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Question on Plugins converting to b/w

Question on Plugins converting to b/w

2003-08-28 by Kim Fullbrook

There are lots of different ways of converting colour digital images to
black & white. Some use Photoshop's own functions like simple conversion to
grayscale, and there are also some third party plug-ins available.  I've
played with a few plugins prior to spending any money but not done any
printing yet and am interested in members' views.

These are the ones I've tried - there may be others.
"Convert to B&W Pro" for $99.95 from imagingfactory.com  
"Black and White" from silveroxide.com. This has various options, and I
tried out the Tri-X "Enhanced" for $55.Interestingly, they say their Tri-X
demo doesn't work on XP but it worked fine for me.
Powerretouche.com - black and white studio $75 or 50 UKP

The results from all were hard to distinguish apart but I preferred them to
any of the built-in Photoshop methods. For me the key points were:

Imagingfactory - lots of film options, most expensive, I found it easy to
get a balanced results
Silveroxide - only one film option per filter, cheaper, use of "brightness"
and "gamma" was fiddly in the small preview window.
Powerretouche - lots of options, "busy" user interface but powerful, slowest
to run

There may well be other plug-ins out there doing a similar job.  I'm
interested to hear others views before I buy one, especially from those who
have made prints.

Kim Fullbrook


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

Re: [Digital BW] Question on Plugins converting to b/w

2003-08-28 by Patrick Kealey

another "converter" that also includes some interesting helpers is from Pixel genius, their black and whiter converter, I think is on par with imaginingfactory's PS plugin. 
http://pixelgenius.com/photokit-gallery/index.html

Kim Fullbrook <photo@...> wrote:
There are lots of different ways of converting colour digital images to
black & white. Some use Photoshop's own functions like simple conversion to
grayscale, and there are also some third party plug-ins available.  I've
played with a few plugins prior to spending any money but not done any
printing yet and am interested in members' views.

These are the ones I've tried - there may be others.
"Convert to B&W Pro" for $99.95 from imagingfactory.com  
"Black and White" from silveroxide.com. This has various options, and I
tried out the Tri-X "Enhanced" for $55.Interestingly, they say their Tri-X
demo doesn't work on XP but it worked fine for me.
Powerretouche.com - black and white studio $75 or 50 UKP

The results from all were hard to distinguish apart but I preferred them to
any of the built-in Photoshop methods. For me the key points were:

Imagingfactory - lots of film options, most expensive, I found it easy to
get a balanced results
Silveroxide - only one film option per filter, cheaper, use of "brightness"
and "gamma" was fiddly in the small preview window.
Powerretouche - lots of options, "busy" user interface but powerful, slowest
to run

There may well be other plug-ins out there doing a similar job.  I'm
interested to hear others views before I buy one, especially from those who
have made prints.

Kim Fullbrook


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


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

Re: [Digital BW] Question on Plugins converting to b/w

2003-08-28 by Edward Wiseman

Kim..
May I suggest that you give PHOTOSHOP'S " Channel-Mixer a try before you shell out any money..especially if you havn't made any prints..IMHO, all of these plug-ins that do color to B&W conversion using the features that are already native to PS..Some however make it more "user-friendly" but that's it..I think you will have as much control using adjustment layers/channel mixer..
Good luck..Try to keep your money in your pocket in the meantime..
Just my 2 cents..

Eddie Wiseman
Show quoted textHide quoted text
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kim Fullbrook 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 3:53 PM
  Subject: [Digital BW] Question on Plugins converting to b/w


  There are lots of different ways of converting colour digital images to
  black & white. Some use Photoshop's own functions like simple conversion to
  grayscale, and there are also some third party plug-ins available.  I've
  played with a few plugins prior to spending any money but not done any
  printing yet and am interested in members' views.

  These are the ones I've tried - there may be others.
  "Convert to B&W Pro" for $99.95 from imagingfactory.com  
  "Black and White" from silveroxide.com. This has various options, and I
  tried out the Tri-X "Enhanced" for $55.Interestingly, they say their Tri-X
  demo doesn't work on XP but it worked fine for me.
  Powerretouche.com - black and white studio $75 or 50 UKP

  The results from all were hard to distinguish apart but I preferred them to
  any of the built-in Photoshop methods. For me the key points were:

  Imagingfactory - lots of film options, most expensive, I found it easy to
  get a balanced results
  Silveroxide - only one film option per filter, cheaper, use of "brightness"
  and "gamma" was fiddly in the small preview window.
  Powerretouche - lots of options, "busy" user interface but powerful, slowest
  to run

  There may well be other plug-ins out there doing a similar job.  I'm
  interested to hear others views before I buy one, especially from those who
  have made prints.

  Kim Fullbrook


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


        Yahoo! Groups Sponsor 
              ADVERTISEMENT
             
       
       

  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 the Yahoo! Terms of Service. 


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

Re: [Digital BW] Question on Plugins converting to b/w

2003-08-31 by A. Huntley

Hi Kim,

Like Eddie, I would recommend beginning with Channel Mixer in PS. Everything
that any "conversion" software and/or action provides can be accomplished
manually in PS, albeit with a bit of work and some understanding of what's
going on. That said, conversion plug-ins like Imaging Factory's Convert to
B&W Pro provide a nice interface giving you predefined color response for
various film types, and the ability to modify contrast based on standard
multigrade filtration. I guess it really comes down to deciding how much
effort you're willing to invest in tweaking a conversion and the demands on
your time. If you do now or anticipate doing quite a bit of B&W work from
color image files, then one of the automated conversion techniques would
certainly provide certain efficiencies.

Anyway, just my 2 cents, 2! ;>)

Alan Huntley

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Edward Wiseman" <pahts@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Question on Plugins converting to b/w


> Kim..
> May I suggest that you give PHOTOSHOP'S " Channel-Mixer a try before you
shell out any money..especially if you havn't made any prints..IMHO, all of
these plug-ins that do color to B&W conversion using the features that are
already native to PS..Some however make it more "user-friendly" but that's
it..I think you will have as much control using adjustment layers/channel
mixer..
> Good luck..Try to keep your money in your pocket in the meantime..
> Just my 2 cents..
>
> Eddie Wiseman
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Kim Fullbrook
>   To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
>   Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 3:53 PM
>   Subject: [Digital BW] Question on Plugins converting to b/w
>
>
>   There are lots of different ways of converting colour digital images to
>   black & white. Some use Photoshop's own functions like simple conversion
to
>   grayscale, and there are also some third party plug-ins available.  I've
>   played with a few plugins prior to spending any money but not done any
>   printing yet and am interested in members' views.
>
>   These are the ones I've tried - there may be others.
>   "Convert to B&W Pro" for $99.95 from imagingfactory.com
>   "Black and White" from silveroxide.com. This has various options, and I
>   tried out the Tri-X "Enhanced" for $55.Interestingly, they say their
Tri-X
>   demo doesn't work on XP but it worked fine for me.
>   Powerretouche.com - black and white studio $75 or 50 UKP
>
>   The results from all were hard to distinguish apart but I preferred them
to
>   any of the built-in Photoshop methods. For me the key points were:
>
>   Imagingfactory - lots of film options, most expensive, I found it easy
to
>   get a balanced results
>   Silveroxide - only one film option per filter, cheaper, use of
"brightness"
>   and "gamma" was fiddly in the small preview window.
>   Powerretouche - lots of options, "busy" user interface but powerful,
slowest
>   to run
>
>   There may well be other plug-ins out there doing a similar job.  I'm
>   interested to hear others views before I buy one, especially from those
who
>   have made prints.
>
>   Kim Fullbrook
>
>
>   [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>         Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
>               ADVERTISEMENT
>
>
>
>
>   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 the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> 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.
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

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