B & W Conversion

[Ysarex]

I am having quite a bit of trouble creating a successful black and white conversion.

--Are there any tips and tricks?
--I am editing in Picasa.

Thanks,
Gabe

Don't edit in Picasa. Don't edit anything in Picasa ever.

You mention GIMP further down the thread. GIMP will do the job. When translating color to B&W you want to pay attention to how colors convert to B&W tones. Not only is GIMP's channel mixer a good tool, but you can take the channel mixer far beyond simply a single overall conversion for the entire photo. It's possible to use different channel mixer values for different parts of the photo. Another trick is to actually alter the colors of the original before conversion to then alter the resulting tones. I did that with this example.

Joe

I really like that conversion! Was that through Gimp?

I used Photoshop as I'm more familiar with it, but GIMP is capable. I used Photoshop's Channel Mixer which is very similar to GIMP's. The idea behind the channel mixer is to control how colors translate into B&W. Your photo is a portrait and that makes the man's face most important. Human skin tones, especially men, are better rendered through the Green channel and so I made that channel dominant. Dark blue translates to black but when seen in color it looks lighter. To avoid his jacket from turning black and blocking up I desaturated and changed it's color before I did the conversion.

When using the channel mixer always watch a histogram of the photo if you can and make sure you aren't clipping highlights or blocking shadows. GIMP unfortunately won't do that. Get the color original into reasonably good tone condition first. If you're going to need extra contrast or some local control don't try and achieve that in the channel mixer, get the tone translation you need and then continue editing. Watch the values in the channel mixer with a goal that all three channel values add together to equal close to 100. Never use a negative value in the channel mixer.

Joe

 

[480sparky]

......... always watch a histogram of the photo if you can and make sure you aren't clipping highlights or blocking shadows. GIMP unfortunately won't do that..........

Joe

Windows > Histogram.

Walla: Histogram!

 

[Ysarex]

......... always watch a histogram of the photo if you can and make sure you aren't clipping highlights or blocking shadows. GIMP unfortunately won't do that..........

Joe

Windows > Histogram.

Walla: Histogram!

Yep, but it's not live. It won't show the change until after you've made it, at least not in my version of GIMP.

Joe

 

[480sparky]

......... always watch a histogram of the photo if you can and make sure you aren't clipping highlights or blocking shadows. GIMP unfortunately won't do that..........

Joe

Windows > Histogram.

Walla: Histogram!

Yep, but it's not live. It won't show the change until after you've made it, at least not in my version of GIMP.

Joe

CTRL + Z.

 

[Ysarex]

Windows > Histogram.

Walla: Histogram!

Yep, but it's not live. It won't show the change until after you've made it, at least not in my version of GIMP.

Joe

CTRL + Z.

Fair enough.

Joe

 

[nathfromslg]

 

[nycphotography]

BTW, just for the record, I could have done a better b&w conversion... I just took 30 seconds to get the OP pointed at the right tools for the job ;-)

 

[ianpett]

Hi Gabe. I see on the original thread you referenced one of my pics on Flickr. That image of the moustached-man was shot in RAW with a 5DMII using the 85mm 1.8 lens, a very very sharp lens for portraits.
Some of the conversions above are very well done. Essentially a GOOD bw conversion starts with a good photo in good light. The focus is a tiny bit off on your pic, but overall is pretty good. For my conversions
I use Lightroom first, then I sometimes make smaller tweaks with SilverFX. Keep practicing - thats all it takes.

 

[STIC]

...

 

[gw2424]

^^^ I really like how you brought out the details in his face.

 

[STIC]

...

 

[tevo]

Here's my 2 minutes... perhaps the quality would have been better had I used the original image, and not dragged the thumbnail onto the Photoshop icon...
EDIT: Here's my second whack at it. As Stic pointed out, the last one looked a mess. Keep in mind I am no expert..

 

[STIC]

Here's my 2 minutes... perhaps the quality would have been better had I used the original image, and not dragged the thumbnail onto the Photoshop icon...

TBH, it's a bit of a mess, and the detail isn't all that good, the white and black levels are blown out but, hey what do i know...at least it doesn't look HDR...

 

[debraj]

It can be done in several ways, in photoshop,in camera, in printing. For me one has to really decide before shooting whether the picture demands B&W treatment or will it be in color. Once decided one can shoot from the camera with its monochrom picture style. In some high end digital slrs they give filter options also and it works great according to subject.

 

[thanhbinh1]

Use the PTS program is the most convenient. I like it
There are many ways to be one beautiful picture.
Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + U or Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate (shortcut Shift + Ctrl + U)