Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/05/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Very nice! Obviously SEP is working well for you - beautiful tones. On 5/5/2015 3:46 PM, 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 >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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