I have a lovely photo that is currently in colour and I would love convert it to a B&W photo.
I have always converted images to B&W through PS, then played with the curves/balance etc. But I am finding I am not getting a lovely rich/deep B&W image.
Those of you who have awesome B&W photos, do you shoot initially in B&W? How do you convert?
if you want to make your monochrome image that bit more striking try going over the highlights with a dodge brush and the shadows with a burn brush, really makes the image stand out
I just desaturate and alter contrast and curves. With that, I can obtain many types of black and white, from Brownie to current, with varying degrees of gray contrast.
I do exactly what Adam and Lee mentioned above. Mainly the channel mixers on CS4. I am not sure which version of photoshop you have, but in CS4 when you add a B&W adjustment layer, there is a little icon shaped like a hand with an arrow. I use that a lot to select specific colors and play around with the sliders like that. It is essentially the same as what Adam suggested, it just gives you more specific control if you are not sure what channel to adjust. In addition, I almost always boost the saturation with a curves or levels adjustment to get more separation of tones.
On some occasions I do what Lee mentioned. The photo below was done like that. If you look closely it is actually done very sloppy because it was the first time I tried that technique. The background trees were all dodged while the lone tree was burned a bit (in addition to playing with the little had as I mentioned before)
Could be better, but it achieved the look I had in my head.
Lastly, I don't know the specific names, but there are multiple books on the market that explain a million different ways to get ridiculous B&W images. Go to your local library or bookstore and get some ideas. Depending on what I want to achieve, I also use a B&W action that someone mentioned to me on here a few weeks ago from "The Pioneer Woman" - google it. That lady had great actions that I was able to download and play around with FOR FREE. If you can get a response from @vikdaddy, he has amazing B&W images and I would love to hear what he says.
Coloured filters are what they used in film days. I use Nikon Capture NX2 and when I shoot in raw I can apply filters to my pictures when making them B&W. For instance, a red filter makes skin look smooth:
Not sure how to do this in photoshop, but I think there is a colour filter option somewhere in there...
yes i agree with karen the best b&w software is the nik silver efex pro... gives you choices of b&w film, processing and then other developing choices that make for stunning b&w images.
Agree with the above two. Nik Silver Efex Pro is the best B&W conversion software on the market at present. Expensive but well worth it and it's about to have a major version update very soon.
Just an example with one of my own with the Silver Efex treatment...
I never could get the Nik software working how I wanted it to work, but I'm probably just about the only one who doesn't like it! I uninstalled it, because it frustrated me so much. I do love some of the Imagenomic plugin b&w film settings, but tend to use those blended with my own settings.
I tend to use channels and select monochrome, and then a lot of curves adjustments (usually masked) along with varying degrees of USM and HPF selectively brushed in. I'll sometimes tint the conversion afterwards, and add grain. I almost never do an actual greyscale image, and never, ever, use desaturation.
In lightroom, I pick one of the so many bw conversoins and increase the "blacks" in the DEVELOPMENT mode. Sometimes, I work the curves to increase or decrease the tones and almost always use vignette.
In photoshop, you can open the same image multiple times and do your adjusts and tehn you can combine all images in different layers, and erase the parts you don't want with the ones you wnat to show through. Does that make sense?
@madeline515 looking at a thread on 365 about processing in B&W and saw your link ... but I have to ask for permission. May I? or if you want/can email it to me at sidecarphotography at g mail dot com. So many thanks.
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Also brightness/contrast can be played with quite a lot...
This tutorial help me with B&W. It's a large file, but worth it.
On some occasions I do what Lee mentioned. The photo below was done like that. If you look closely it is actually done very sloppy because it was the first time I tried that technique. The background trees were all dodged while the lone tree was burned a bit (in addition to playing with the little had as I mentioned before)
Could be better, but it achieved the look I had in my head.
Lastly, I don't know the specific names, but there are multiple books on the market that explain a million different ways to get ridiculous B&W images. Go to your local library or bookstore and get some ideas. Depending on what I want to achieve, I also use a B&W action that someone mentioned to me on here a few weeks ago from "The Pioneer Woman" - google it. That lady had great actions that I was able to download and play around with FOR FREE. If you can get a response from @vikdaddy, he has amazing B&W images and I would love to hear what he says.
Not sure how to do this in photoshop, but I think there is a colour filter option somewhere in there...
Silver Efex plug-in by Nik software is a very expensive solution that does stunning B&W conversions.
http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro/usa/entry.php
Just an example with one of my own with the Silver Efex treatment...
I tend to use channels and select monochrome, and then a lot of curves adjustments (usually masked) along with varying degrees of USM and HPF selectively brushed in. I'll sometimes tint the conversion afterwards, and add grain. I almost never do an actual greyscale image, and never, ever, use desaturation.
In photoshop, you can open the same image multiple times and do your adjusts and tehn you can combine all images in different layers, and erase the parts you don't want with the ones you wnat to show through. Does that make sense?