B&W CC please.

MrsLittle · Jan 10, 2012

I have been working on my B&W conversions and tried to create a hazy look. I was hoping I did a good job with this snapshot of my son. (Ignore the hamster)

Any advice on ways to improve BW photos is greatly appreciated. Didn't realize how tricky it actually is....not just a click of one button.

DSC_2877_edited-3 by Lily Belle Photos, on Flickr

unpopular · Jan 10, 2012

REALLY high key. A little too much for my taste. How was it converted? If using channel mixer, tone down the red a bit and compensate if necc with green. Not too much, mind you. Just so that he looks a little less glowing.

MrsLittle · Jan 10, 2012

Thanks for the advice. I used tons of layers and I probably got carried away on the color tones and contrast. I don't like too much contrast on people portraits but I did it anyway. :er:

unpopular · Jan 10, 2012

Deff it works well. Just maybe a little too hot. No matter, don't pull off too much. I like the effect overall.

MrsLittle · Jan 10, 2012

Thank you for very much. I'm going to play around with the edit a bit more, I see what you mean.

WesternGuy · Jan 10, 2012

You are right - B&W conversions can be a bit tricky. I have been doing them now for about six months and some are good and some are not so good. If you are interested, you can find a few of them here: Black & White Conversions - a set on Flickr, but enough about me. The one that you have posted looks almost like the original was over exposed - not sure because I can't see it, but this one is a bit washed out in my opinion - nice sharp subject and good bokeh though - but you did chop off his right hand(?). How did you do the conversion? I do mine primarily with Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro 2.

If you use Photoshop, here is a link to a site that looks at a number of ways to do it in PS - 7 Black and White Photoshop Conversion Techniques. If you use Lightroom, then this - Black and white in Lightroom will give you some alternatives using that software.

One of the things that I have learned along the way is that not every colour image will make a good black and white image. To make a good B&W, the colour image has to have good contrast and this means a good tonal range and a good tonal contrast. You can often judge both of these from the histogram. Tonal range refers to the width on the histogram between the lightest and darkest area of the scene. If you think of the histogram as sort of a "mountain range", then the height of the mountains in the range is a measure of the tonal contrast. Make sense?

If you are serious about doing B&W conversion, there are a few good books on the subject. Let me know if you are interested in the titles. As well, there are a number of sites on the web that discuss this topic - google "black and white photography" and throw in words like tips, techniques and methods. One of the things I have been doing is studying the black and white works of some of the "early masters" - Adams, Porter, Weston, Karsh, Cartier-Bresson and others - granted these are all film photographers, but the results are useful examples. There are also some more contemporary photographers that I have found such as John Batdorff and Andy Gibb. I am sure there are lots of others I have not found yet. HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

Ms.Nash · Jan 10, 2012

That was a great snip of info Western Guy - thank you!!!

I am only viewing on my phone but the capture does look a bit washed out ( which I don't mind creatively) but his eyes seem to almost be disappearing from behind his glasses

Ms.Nash · Jan 10, 2012

Maybe it's the reflection?

MrsLittle · Jan 10, 2012

I use Elements for all my editing, that's all I have at the moment. So I use mostly layers.

I am posting the original and a new edit. On the new edit I took the same steps and turned down a the hue a bit as well as the lightness. I also increased the blacks.

SOOC.

DSC_2877_edited-4 by Lily Belle Photos, on Flickr

New edit.

DSC_2877_edited-5 by Lily Belle Photos, on Flickr

MrsLittle · Jan 10, 2012

Oh and I would love the book suggestions. Working on my collection.

Thanks again for the informative review.

MrsLittle · Jan 10, 2012

Ms.Nash said:
Maybe it's the reflection?

The reflection kind of bugs me too, you can also see where I was standing in his glasses. It was cloudy day here in Turkey, which we don't get very often, so I had to snap a picture in that lighting. I wanted to see the difference first hand.

WesternGuy · Jan 10, 2012

Love the colour one and the conversion looks much better IMO - now if you could just get rid of the reflections in the glasses

As for references, a couple that I have in my library to date - still more to come :

John Batdorff, Black and White, from Snapshots to Great Shots, published by PeachPit Press.

This is a fairly decent introduction to the subject. He deals primarily with Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro as conversion software.

Michael Freeman, Masterin black and white digital photography, published by Lark Books.

This is a more technical reference. It deals with conversion using CS5 and provides some very good descriptions on all of the various aspects of conversion using mostly Photoshop as his software of choice.

Chris Bucher, Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop, published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.

This is more of a technical methodology book. He covers some aspects of "how to" in Photoshop and a few plugins. He covers a lot around the general methodology of photography for black and white imaging and printing B&W images.

There are lots of others, just go to Amazon and search for "black and white photography". HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

MrsLittle · Jan 10, 2012

WesternGuy said:
Love the colour one and the conversion looks much better IMO - now if you could just get rid of the reflections in the glasses

As for references, a couple that I have in my library to date - still more to come :

John Batdorff, Black and White, from Snapshots to Great Shots, published by PeachPit Press.

This is a fairly decent introduction to the subject. He deals primarily with Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro as conversion software.

Michael Freeman, Masterin black and white digital photography, published by Lark Books.

This is a more technical reference. It deals with conversion using CS5 and provides some very good descriptions on all of the various aspects of conversion using mostly Photoshop as his software of choice.

Chris Bucher, Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop, published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.

This is more of a technical methodology book. He covers some aspects of "how to" in Photoshop and a few plugins. He covers a lot around the general methodology of photography for black and white imaging and printing B&W images.

There are lots of others, just go to Amazon and search for "black and white photography". HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

Thanks! I have no idea how to remove reflection. I tried looking on you tube, but everything has to do with cloning.

I will be picking up a polarizer soon.