Digital BW, The Print

I have raised my knowlege of converting color to BW sufficiently to 
realize that I don't know anything!

Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those 
presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good tools/software 
that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art 
landscape images primarily.

john

get to know the 'channel mixer' in photoshop,
experiment with it... that's all you will every need
to know.


 --- "John M." <moodymz3@...> wrote: 

---------------------------------

I have raised my knowlege of converting color to BW
sufficiently to 
realize that I don't know anything!

Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such
as those 
presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good
tools/software 
that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in
fine art 
landscape images primarily.

john





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John,
Try http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/PhotoshopTools/TLRB&WConversion.htm

I use his b/w action all the time. Works great and you still have control of the final look after the
action runs.
The best is the he incorporates conversions that simulate the use of b/w filters that you would have used
on the camera.

Jake
Fine Art Photography
www.jakehellbachphoto.com

  -----Original Message-----
  From: John M. [mailto:moodymz3@...]



  I have raised my knowlege of converting color to BW sufficiently to
  realize that I don't know anything!

  Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those
  presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good tools/software
  that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art
  landscape images primarily.

  john



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

John

You have asked one of the questions that seems to come up time and time
again on this forum and leads to endless arguments about which technique or
programme is best.  Take a look through the archives for a thorough
discussion.  Having followed all the postings in previous discussions of the
topic, the technique that I like and use because I believe it gives you the
best control is the "split channels" approach developed by Glenn Mitchell.
I believe he (finally) had his pdf discussion of this technique added to the
list's archives.

Steve

> From: "John M." <moodymz3@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:13:29 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Convert color to BW techniques
> 
> 
> 
> I have raised my knowlege of converting color to BW sufficiently to
> realize that I don't know anything!
> 
> Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those
> presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good tools/software
> that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art
> landscape images primarily.
> 
> john
>

Hi John,

There are probably dozens of methods for converting color to B&W. Basically, what it comes down to is that you'll have to try a number of 'em and see which works best for you or fits your working style better.

I have tried several different methods--B&W via nik's Color Efex 2.0, Powerretouche's B&W Studio, Channel Mixer, etc--and have downloaded demos of others such as Silver Oxide's filters. Ultimately, though, I came back to Channel Mixer using the techniques described by John Paul Caponigro on Adobe's website. For me, John's methodolgy seems to offer the most flexibility and control.

Another useful technique that seems to work out well for me is an action that creates a "ring around" of channel mixer settings. After running it I have a folder of images that I create a contact sheet of within PS CS's browser and print out onto a single 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I find this very helpful to study the effects of different channel mixer settings on the colors of the image. Generally, after a bit of careful study I can easily pick out which channel mixer settings will give me the conversion that I want.

So, jump in there and start playing! Experience will be your best guide.

Alan Huntley

> 
> From: "John M." <moodymz3@...>
> Date: 2004/12/14 Tue AM 08:13:29 EST
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Convert color to BW techniques
> 
> 
> 
> I have raised my knowlege of converting color to BW sufficiently to 
> realize that I don't know anything!
> 
> Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those 
> presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good tools/software 
> that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art 
> landscape images primarily.
> 
> john

Steve,
Yes indeed.  I have been reading the archives and books I own while 
waiting for my EyeOne Pro to arrive so that I can tune QTR for the 
2200.  My head is now overloaded, so I have to dig back out of the 
hole and survey what I have done. Thanks for the suggestion of 
Glenn's discussion.

john.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale 
<stevekale@b...> wrote:
> 
> John
> 
> You have asked one of the questions that seems to come up time and 
time
> again on this forum and leads to endless arguments about which 
technique or
> programme is best.  Take a look through the archives for a thorough
> discussion.  Having followed all the postings in previous 
discussions of the
> topic, the technique that I like and use because I believe it gives 
you the
> best control is the "split channels" approach developed by Glenn 
Mitchell.
> I believe he (finally) had his pdf discussion of this technique 
added to the
> list's archives.
> 
> Steve
> 
> > From: "John M." <moodymz3@y...>
> > Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> > Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:13:29 -0000
> > To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> > Subject: [Digital BW] Convert color to BW techniques
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > I have raised my knowlege of converting color to BW sufficiently 
to

> > realize that I don't know anything!
> > 
> > Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those
> > presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good tools/software
> > that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art
> > landscape images primarily.
> > 
> > john
> >

I've been very pleased with Convert to B&W Pro from The Imaging Factory 
- http://www.theimagingfactory.com/.  It's a Photoshop plug-in that lets 
you apply the equivalent of color contrast filters (continuously 
variable, and with adjustable intensity), adjust spectral response 
(including a number of presets to match several popular films), adjust 
"exposure", "enlarger time" and contrast (with steps from -1.0 to +5.0 
in 0.1 increments.)  For an old darkroom guy, it struck me as the most 
intuitive of the tools out there, although I recognize it's not doing 
anything I couldn't learn to do with Photoshop's adjustments.  There's a 
30 day trial available, if you're interested.

Cheers,
Kip

John M. wrote, in part:

><snip>
>
>Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those 
>presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good tools/software 
>that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art 
>landscape images primarily.
>  
>

Thanks to all that responded on the BW conversion methods.  
Great info.  For my needs and enjoyment, I will continue working with 
channel mixer in PS.  The paper on channel splitting provides plenty 
to work with.  I really enjoyed the site, 
http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com.  

john

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "John M." 
<moodymz3@y...> wrote:

> 
> I have raised my knowlege of converting color to BW sufficiently to 
> realize that I don't know anything!
> 
> Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those 
> presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good tools/software 
> that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art 
> landscape images primarily.
> 
> john

Here's another way

1. Create an hue-saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop CS. You 
just leave the blending mode at normal.
2. Select "master" and bring saturation down to -100.
3. Select the individual colour channels and adjust the "lightness" 
to your liking.

What I like about this technique is that it's intuitive. When you 
select the "reds", for example, and increase the "lightness", the 
reds get lighter.

I agree that The Imaging Factory has one of the best and easiest to 
use plug-ins.  I have several that I've tried and I use their's 90% 
of the time.  Anyone not wanting to actually purchase something and 
still get great results should try Russell Brown's method using the 
action he supplies.  It is great as well.

I just prefer to choose my film (my preference is usually Ilford) 
and filter settings with the infinite adjustments, but Russell's 
action is a very close second.

Ron

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Kip Babington 
<cbabing3@s...> wrote:
> I've been very pleased with Convert to B&W Pro from The Imaging 
Factory 
> - http://www.theimagingfactory.com/.  It's a Photoshop plug-in 
that lets 
> you apply the equivalent of color contrast filters (continuously 
> variable, and with adjustable intensity), adjust spectral response 
> (including a number of presets to match several popular films), 
adjust 
> "exposure", "enlarger time" and contrast (with steps from -1.0 to 
+5.0 
> in 0.1 increments.)  For an old darkroom guy, it struck me as the 
most 
> intuitive of the tools out there, although I recognize it's not 
doing 
> anything I couldn't learn to do with Photoshop's adjustments.  
There's a 
> 30 day trial available, if you're interested.
> 
> Cheers,
> Kip
> 
> John M. wrote, in part:
> 
> ><snip>
> >
> >Is the best route to immerse myself in techniques such as those 
> >presented by Russell Brown, or are there truly good 
tools/software 

> >that I should investigate as well?  I am interested in fine art 
> >landscape images primarily.
> >  
> >