Black and White and digital?

[Dubie]

I am taking a B&W course at the local college. I thought it would be helpful as far as understanding the whole process and applying it to future work. Many people on the forum said it would benefit me and it does.

A darkroom in the home is out of the question but is there a separate program that you can use for B&W digital. I only have the program that came with my Canon Rebel. Would Photoshop Elements be a good one or is there a specific one for B&W?

 

[Village Idiot]

I am taking a B&W course at the local college. I thought it would be helpful as far as understanding the whole process and applying it to future work. Many people on the forum said it would benefit me and it does.

A darkroom in the home is out of the question but is there a separate program that you can use for B&W digital. I only have the program that came with my Canon Rebel. Would Photoshop Elements be a good one or is there a specific one for B&W?

Since you're taking classes, see if you can get a student discount of Photo Shop CS3. That has a really good B&W conversion tool that lets you adjust individual levels.

 

[TamiyaGuy]

Or you can try The Gimp. It has a pretty basic Black & White conversion tool (you might want to change the contrast a bit as well), but it's completely free. If that doesn't work out for you, then try and get a discount on CS3. It costs ya, but I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

 

[chinpokojed]

Since you're taking classes, see if you can get a student discount of Photo Shop CS3. That has a really good B&W conversion tool that lets you adjust individual levels.

+1 - the CS3 B&W converter is very good.

I do Fine Art Reproduction professionally and matching the exact tone on a black and white can be one of the hardest challenges we have, the CS3 tool is a BIG help!

 

[Dubie]

Thanks you all. I know that as a student you can get it pretty inexpensively but I just need more space on my computer first.