[Leica] B&W conversion methods

[Peter Dzwig]

Ken,

great initial image and fascinating converted image. On my screen it looks like
there is a lot of vignetting: is that imposed by you, and artefact of the
conversion process or is it just my screen?

Here is an example of my process - which is fairly straightforward and all done
in PSE12. The original RAW file is opened in PSE and NO manipulation is done at
this stage. In this case it was done simply by using levels on selected areas
after having adjusted the saturation to a higher point than I would normally
tolerate in a colour image. I may then use levels on selected larger areas to
dodge and burn. I find it easier to do all manipulation in PSE. I have used LR,
but don't really get on with it. NSE doesn't really do what I want.

The original is:

http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/PESO2011/On+The+Beach/DSCF7327_edited-1.jpg.html
<http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/PESO2011/On+The+Beach/DSCF7327_edited-1.jpg.html>

and we end up here:

http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/PESO2011/On+The+Beach/DSCF7327_V3.jpg.html
<http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/PESO2011/On+The+Beach/DSCF7327_V3.jpg.html>

A similar approach was used in this file:

http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/PESO2011/DSCF6981_edited-2halfscale_edited-1.jpg.html
<http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/PeterDzwig/PESO2011/DSCF6981_edited-2halfscale_edited-1.jpg.html>

but that took a lot of time and hardwork on the detailing. I'm still not
entirely staisfied, but that is printing... ;-)

Peter

On 05/05/2015 21:46, Jim Nichols 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
> 
> 
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> 

-- 

===========================================================
Dr Peter Dzwig