B&W Shootout No.1

[480sparky]

New, fun challenge for TPF members!..... B&W Shootouts!

We all take a single image from a (gracious) member, and we all do our best PP B&W conversion and post the result! It's a knock-off the the HDR shootouts we used to do.

A few simple rules:
1. Post your processing step(s) with your resulting version of the image, including the software used!
2. No other use of the resulting images will be allowed (after all, they won't be your images to start with!) Let's maintain the respect for others work & their rights to it.
3. The linked image must be JPEG, but additional formats such as TIF, CR2, NEFand the like can be included if you wish.
4. Full-res images would be preferred to allow participants as much data as possible to work with.
5. Please resize your posted results to no more than 1000 pixels along the long edge.
6. No colors allowed in posted results. Monochrome, grayscale, black & white, desaturated.... whatever you want to call it. But NO COLOR. No selective coloring, or tints such as sepia or cyanotype either.


Fun fun fun!

I'll start off with offering this image. It's a few years old, and certainly not a show-stopper. But that's not the point........ the real gist is to teach & learn better black and white vision and technique!



Looking forward to the results!

 

[timor]

Nice starter image Ken. :thumbup:
I am curious what's gonna happen.

 

[vipgraphx]

Here is my go at 480sparky's

opened in photoshop and then used silver efex plug in


Brightness 0
Contrast 43
Structure 22


Red -17
Yellow -12
Green -5
cyan -28
blue +34
violet +14


Vignett -16
size 62%


duplicate layer
TOPAZ Adjust - Spicy
Creat Layer Mask
invert
mask in details at 23%


merge Layers


Nik Color Effex
Detail Extractor 25%


Nik Color Effex
Graduated Fog
Opacity 50%
Blend 25%
Verticle Shift 50%
Rotation 180


Glamour Glow
Glow 41%


Graduated Neutral Density
Upper Tonality -42%
Lower Tonality -5
Blend 25


Create Layer mask
Mask in under bridge and water back in detail


Flatten


Done




D7K_3934 by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

 

[Rick58]

Not near as impressive as the guy above me but...

Paintshop 5

Desaturate
Increase overall brightness
Slightly increase highlights
Lower the shadows
Bring up the mid tones
Dash of contrast
Sharpen

 

[jenko]

^^Nice job guys. Fun challenge.



I wanted to play, but I could not save the image off photobucket?

 

[Rick58]

^^Nice job guys. Fun challenge.



I wanted to play, but I could not save the image off photobucket?

I had the same problem. I had to enlarge it one time and "save picture as". The largest enlargement wouldn't save.

 

[Parker219]

Ok, so here is the original and my edit.

I opened in Perfect Photo Suite 8 to do the b&w conversion.

Then I cleaned up some of the little rocks in the foreground that kept drawing my eye down. Then I cleaned up under the bridge a little. Then I removed the 2 big rocks on the right of the bridge.

I adjusted some of the sliders for contrast.

Then I brought it in to photoshop and tried to fix some of the distortion, the trees on the right side were especially leaning bad to the left. Then selective added clarity to the bridge.

I think that was it.




Woods-Bridge by linktheworld219, on Flickr



Final-1-Woods-Bridge by linktheworld219, on Flickr

 

[Rick58]

@Parker: :hail: Nice job

 

[Designer]

Aperture3

white balance
saturation
highlights and shadows
sharpen
red filter

 

[weepete]

I'll Play



Edited in Lightroom 5

Basic Adjustments:
Exposure +36
Contrast +60
Highlights -67
Shadows -33
Whites +29
Blacks -31
Clarity +19

Spot removal for one of the white rocks in the foreground

Tone Curve:
Highlights -28
Lights -61
Darks +13
Shadows -34

HSL:
Saturation -100 all colours
Luminance:
Red -58
Orange -78
Yellow -2
Green +84
Aqua -100
Blue -29
Purple -49
Magenta +9

Sharpening 57
Radius 0.8
Detail 6
Masking 92

NR:
Luminance 19
Detail 44
Contrast 29

Lens corrections:
Vertical -33
Horizontal +5

Mask1 Bridge:
Exposure 1.43
Contrast 60
Highlights -38

Mask 2 LHS of Bridge:
Exposure 1.43
Contrast 95

Mask 3 Water:
Exposure 2.29
Contrast 55
Highlights -52
Shadows -33
Clarity 40

Mask 4 LHS Trees:
Exposure 1.14
Shadows 43
Sharpness 40

Mask 5 Sand:
Exposure 1.71
Contrast 25
Highlights -43

Mask 6 Tree Trunks:
Exposure 2.95
Contrast 25
Shadows 71

Output Shapening: for screen, Standard

 

[timor]

So far my vote goes to vipgraphx. I like the nice, soft rendition of the trees. It makes the bridge really to stand out. Texture in the sand on the far bank is excellent, something, nobody else achieved. Most others conversions is or harsher or flatter.

 

[usayit]

We've been doing this on another site with great success... not just B&W but with color too. Its pretty fun and substitutes the lack of time behind the camera...

LR3 (flatten) -> SilverFX -> LR3. Is my usual for B&W. Then I apply subtle changes with the image in LR3 depending.

1) Lightroom 3 -> flatten out the image. Bring everything neutral (since we are working with B&W). Also correct distortion to keep the tree upright which means crop.
2) SilverFX -> high contrast full structure to start. Apply a red filter and some adjustment to bring the leaves back. Pure black on print always looks "unnatural". As such, I always convert to B&W leaving a tiny little bit of sepia.
3) Back in LR3, Soften the entire photo with a reduction of clarity and and pulling back contrast.
4) Mask out the bridge.... apply a little contrast back and curves adjustment.
5) Gradient... darken the bottom half of the frame without impacting the sky.
6) Tiny bit of vignette. If you can tell, its too much.

Done.

In another shootout, we would start with full raw... After the crop, I was running out of image to work with. I hope it looks okay... I'm in a rush and didn't calibrate the monitor since my son adjusted it for his use. It maybe on the dark side.

[EDIT]

Oh darn... Just noticed the whole bit about "no sepia". Its part of my workflow for B&W so I just do it automatically. Attaching the other version that has been completely desaturated to pure B&W.

 

[Rick58]

My vote would go to Parker. To my eye his looks the most natural, but I'm a fan for natural, as seen, photography.

 

[Parker219]

^ thank you. I don't know if the most "likes" is the indicator or if there is actually a poll made or if we all win equally just for participating. :mrgreen:

 

[480sparky]

In GIMP:

Create 2 identical layers.

Working on bottom layer first, go to Colors > Components > Channel Mixer. Check the Monochrome and Preserve Luminosity boxes. Set Red channel to 100, Green channel to +40 and Blue channel to -40. Then to Filters > Enhance > Sharpen, set to 50.

On top layer, perform Tools > Use GEGL Operations > c2g operation. When that is done, copy that layer to create a third layer.

In middle layer (which was original c2g layer), set opacity to 50%.

On third, top layer, mask out everything except the bridge and make it transparent. This retains the original bridge contrast from c2g operation.

Flatten the entire layer stack.

Perform a Perspective correction on result.

Resize to 800x530 pixels, export to JPEG.