Vintage looking B&W??

wmc1117

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I really want to try out some B&W with my dslr. My question is how do you get that really old school looking B&W thats really grainy...i dont know if thats descriptive enough....but I was just curious if someone can point me to an article on how to create that effect in photoshop on digital shots??
 
Black and white can be created by converting to grayscale, although you might get better results with the channel mixer or gradient map methods. As for film grain, a quick google search turned up lots of results. Here's one:

Digital Black and White
 
You mean like this? A portrait I took last year and scanned in - (see full size for the grain detail)

1116lxs.jpg


Not possible in digital. There are programs that will add grain but nothing that will add film-like grain. There is absolutely no substitute for traditional black and white film mated to a silver gelatin print if B&W imagery is your game. Buy a $65 film SLR, a $3.29 roll of film, maybe $10 for the processing and go shoot :)

Used Nikon | N50 35mm SLR Autofocus Camera Body | 1710 | B&H
Ilford | HP5 Plus 135-24 Black & White Print Film | 1700646
 
Not possible in digital. There are programs that will add grain but nothing that will add film-like grain. There is absolutely no substitute for traditional black and white film mated to a silver gelatin print if B&W imagery is your game.

Silver Efex Pro

Many pros swear by it, and so do I. :er:
 
I'm not sure how good this product is, but NIK makes a lot of good stuff. I'll have to look into this for sure.
 
blash is right..theres no way you are going to get the SAME look as film...but Using higher ISOs on your camera will make it better.....dont worry about the crazy colored noise....when you convert it B&W it wont be crazy colors....it will be black...and white!

I hear that Silver Effects Pro works pretty good!
 
hey man.... just jack the ISO up. you'll get grain. then convert to b&w in photoshop
 
I agree with Bash; just grab some film.
 
Thanks guys...when I finally get better with photoshop I will take a look into that Silver Efex Pro, and Blash I didn't know that film SLRs are that cheap maybe will look into those, thank you.
 
Silver Efex Pro was made with two ingredients: Awesome and Easy. The biggest advantage is that it takes way, way less time and is way, way more flexible than film. It does a pretty darn good job of mimicking film too. It comes with the colour response levels for a few types of B&W film (like TMAX Pro 100, 400, and 3600, or Ilford Delta 100 Pro). Sure it might not be exactly the same, but it's damn close. Here's an example of using the Holga preset in Silver Efex, and setting the film type to Ilford Delta 100 Pro. I toyed with the colour response though to get rid of the blown-out highlights that come with Ilford Delta (mostly just turning down red, since highlights were in the skin tones). The orignal settings were f/2.5, ISO 400, 1/20 (with bounce flash).

IMG_6395-324-ilforddelta100Prolessr.jpg
 
@musicale - maybe it's just my monitor but the tonal transition on the wall as it fades into darkness looks hella pixelated. The original photo + bigger examples are needed to actually determine whether that software is worth anything.

Which is why I looked here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/krogen/2707586356/
2707586356_81afae0603_o.jpg

and at the original:
2642478711_40c54f32b0_o.jpg


and if you've ever shot silver then you know that's not a real film output - at the very least, film would have better tonal preservation along the foreground and the hill instead of the sharp adjustments found after putting it through a Photoshop filter.
 
The hella pixelation is a problem with the camera, not the software. *sigh* I had to bump up exposure in post, shooting in the dark at ISO 400 even with my 580EX. It'd be hella cleaner if I had a camera that could shoot without so much noise. *grumblegrumble* (And that was after applying noise reduction.)

I'll go dig up a better example. I chose the above just because it was recent.
 
Better example.

Original:

IMG_4266-34.jpg


After Super Efex Pro (set for some vignetting, and the preset to emulate Kodak TMAX 100...or at least, I think that's what I did...might've tinkered with it a bit):

IMG_4266-34-Edit.jpg
 
Silver effects pro is great. I like how it allows more control over how it is converted to B&W. Before switching to Silver Effects Pro I never achieved good looking B&W. I mean good as far as depth and contrast. Photoshop can do a good job but it requires you to a lot of work to get there. Also, color effects pro is amazing. There are several other photoshop addons available that create a film effect but I prefer Silver Effects pro.
Check out my website. All my W&W shoots were ran through SEP.

Daniel Sach
Sachphotography Fine Art Photography The homepage of Daniel Sach and his photography Company
 

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