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Thread: Converting to black and white

  1. #11
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Converting to black and white

    87 steps?

    I think I'm naive about this, never having used color film to make a black and white image. Why is it more complicated than using the channel mixer (if you want to do color filtration, which is something I almost never do in b+w anyhow) and then using curves to get the tonal scale you want?

  2. #12
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: Converting to black and white

    Paul,

    I just sent it to you. Try it and report back.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  3. #13

    Re: Converting to black and white

    Russell Preston Brown, photoshop guru has a downloadable action on his site that will convert to black and white with mutliple processes. Then, you can go through and select the one that makes the most pleasing conversion to black and white.

  4. #14
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Converting to black and white

    Thanks Kirk,

    I'll give it a try when I have a chance.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Jul 2005
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    953

    Re: Converting to black and white

    you can get several photoshop actions for converting to grayscale at the adobe website:

    http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchang...hange%20Search

    limit the search to photoshop and actions and use "grayscale" as the search keyword.

    the "6 grays" action is useful because it will show you that the best technique is 100% dependant on the image being converted. i.e. no single technique will give optimum results for all images which means a hands on approach will give you the best results.

  6. #16
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: Converting to black and white

    That reminds me. Caponigro's PDF for the action is on the Adobe site too. This is a must read.

    http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdf...2it_bwconv.pdf
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  7. #17

    Join Date
    May 2006
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    Swindon, UK
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    35

    Re: Converting to black and white

    I'm still in the dark ages - using photoshop 7 - anuone know if the action workls with this?
    I'd try it, but I can't get to the PC with photoshop

  8. #18

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    Re: Converting to black and white

    If anyone has any before and after examples to show, I would love to see them.

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Jun 2002
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    Re: Converting to black and white

    Gee I never ever bothered to use anything other than channel mixer, curves, and layers with layer masks and blending modes. I never thought there was a free lunch to any of this, I like seeing what is in each channel and picking where I want things to go...

    When I teach PS I try to talk students out of being dependent on "canned" solutions and trusting their eyes.

  10. #20
    Jack Flesher's Avatar
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    Re: Converting to black and white

    Well FWIW, I used channel mixer for over a year and it is a very good but does not give the total control over the image that C2B&WPro does. Kirk was kind enough to send me a copy of his PC action, and while it appears to do a nice job, again and IMO only, it does not give the ultimate control that C2B&WPro does. Finally, I tried the all black color blend layer method. This one is alos good and a slightly different paradigm to use, but shows some poterizations with extreme hue changes.

    In the end, I think you can make good B&W conversions from any/all of these, it's just that for myself I find the UI of C2B&WPro very intutitve for somebody who already knows traditional B&W capture and darkroom methodologies.

    My .02 only and YMMV,
    Jack Flesher

    www.getdpi.com

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