bw conversion using channels  by kali66

bw conversion using channels

So Shanne gave me the challenge of using different methods of converting an image to black and white. and specifically to try it using a color image in which the colors all had similar tonal values.
So here you see firstly an image where orange, blue and green are similar in tone, i used the shadows/highlight slider to make sure the image was fairly even in tone to start with.
2nd image is purely using the desaturation setting, the 3rd is only slightly different using the grayscale conversion.

I thn used a couple of tutorials from photoshopessentials.com

https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/black-and-white-tutorials/color-channels/

in the middle row you see the image separated using the RGB channels. without adjustment. red then green then blue.

then i used a channel mixer adjustment layer as per https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/black-and-white-tutorials/channel-mixer/

bottom row shows 3 different mixes

+104 red, +57 green -61 blue . this mix adds up to the desired 100%

-14 red +141 green +25 blue adds up to 152% but i like the contrast achieved

-84 red +200 green +27 blue again adds up over 100% but seemed a good punchy mix to my eye

all in all very interesting to do, thankyou Shanne,
@shannejw i dont know if i will do this in preference to using silverefex but it was an interesting push, thankyou
February 9th, 2019  
Not only did you put a lot of work into all the technical aspects of creating these various b&w images, but also in the explanation of what you did. Very interesting, btw. (The last one is my fav of all the "recipes".)
February 9th, 2019  
Fascinating process
February 9th, 2019  
I am in awe of your perseverance
Great result
February 9th, 2019  
Nice play... colour looks great and I like the last darker version.
February 9th, 2019  
Wow, what a great demonstration of how differently black and whites can be displayed!
February 9th, 2019  
that's worked really well - and yes, tbh, I would start decomposing to channels when I have a tonally similar shot and want to use the channels to bring out the contrasts - but it's a Get Pushed challenge and it's more worthwhile if you learn something

@Lsquared - this is what I was suggesting
February 9th, 2019  
Thank you for sharing. Interesting exercise
February 9th, 2019  
Fav
February 9th, 2019  
Neat challenge
February 9th, 2019  
googling decomposing to channels didnt get me anywhere , is that different to what i did? i think it might be a GIMP term is it? @shannejw
February 9th, 2019  
Great comparison
February 9th, 2019  
Great collage showing the different ways to convert to black and white.
February 9th, 2019  
Those look cool. I like the subject you chose too.
February 9th, 2019  
It's similar - it's the button to split the pictures into red, green and blue channels separately - which is what you show in your second row. I sometimes mix them by adding layer masks and different opacities.
February 9th, 2019  
Nice display of the variety
February 9th, 2019  
@shannejw i was on the right track then, the channel mixer adjustment layer is easy for the mix-down , but i suppose layer masks would work if parts of the image needed a different blend
February 9th, 2019  
Gosh, who would have thought BnW could be so complicated. Don't understand what you did but the effects are so interesting
February 10th, 2019  
@jgpittenger the links above are what i used to learn about it,
February 11th, 2019  
@kali66 thanks. I didn’t see this before. Did you add it later or was I blind?
February 11th, 2019  
@jgpittenger its easy to miss
February 11th, 2019  
Wow- excellent work Kali! Maybe I should have you host a week of FoR next year!
February 12th, 2019  
This is awesome, thanks so much for the links. There is still so much to learn ;-)
February 15th, 2019  
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