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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> All I want for Christmas - is a PS expert (B&W) !
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Showing posts 1 - 9 of 9, (reverse)
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12/25/2006 11:54:54 PM · #1
Love to play around with B&W but can never get those rich tones that I see in a lot of other peoples shots. Can anyone throw me a bone here. I took this shot of Jesse (in colour) and had a play with B&W but am still not 100% happy with the end result. Here is the colour version and my attempt at B&W.
Any help greater appreciated. (After 12 months - am still trying to come to grips with this bloody Photo shop - sheeeew)
colour version
B&W version
12/26/2006 12:31:42 AM · #2
maybe check out this video, i found it very informative:

B&W

edit: fixed link

Message edited by author 2006-12-26 00:32:19.
12/26/2006 02:50:56 AM · #3
Excellent info!
Thanks bunches!

12/26/2006 04:08:48 AM · #4
How's this variation?



I opened the color image, lightened it dramatically, and made a clean selection of the BG and saved it. I went to tone mapping in photomatix pro to recover shadow values and control bright skin values, then opened the result in PS7 and pasted the TM version as a layer over the original. You could have used CS2 shadow/highlight instead of tone mapping I think, but I don't have that.

Now I have a color version with decent tonal values but a busy BG. I load the BG selection and use a levels adjustment layer to make the BG dark again. I now open a hue/sat adjustment layer but make no changes, then a color gradient layer with a black-to cream gradient for me B/W conversion.

I go back to the underlying hue?sat layer and play with the sliders to vary the appearance of the duotone black/cream image.

When I had everything else the way I wanted it, I did my sharpening, and there you have it: one B/W workflow process.

R.
12/26/2006 09:51:13 AM · #5
Tajhad,

It might be the way your are converting the color to B&W. It seems like you might be losing a lot of the detail when you are converting.

Here is my version with only conversion from color & sharpening.



Here was the method used to convert from Color to B&W.

Image -> Mode -> Lab Color
Select the Lightness channel from the Channel Palette.
Image -> Mode -> Grayscale

I sharpened using USM (255, .7, 4) though you might not want to sharpen this image depending on your intended end product.

Message edited by author 2006-12-26 11:39:40.
12/26/2006 04:44:11 PM · #6
Thanks Brad and Rob
I like both of these variations.
12/26/2006 05:24:29 PM · #7


How about this one?

Message edited by author 2006-12-26 17:25:11.
12/26/2006 07:04:07 PM · #8
Hmm both look good but i kinda like Krafty's version a little better, the last one seems a tad over sharpened? cheeks seem a little harsh too, theres a softer feel to krafty's i think.
12/26/2006 07:55:21 PM · #9
Here's my try If you like it I can send you my actions by email along with the instructions.


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