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10/05/2004 09:42:45 AM · #1 |
I have searched the forums and haven't really found what I'm looking for.
I used to shhot in Tri-X or T-Max in the old days and loved my shots.
But have now gone completely digital... and B&Ws are not what they used to be. I feel like I have lost a lot of the texture and feel of my old photos.
I am not an expert with Photoshop, so are there any simple techniques, or plugins, or stand alone software packages that can retun me to my former glory? :)
If there was a program for Black and Whites like NeatImage is for noise... I would be in heaven!
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10/05/2004 09:45:40 AM · #2 |
| You can try out Digital Film and see if it gives you the results you are looking for |
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10/05/2004 10:05:20 AM · #3 |
Looks cool, Xion; Thanks for posting the link. But another application in my workflow.... can you hear me groan?? What's the best way to achieve rich, contrasty b&w's in PS? Curves would be my first guess.
Any suggestions on techniques, refinements, actions?? |
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10/05/2004 10:10:35 AM · #4 |
Curves absolutely. My easiest way is when you go to curves [or levels] in the window that opens up look in the bottom right corner. There should be 3 little paint brushes grouped together. The first one represents black, the middle is grey, and the last one on the right is white.
Click the black brush and then click on the darkest part of the photo. Then click on the white brush [if you need it] and again on the whitest part of the photo.
This boosts all the tones, makes for great [fast/easy,etc] results without any digital noise when printed [unlike levels]. |
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10/05/2004 10:17:17 AM · #5 |
try this photoshop action. i like it in most cases.
hue saturation conversion
its quick and easy - produces grain if you want it, ut keeps it to a minmum if you don't
Message edited by author 2004-10-05 10:17:44. |
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10/05/2004 10:17:30 AM · #6 |
I found this, it might help and it's free :)
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10/05/2004 10:19:43 AM · #7 |
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10/05/2004 12:48:04 PM · #8 |
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10/05/2004 12:56:27 PM · #9 |
The 'texture and feel' of black and white film prints is sometimes difficult to duplicate with a digital image. The film grain is the problem for me. I have been unable to produce an 8x10 or larger print with grain that actually resembles film grain. I won't say that it can't be done, but I have struggled with it.
The 'feel' of a good black and white print is usually the deep, rich blacks that you can get from darkroom technique. Getting this same 'feel' with digital prints takes a lot more effort and usually some specialized printing techniques. I have mades some good black and white prints using my Epson 2200 with Epson Archival Matte paper (now called Epson Enhanced Matte paper). This requires switching my black ink cartridge from the Photo Black to the Matte Black. The Matte Black ink cartridge produces a deep black print on the matte paper. The Photo Black cartridge won't make the black as rich.
There are printing services available that do a much better job though. the piezography printers, such as the ones available at //www.westcoastimaging.com use printers with multiple black cartridges that produce the best b/w prints from digital I have seen so far. |
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10/05/2004 01:00:45 PM · #10 |
I've found this site to be very helpful, and I think he has a couple of tutorials on B&W techniques.
DavroDigital
In fact, here is his take on how to convert to B&W.
B&W Tutorial
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10/05/2004 02:13:31 PM · #11 |
| I totally do only B/W , learning btw. I dont use any filters. but you can try //silveroxide.com/ |
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10/05/2004 02:55:06 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by digistoune:
Looks cool, Xion; Thanks for posting the link. But another application in my workflow.... can you hear me groan?? What's the best way to achieve rich, contrasty b&w's in PS? Curves would be my first guess.
Any suggestions on techniques, refinements, actions?? |
Try this :
Open the image in RGB mode, click on the different channels to see how each color is in B&W.
Open the channel mixer, tick the monochrome box, determine the right mix of channels for the desired effect, total percentage should be 100.
Play with levels and curves (an S curve increases contrast).
Convert to grayscale and then duotone for more rich effects.
Can always convert back to RGB to play with hue/saturation. |
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10/05/2004 03:03:23 PM · #13 |
I use an action that I found on the Adobe Exchange site. I really like the results. I'll email the action to you and any body else who wants it.
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10/05/2004 03:09:03 PM · #14 |
On printing : it makes a big difference whether you use the B&W cartridge or the color cartridge.
Photography Monthly had an excellent issue on B&W conversion and printing in September. Maybe you can get hold of this.
For testing your printer, try this :
First make a test strip
* create a new file A4 wide at 300 dpi.
* create a rectangle marque across the page
* ensure foreground/background is set to B&W
* choose gradient
* draw a line from left to right in the marquee
* then image, adjust, posterize and choose 21 steps
You should now have a teststrip from black to white in 5% increments.
Print this on your print using the B&W cartridge.
Then print this using the color cartridge.
Compare the two. On my HP printer the B&W was absolute rubbish, very quickly moving from black to light grey, loosing detail on both ends of the scale. And the middle grey was nowhere near middle grey.
The color version was perfect. I measured using my spot meter and it showed very good stepwise increments. Also I saw no color cast when compared to the strip using the B&W cartridge.
If you see a color cast you will need to adjust amount of color in your printer driver until you get a neutral print.
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10/05/2004 04:45:18 PM · #15 |
I have tried about 5 differnt Photoshop techniques for creating black and white images, but my best results have been when using a filter called Convert to B&W Pro from theimagingfactory.com. It's a little pricey, but there is a 30 day demo.
Because it is a filter, you can apply to different layer. So, if you want to burn certain areas of your image +1 stop, create a second layer and then apply the filter again with the exposure increased. Mask this layer to hide all and then paint in the area to be exposed +1.
Here is an example... the tree was very light and I burned it in using the method I described. I probably could have done it yet again, but it's still better than I would have achieved other wise.
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10/05/2004 10:11:18 PM · #16 |
Like soup, I prefer the hue saturation action (also known as the Russell Brown method after the Photoshop guru who created it - see his site
for details)
Additionally, on dpreview.com, this thread described the following "recipes" for using the channel mixer to produce different film effects. For convenience, I am relisting them here:
Agfa 200X: 18,41,41
Agfapan 25: 25,39,36
Agfapan 100: 21,40,39
Agfapan 400: 20,41,39
Ilford Delta 100: 21,42,37
Ilford Delta 400: 22,42,36
Ilford Delta 400 Pro: 31,36,33
& 3200
Ilford FP4: 28,41,31
Ilford HP5: 23,37,40
Ilford Pan F: 33,36,31
Ilford SFX: 36,31,33
Ilford XP2 Super: 21,42,37
Kodak Tmax 100: 24,37,39
Kodak Tmax 400: 27,36,37
Kodak Tri-X: 25,35,40
And these basic ones:
Normal Contrast: 43,33,30
High Contrast: 40,34,60
Here is a web page that shows how these recipes look on a sample image.
Dave
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