Want your B/W's to POP?...a quick and easy tutorial

[autofocus]

I just learned this and thought I'd share this simple procedure. This will also work on color photos, however, I really like what it does for black and whites. Here you go:

1) use whatever process you prefer to convert your image to B/W (but do so while maintaining the color channels)
2) open up the channels palette (that's one of the tabs you'll see on the top of your History palette)
3) hold the control key (on PC's, Mac may be Alt key??) and click on the RGB selection in the Channels palette. You will see the marching ants show up in your image
4) make a new layer (Ctrl J) and click on Overlay (Softlight will also work with a little less intensity)..WOW!
5) adjust your slider opacity to taste Flatten layer

Please feel free to share your comments and your results

[AdrenoJunkie]

That is awesome. Works great! Thank you so much for sharing that.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by AdrenoJunkie

That is awesome. Works great! Thank you so much for sharing that.

Yeah, I was pretty impressed with the results when I first tried it too.

[JFSanders]

AF, do you have a before and after to share? I would like to see this done in a photograph so as to be able to convert the process to NX2.

Jim

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

AF, do you have a before and after to share? I would like to see this done in a photograph so as to be able to convert the process to NX2.

Jim

Sorry to say I don't Jim, as I'm on my laptop right now...and all my photos are stored on my desktop/work station. But, I'm sure I, or someone else could put up an example or two later.

[autofocus]

OK Jim, here you go. I chose softlight for this, and not overlay. The difference is subtle, but it's there. I would suspect that this technique would vary greatly from image to image as to how much (opacity) or how little..and whether to use overlay or softlight. You also need to be careful with this as it's easy to blow out details.

Here's the original:


N_0068bw-Rsz by vmontalbano, on Flickr

And here's with the procedure:


N_0068bw-softlight-Rsz by vmontalbano, on Flickr

[AdrenoJunkie]

Originally Posted by autofocus

OK Jim, here you go. I chose softlight for this, and not overlay. The difference is subtle, but it's there. I would suspect that this technique would vary greatly from image to image as to how much (opacity) or how little..and whether to use overlay or softlight. You also need to be careful with this as it's easy to blow out details.

If you invert the selection before you duplicate the layer then it will affect the shadows instead of the highlights and you won't blow your highlights. Still have to watch for shadow clipping though. This is also a good way to add contrast to a color image as well. Thanks again for sharing this Autofocus, it has now become a part of my regular arsenal.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by AdrenoJunkie

If you invert the selection before you duplicate the layer then it will affect the shadows instead of the highlights and you won't blow your highlights. Still have to watch for shadow clipping though. This is also a good way to add contrast to a color image as well. Thanks again for sharing this Autofocus, it has now become a part of my regular arsenal.

Well thank you for adding another use of this procedure

[JFSanders]

Thanks for that! I will work on it in NX2 and see if I can duplicate the process.

Jim

[scootermcq]

Cool Beans... Thanks Vince... I have never been happy with my b&w conversions. I will give this a shot.