Digital Black and White

[Zulu2]

Hi,

I've resumed my B&W film photography. I do not print - just scan the negatives. Tonal range in B&W film is much better than in digital, especially in the lights.

There is a problem to find a good quality scanning service though.

I've tried several in New Orleans area, and it is difficult to get what you want.

There are some other services in the US, but to get a professional grade scan is about $27.00-$30.00 per 35 mm roll.

Hope this helps.

Val

Thanks Val. Unfortunately, you have me re-thinking my venturing into digital B&W. I did enjoy film for so long I appreciate the "analog" tonal characteristics it pocesses.

So digital printing from scanned film produces superior prints?

Have you considered purchasing a scanner?

Joe

 

[skieur]

The tools for doing B&W conversions in Elements are rudimentry at best. In Lightroom, dodge and burn are somewhat cumbersome but the big limiter is no adjustment layers, or any other kind of layers for that matter.

Nik Software makes some good B&W conversion tools and Photoshop CS5 is also good but costs $700 retail. The upside of PS/CS5 is that upgrades (CS6, CS7, CS8) then only cost $199 each. Upgrades usually appear every 18 months, but many skip an upgrade or 2.

The best tool for black and white is Silver EFX by Nik Software as a plug-in for Photoshop or PaintShop Pro X3. I don't use it however, because I do colour only.

skieur

 

[vvkozmenko]

Joe

Thanks Val. Unfortunately, you have me re-thinking my venturing into digital B&W. I did enjoy film for so long I appreciate the "analog" tonal characteristics it pocesses.

So digital printing from scanned film produces superior prints?

Have you considered purchasing a scanner?

Joe

Hi, Joe. Probably I am going to buy Plustek 7600 AI. I have read pretty good reviews of it. It costs about $500.00. Coolscan is definitely a better choice but I cannot afford to spend 2K+ on a scanner now.

Val

 

[duneshot]

Hi,

I'm new here but not to photography. Like Val I've gone back to using film but process my own in a roll film tank then scan the negative using an Epson scanner then processs the scanned negative using Photoshop CS5. Developing your own film is really a simple process and the results are excellent. I scan at 1200 dpi. I do keep the scan as RGB and desaturate, or use other methods, then crop and use levels to get the image close to what I want then save as a TIF. Now I can go ahead and process the image any way I want even to tone it since It's saved as a RGB. Now this a digital print that contains those beautiful whites, grays and blacks with all the tonality we love. Now I need to upload an example when I learn how to upload <g>. BTW I save the original scan "as scanned", as an original "digital negative". This is really an easier and fun way of printing a black and white (or a color print by not desaturating). Proper exposure when taking the photograph, though, is always the best.
Hope I'm not confusing anyone (It's Late)

duneshot

 

[greybeard]

Hi,

There are about 11-12 methods of converting color image into B&W.

This is one of them: open an image in Photoshop. Go to "Layer" and create a new "Adjustment Layer" - select "Channel Mixer".

In the channel mixer, check the "Monochrome" checkbox. Using different values for different colors, you can simulate different films or effects.

Agfa 200X: 18,41,41
Agfapan 25: 25,39,36
Agfapan 100: 21,40,39
Agfapan 400: 20,41,39
Ilford Delta 100: 21,42,37
Ilford Delta 400: 22,42,36
Ilford Delta 400 Pro & 3200: 31,36,33
Ilford FP4: 28,41,31
Ilford HP5: 23,37,40
Ilford Pan F: 33,36,31
Ilford SFX: 36,31,33
Ilford XP2 Super: 21,42,37
Kodak Tmax 100: 24,37,39
Kodak Tmax 400: 27,36,37
Kodak Tri-X: 25,35,40

Normal Contrast: 43,33,30
High Contrast: 40,34,60
generic BW: 24,68,8.
50,50,0 or 25,75,0.
Kodak HIE! (infrared) 100,100,-100

These numbers were posted by someone on this site and you can also find them in literature.

I've resumed my B&W film photography. I do not print - just scan the negatives. Tonal range in B&W film is much better than in digital, especially in the lights.

There is a problem to find a good quality scanning service though.

I've tried several in New Orleans area, and it is difficult to get what you want.

There are some other services in the US, but to get a professional grade scan is about $27.00-$30.00 per 35 mm roll.

Hope this helps.

Val

Just tried this one...............it works well.

 

[BrianV]

An old thread- If you are shooting film, why not shoot black and white and use color filters when shooting?

For conversion- I got Silver Efex-2 with the last camera. The software has a fairly easy interface to follow for converting color digital to monochrome, tried it out with some color images. You can select a "color filter" as you would have used with black and white film. My experience: turn off image sharpening applied by Lightroom (or others?) before doing the color conversion. The results at the default settings produced jagged/ragged edges.

 

[AlanKlein]

I have both Elements 8 and LR3. I find LR3 better when converting. It allows individual adjustments to up to 8 different colors to get different shades of grey, much better control than Elements. Here are conversions using these two prorgams plus some were done with a test version of Silver Efex Pro. The thing I played with is the contrasts to make some shots more "filmlike" and less so. You'll have to judge what you like but I think a have a good asortment there. Good luck with whatever you work with.
Digital B/W - a set on Flickr