Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/05/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ken, Nice job, but you are doing a much more sophisticated job than what I am attempting. I have abandoned Adobe, so the plug-in approach doesn't work for me. I open a RAW image in Picture Window Pro, make adjustments and end up with a reduced-size TIFF file. I take these to Focus Magic and/or Neat Image, as need be, saving the image as a TIFF or JPEG as the mood suits me. I then take that to Silver Efex Pro 2 and use its tools to change to B&W. Recent image: Original TIFF http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/P5054571.tif.html Final Converted Image: http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/More+Rhody+Blooms.JPG.html Jim Nichols Tullahoma, TN USA On 5/5/2015 3:30 PM, Ken Carney wrote: > In looking over some recent threads on critiques and b&w printing, I > thought it might be worth while to have some discussion on converting > files to b&w. I'll post my approach, and maybe others can suggest > improvements and describe other approaches. Here are the files in > color and as converted to b&W: > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/kcarney/_MG_2525-Edit-Edit-Edit.jpg.html > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/kcarney/_MG_2525BWTX.jpg.html > > I opened the file in Nik Silver Efex Pro, but could have used > Photoshop or Lightroom b&w tools. I have Nik, Alien Skin, Topaz and > DxO packages but don't care for them for adjustments. For example in > SEP the tones affected by the sliders are pretty broad. Instead, I > used Photoshop masks as sold by Tony Kuyper (thanks again to Bob > Adler). My camera has a range of about six stops, somewhere between > slide and negative film, or in Zone System terms say Zones 2 through > most of 8 as I measured it. In this image I thought the brights > needed some contrast so I selected a Zone 8 mask and used an > adjustment curve to pump up the brights a little. There is some > spillover, but the curve mainly only affected the brights in Zone 8. > Then I did the same thing with masks for Zone 2 and 3 to get the > blacks down to taste. Finally I added a little grain (TriX) with > TrueGrain. This software uses drum-scanned film stock for the grain, > as opposed to digital interpretations of grain. > > So there you have it. Because of the flexibility of using Photoshop > targeted masks and adjustment curves, it took about five minutes. > > Ken > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >