Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/05/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks for commenting and I think you are right, that I went a little overboard. Here is hopefully an improvement: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/kcarney/_MG_2525BWTX2.jpg.html Ken On 5/5/2015 4:15 PM, CJ andS wrote: > Difficult scene for a B&W conversion. The black adjustment removed most > detail in people pants and shirts creating walking specters. Looking at the > color I don't see that there are too many blacks anyway except small > sections of the lamp post or the back struts of the bench for example. A > more subtile conversion without taking personal tastes or artistic > endeavors into consideration should show tonal difference between the back > of the bench by the persons behind and the diagonal strut underneath. I'm > only imagining that is possible but in a darkroom situation I would be > trying to get that sort of distinction from the tones. > > On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 4:46 PM, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net> > wrote: > >> 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 >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > >