Digital BW, The Print

I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and 
white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows used  
for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film to 
use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000.  Any 
advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Don

Hi Don,

I have used Fred Miranda's actions (www.fredmiranda.com) for some time and
have been well satisfied with them. Lately I have been using PixelGenius'
PhotoKit (www.pixelgenius.com). I think I prefer the photokit since it
places each of its various functions in  separate layers so that if you
don't like the result you can trash it and try another. If you are more of a
do it yourselfer there are a number of workflows that can be used. You might
want to check out Russel Brown's website (www.russelbrown.com) for an
example.

I don't shoot medium format anymore but in 35mm I like Kodak Portra or Fuji
Superia.

Roger

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Don Wolfe [mailto:djwolfe5@...]
  Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 8:13 PM
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
  Subject: [Digital BW] Converting Color to B & W in Photoshop


  I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and
  white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows used
  for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film to
  use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000.  Any
  advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

  Don


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Don

Another tool you might want to try is "Convert to B&W Pro v.20"

http://www.theimagingfactory.com/

Not exactly inexpensive, but very versatile, especially if you
are/were an experienced wet darkroom worker.

Chatzebussi


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Don Wolfe"
<djwolfe5@y...> wrote:
> I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and 
> white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows
used  
> for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film
to 
> use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000. 
Any 

> advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> 
> Don

Hi

I've put up a comparison page showing numerous methods of converting from
colour to B/W at <http://northlight-images.co.uk/bwfromcol.html>

My own quick favourite is converting to Lab and deleting the a&b channels.
All of the methods have their merits with different images, especially if
you want to simulate filters and the like.


bye for now   

Keith Cooper

Northlight Images
http://northlight-images.co.uk
Photography - Digital Imaging - Apple Mac Consultancy

Tel +44 (0)116 291 9092 Mobile +44 (0)780 162 9397

I will second the recommendation to try Photokit from Pixelgenius

http://www.pixelgenius.com/photokit/

an extremely good set of tools for Photoshop, not just B&W filters, 
and for $50 - you really have very little to lose trying it out.  We 
use the filters on images for engineering proposals and technical 
documents.  It "reset" our way of thinking about acquiring images - 
just take everything in color, then decide on color vs. B&W when 
producing the final product.

Martin VanMeter

on 7/8/2003 3:23 AM, DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com at
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Message: 9
> Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 02:13:28 -0000
> From: "Don Wolfe" <djwolfe5@...>
> Subject: Converting Color to B & W in Photoshop
> 
> I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and
> white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows used
> for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film to
> use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000.  Any
> advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> 
> Don 

 I've like using Kodak Portra films with my Nikon 8000.
They scan with a very fine grain.

Click on the links below for a couple of examples.

http://www.fujirangefinder.com/document.php?id=404

http://www.fujirangefinder.com/document.php?id=638

I use the "channel Mixer" in photoshop as an adjustment layer (check
monochrome in the channel mixer box). Sometimes I use more than one such
layer, with each for different parts of the image.





-Bruce

Visit my website at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~smthopr

There is a terrific article in "Digital Capture" magazine. It's 101
Conversions and give several workflows.

Dick Capuozzo

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce [mailto:smthopr@...]
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 11:55 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Converting Color to B & W in Photoshop


on 7/8/2003 3:23 AM, DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com at
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Message: 9
> Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 02:13:28 -0000
> From: "Don Wolfe" <djwolfe5@...>
> Subject: Converting Color to B & W in Photoshop
>
> I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and
> white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows used
> for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film to
> use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000.  Any
> advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
>
> Don

 I've like using Kodak Portra films with my Nikon 8000.
They scan with a very fine grain.

Click on the links below for a couple of examples.

http://www.fujirangefinder.com/document.php?id=404

http://www.fujirangefinder.com/document.php?id=638

I use the "channel Mixer" in photoshop as an adjustment layer (check
monochrome in the channel mixer box). Sometimes I use more than one such
layer, with each for different parts of the image.





-Bruce

Visit my website at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~smthopr



Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, Bookmarks, Polls and
other resources as they are often being updated. The page is at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint

If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to
unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same
page.

Please follow these basic guidelines:
- Include your full name with your message.
- Include the address of your website, if you have one.
- As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep
them short.
- As the topic of a thread changes remember to change the subject header.
- Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames
- Complete your Yahoo profile.
- Before posting a question, search the message archives and the various
resources on the homepage.




Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Don,

there is a nice "digest" of conversion techniques in Harald Johnson's  
Mastering Digital Printing pp.317-321. 

Antonis





--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Don Wolfe" 
<djwolfe5@y...> wrote:

> I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and 
> white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows used  
> for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film to 
> use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000.  Any 
> advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> 
> Don

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Don Wolfe" 
<djwolfe5@y...> wrote:
> I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and 
> white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows 
used  
> for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film 
to 
> use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000.  
Any 
> advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> 
> Don

I know this does not address the question you posed, but I use 
Picture Window 3.1 Pro from www.dl-c.com for several purposes where, 
to my mind it is better than PS6: it is a 16/48 bit program, its 
clone tools are superior, its Speck Removal precursed the healing 
brush, it has hue fixing and correction, chromatic abberation 
correction and, back on topic, an infinitely variable hue tool 
(transformation/color/monochromatic if I remember aright) that allows 
you to choose the tonalities you want before converting to B&W: but I 
find the program's selection tools a pain which is where PS is also 
for me.  Last time I checked PW3 was on 30 day fee trial – the full 
Pro program is about $80.  I have no vested interest in the product.

Colin

The most straight forward approach is to use the Channel Mixer set to 
monochrome.  You then mix each channel level into the grayscale 
image.  Something like 78% red, 20% green and 2% blue isn't a bad 
starting point.  I find that it is more important to "get all the 
data" into your grayscale image at this step than to get the contrast 
correct.  Then I do a Curve adjust to get the contrast the way I like 
it.

mark

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "colingruk" 
<cconway@b...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Don Wolfe" 
> <djwolfe5@y...> wrote:
> > I am looking for advice on converting a color image to black and 
> > white in photoshop.  What are some of the differenct work flows 
> used  
> > for this conversion?  Also I am open to suggestions for what film 
> to 
> > use, I am shooting medium format and scanning with a Nikon 8000.  
> Any 
> > advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> > 
> > Don
> 
> I know this does not address the question you posed, but I use 
> Picture Window 3.1 Pro from www.dl-c.com for several purposes 
where, 
> to my mind it is better than PS6: it is a 16/48 bit program, its 
> clone tools are superior, its Speck Removal precursed the healing 
> brush, it has hue fixing and correction, chromatic abberation 
> correction and, back on topic, an infinitely variable hue tool 
> (transformation/color/monochromatic if I remember aright) that 
allows 
> you to choose the tonalities you want before converting to B&W: but 
I 

> find the program's selection tools a pain which is where PS is also 
> for me.  Last time I checked PW3 was on 30 day fee trial – the full 
> Pro program is about $80.  I have no vested interest in the product.
> 
> Colin