Need Some Help

Sachphotography · Dec 28, 2009

Ok so it seems I have noticed something lately. When I take a shot and convert to black and white. It seems like my blacks are patchy and not a smooth black. I have tried many different things but do not know how to correct this issue. The dark areas of the photos rather than being a nice clean black are all dirty looking and look bad.

Any ideas?

Cooler_King · Dec 28, 2009

A red filter can really emphasise black and white contrast. Have you tried that?

Why are you converting, don't you adjust the settings to shoot black and white from the beginning.

Photo editing software could easily bring up the dark shadows to provide a more even colour.

I am new here so please excuse me if I am telling you stuff you know.

Shockey · Dec 28, 2009

Levels adjustment, increase your black point.

Dao · Dec 28, 2009

You may try to adjust the curve. Make it more like a "S" shape to increase contrast. But of course, everything photos are different. Find out where in the photo you want to be darker and adjust it accordingly.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/photoshop-curves.htm

GFreg · Dec 28, 2009

Just be careful that you don't lose too much detail in the shadows.

KmH · Dec 28, 2009

Sachphotography said:
Ok so it seems I have noticed something lately. When I take a shot and convert to black and white. It seems like my blacks are patchy and not a smooth black. I have tried many different things but do not know how to correct this issue. The dark areas of the photos rather than being a nice clean black are all dirty looking and look bad.

Any ideas?

What format do you capture in, what B&W conversion method/software do you use, and at what bit-depth do you edit?

Sachphotography · Dec 28, 2009

Ok... I shoot Raw and convert with Nik Software Silver effects pro normaly. Sometimes I simply desaturate the image.
As far as shooting B&W from the get go I cannot. When shooting in RAw you are not able to use all the fancy settings such as BW or VIVID.

This is an image that has the issue I am speaking of. If you look at the darker parts that should be crisp black you will see it is all wierd...

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/landscape-cityscape/186179-portrait-life.html

Garbz · Dec 29, 2009

Two things spring to mind. One is posterisation due to poor / incorrect / too much / just out of latitude post processing adjustments. And another is incorrect RAW conversion.

Does it still happen if you shoot in JPEG?
Does an un-edited image still look like this?

I know for instance the Camera Standard profile within Adobe CameraRAW / Lightroom has a tendency to clobber blacks on many Nikon cameras, maybe it's a result of the RAW conversion software.

Sachphotography · Dec 29, 2009

I use Photoshop for all my editting.... I have not shot Jpeg really at all. I could try.

Garbz · Dec 30, 2009

What camera profile are you using in Adobe CamerRAW when you open the RAW files?

Sachphotography · Dec 31, 2009

To be honest.... I have no idea. I have never messed with that. I open the files in photoshop and the raw software pops up. I usually do not do that much stuff in raw but I have not set up a camera profile.

Garbz · Dec 31, 2009

It will have picked one for you. Go through the tabs in the CameraRAW dialogue and find the one that has your profile (it's called Camera Calibration), and try changing to another profile.

Another thing to do is in CameraRAW have a look at what the black level is set at on the basic tab. This is base line below which everything is rendered black. It is not a smooth fade to black as much as it is a cut-off limit, and I have in the past had posterisation issues when I raised this black level too high rather than opening the image and then adjusting it using curves.

KmH · Dec 31, 2009

Which version of Photoshop do you use?

I use both ACR 5.6 and a Photoshop's CS4, Black & White Adjustment layer to convert. That way I can do do the conversion non-destructively in the 16-bit color depth. One has to be careful though not to push a slider to it's maximum or minumun, else banding or posterization is pretty much assured.

I know other people who do their Black & White conversion using Photoshop's Channels instead, though they are still staying in the 16-bit color depth to do the conversion.

I never liked the results I got from Nik Silver and quit using it, but I know others that like it.

Sachphotography · Jan 1, 2010

I have been happy with Nik so far but I am starting to wonder... I think I may start over and do a simple desaturation and adjust the curves a little bit.

KmH · Jan 1, 2010

Sachphotography said:
I have been happy with Nik so far but I am starting to wonder... I think I may start over and do a simple desaturation and adjust the curves a little bit.

Whichever works for you.

The main thing to control in a black and white image is contrast.