2 Questions about B&W conversion

batmura

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1 Do you prefer editing your B&W photos in colour first or do you do your editing frommstart to finish in B&W only?

2!What is your favourite software for B&W edits?
 
I always edit in color and then convert to BW. (Then do any touch-ups if needed)

I usually use a BW layer in PS
 
For me conversion to black and white isn't a simple transtion, saturation is zeroed but the rest of the colour information is there to be used and you edit the luminance of individual colours to get the black and white image you want. What I'm saying is that I see it all as editing in colour until I export the finished image.
 
I usually do my touchups and some color tweaking in color. Then I duplicate the layer (PSE 11) and convert to black and white, then make final tweaks to levels or others touchups. (It's amazing how inconspicuous dust spots show up after the b&w conversion).

In some respects, you have to always be thinking color and b&w. When I take a shot (RAW, so always in color), I usually know of it is going to be b&w, so I can usually interpret about how it is going to look. But in tweaking the b&w, I know which colors are which so I know what to adjust. The two are pretty much inseparable if you are doing it right.
 
Technically I always edit in color by adding a channel mixer adjustment layer pretty quickly once in post. I do a combination of edits placed above (after conversion) and below (before) depending on what I want. Knowing exactly how this works takes some practice.

Using a channel mixer adjustment layer also has some interesting benefits. Let's say you have a purple region which is coming across too dark, but the rest of the image is fine, you can use shift the hue using hue/sat to fine tune the conversion locally, for example. And if you're into the kitschier things in life, selective color is just one step away.
 

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