped it too, to bring her eyes higher in the frame, closer to the ROT.

[zona5101]

Excellent! Thanks for the schoolin'! Looking at them side by side I see my org b&w version was too contrasty and i had areas in the face with no detail. In support of my original, I like some of the higher contrast in the background...and I think i can get that with a localized burn but use your techniques to achieve the excellent range in the skin. Thanks I will attempt to duplicate your instructions so I can get a feel from what you are teaching me. Thanks for taking the time to work on my image and to explain the process. Thanks again Susan!

[SusanH1970]

You're welcome, glad you liked my edits.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

You're welcome, glad you liked my edits.

Yes indeed. In fact if I would have gotten the color version as nice as you have done, I probably wouldn't have attempted the B&W! I work on it this weekend and PM you if I run into trouble. thanks.

[zona5101]

OK so my comments and results.
1) I like the hue/sat adjustment narrowed to just the yellow color range. I like using the lasso and the adjustment as it creates a mask, then if i need to tweek 'casue i don't have lasso skills, I can use a brush.
2) I would have never thought to paint with black on the eye on the layer as it isn't in a mask but sure enought it tones it down/edits the unwanted part just fine.
3) I like the burn tool selected to midtones. Keeps the highlights and doesn't clip the darks. Like the hue/sat color range I would have unwittingly selected all tones had you not pointed this out.
3) My final color version I like very much
4) My gradient map was way too contrasty and dark. No where close to yours. I sat and fiddled trying to see what I might have done wrong. In the end I brought it back into ACR/LR and gave it more exposure. I also used the NR on both the color and B&W to give a tad bit of skin smoothing.

So give me feedback on these edits too if you see where I when to far or not far enough on any of the steps.

Thanks Sensi Susan!

[helga]

No comments to add, just that I really like the picture, both in B&W as in color