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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> B & W, How can I do this better?
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Showing posts 1 - 11 of 11, (reverse)
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05/11/2005 05:49:04 AM · #1



Part of the pet therapy shots I'm working on......not 100% sure I'll use this shot still, but not happy with the b/w.

I did desaturate, selective colour channel to boost blacks, neutral and white, brightness/contrast and curves. Doesn't pop. How can I do it better please.

thanks
05/11/2005 07:16:36 AM · #2
When I have a bw that I feel needs a little extra kick, I usualy
give duo tone a try.
05/11/2005 07:29:32 AM · #3
How is this I did a dodge and burn using a layer. Makes the users eye focus on where you want it to and less straying.

Message edited by author 2005-05-11 07:30:27.
05/11/2005 07:36:00 AM · #4
I like the way that's heading Hiral, but feel that there may be too much loss of definition in one side of her face. Thank you so much for your help.
05/11/2005 07:41:18 AM · #5
I just didnt know what your main focal point was so I did center weighted but what you could do is focus it towards the face and dodge other parts to give the eye a better feeling.
05/11/2005 07:50:19 AM · #6
I'm using ps7. To do that do duplicate or adjustment layer. Not sure.....haven't really done anything with dodge/burn. How do you centreweight it. My ps skills are pretty basic.
05/11/2005 07:56:44 AM · #7
Create a new layer above original. You want to fill it with black then your a blending mode of overlay. You want to then use a large brush with 50% gray and brush out anything you want the viewer to notice. You can then also go back to the original and use the burn brush and darken up more of the areas using a 3% brush strokes on areas you dont want attention going to. I hope this helps it hard to explain.
05/11/2005 08:00:15 AM · #8
I'll have a go and come back with the results. Won't be till tomorrow after work, tis nearly midnight here in NZ. Thanks again.
05/11/2005 09:04:57 AM · #9
remeber one rule of thought. what ever you do for your black and white, make sure that you actually have pure blacks and whites along with your grey scale.

if you don't then the pix will look flat.
05/11/2005 09:57:41 AM · #10
Originally posted by suemack:




Part of the pet therapy shots I'm working on......not 100% sure I'll use this shot still, but not happy with the b/w.

I did desaturate, selective colour channel to boost blacks, neutral and white, brightness/contrast and curves. Doesn't pop. How can I do it better please.


Here is something else you can try:
1-Start from scratch and post-process the image in full color the same as you would with any other color image. Make it the 'best' it can be in color.
...This preps the image for good B&W tonal conversion. It has the added benefit of later being able to print the image in EITHER color or B&W as you see fit.

2-Add a channel mixer layer as a new adjustment layer in 'Normal' mode. Be sure to check the 'Monochrome' check box. Drag that adjustment layer to the top of stack if there are other adjustment layers above it.
...This accomplishes the same goal as desaturate EXCEPT you have full control over the red, blue and green RGB channels and the constant level for full B&W tonal controls in 'Grey'. It starts with +100 for red, +0 for green, +0 for blue and +0 for the constant. Adjust those 4 sliders to make the B&W look as "good" as possible. Be experimental. Try radical stuff like setting the red channel to +0 and the blue channel to +100 and other things. As a general rule you will want the totals of all the slider values to be somewhere around +100.

3-Duplicate the 'finished' channel mixer layer to create a second channel mixer adjustment layer from the one created in step 2 and set it's mode to 'Overlay'.
...This will make a very dark, contrasty looking image. The purpose is to do nothing more than adjust the opacity of the duplicated layer downward from 100 until you have nice crisp blacks and whites for that "pop" that you want. Don't forget to save your work.

The advantage of this method is it gives you full grey controls over all RGB channels. If there is any "pop" in it you should be able to bring it out this way.

From this you can build a B&W output final image for print or web. But if you simply click off the two channel mixer layers you can build a good color final image for print or web.

Good luck! Have fun.

Message edited by author 2005-05-11 10:01:27.
05/12/2005 05:57:31 PM · #11
Contrast is key with B&W!
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