Home Forums Gear Photography B & W conversion help (samples)

took some pics this am (300 prime) and played with converting.

what's the workflow for this ??? I got pretty good at using filters for BW in 35mm (and exposure comp too) but for digital I slid the sliders back and forth until my finger hurt.

Advice ??











this last I had no RAW file for so was pretty limited

still working on it. these two versions I adjusted to almost an IR profile. better ?? worse ??

The Cats Nice. She looks a little upset about getting her photo taken with out consent!
The others look good as well. Maybe just a hair too much sharpening (?) on the top photo. I'm looking at the snow in the middle here. They look good!

Do you use channel mixer in photoshop?

That's what I do.

VTi, elaborate on "channel mixer".


In PSE I have (after RAW > open image into PSE) "convert to BW" which gives 4 scales: R G B + contrast. On another site, tweaking Red was suggested and this is the only place I'm finding it.


I assume you use CS3. are we on the same page ??

(Stetson: sharpening is another issue. I have two articles I'm working from to figure this out. A work in progress).

Thanks

Hi UL. I did this in CS2. "Channel Mixer" is just a tool under image adjustments just like hue/sat, curves, levels, ect...

A while back I read and researched B&W and the overwhelming consensus for converting to B&W was to use Channel Mixer. This is unless you use a dedicated, stand alone converter. I tried that too, and honestly I like my channel mixer conversions better.

Just select "monochrome" box, adjust R,G, and B to your liking, and viola.

I'll have to look into that. thanks.

(don't have that computer "up" right now but I hope that holds for PSE)

Yea, check it out. I'm not sure either if CM is in Elements. If it is, it's the easiest way to go. And you're right, the RED channel always needs the most tweaking to add depth/contrast.

IIRC there isn't a channel mixer in PSE,but you can buy it here,in either of the Handy Actions sets. Graffis Shop

I used Smart Curve when I ran PSE but I've heard that his version works well too.

Check out the B&W Lab also. His actions all work great and the Addomatic is a real time/headache saver for $10.
I'm lazy,I just start with some pre-sets I have loaded in ACR and work from there but I don't think you can use them in PSEs ACR.

thanks JSR ! very helpful indeed!