[Leica] B&W conversion methods

[Steve Barbour]

> On May 5, 2015, at 1:30 PM, Ken Carney <kcarney1 at cox.net> 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.



as you know Ken, there are  dozens of ways to do this, the end result depends on what you are after, and your eye....I am not sure that there is a single best way but you desires and experimentation are key....


Some very good people love Macphun Tonality Pro, I have tried it, I like it.....it will give you a range of looks, choose one, import back into Photoshop, add salt to taste.....


steve


> 
> Ken
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