Weekly Assignment #110: Extreme BW

Nikolai

This time around our goal is to produce extreme BW image: no color, not even a shade of gray. Each pixel must be either black or white.

Something like this:
#1: color original:



#2: XBW conversion:



Each entry must consist of two images: color original and your XBW treatment. There are many ways to skin a cat in PS, please share your own description of how you did yours. E.g. my kwik recipe for the above conversion: background, levels, BW, posterize.

Original can be old (rare chance to dig through the archives), yet the treatment must be fresh from the oven.
Multiple entries are OK, provided the treatments are different.

Let's get extreme!

Candid Arts

I see some grays in yours...

This is interesting though, I've just been playing with it and getting some interesting results...

Candid Arts

Original:



XBW Version:



Basically I used LR2, converted to grayscale, ran exposure to +4.00, ran blacks to +100. Then I used the grayscale saturation sliders to bring all the gray tones down, which consisted of reds, oranges, blues...uhhh...yeah. I also cropped the guys arm out on the left.

Nikolai

Candid Arts wrote:

Original:
XBW Version:
Basically I used LR2, converted to grayscale, ran exposure to +4.00, ran blacks to +100. Then I used the grayscale saturation sliders to bring all the gray tones down, which consisted of reds, oranges, blues...uhhh...yeah. I also cropped the guys arm out on the left.

Thank you for your entry!

Nikolai

Candid Arts wrote:

I see some grays in yours...

What you see is a fine mix of black and white pixels possibly blended together during the scale down process... The nature of 2 level posterization doesn't allow anything gray to exist...

eL eSs Vee

Shot last Sunday, this Ferrari Challenge Stradale was a joy for a car nut like me to photograph.

Here is the original:


And here is my Extreme Black and White:


Sharpen, Stamp, Curves, Levels.

Nikolai

eL eSs Vee wrote:

Shot last Sunday, this Ferrari Challenge Stradale was a joy for a car nut like me to photograph.
Here is the original:
And here is my Extreme Black and White:
Sharpen, Stamp, Curves, Levels.

Thank you Lee!
FWIW, you broke a few major rules of "Car Photography 101" with this shot, but hey, it was not the target of *this* class...

dlscott56

Original :


XBW:


Tried to use the method described by Nikolia.

Nikolai

dlscott56 wrote:

Original :
XBW:
Tried to use the method described by Nikolia.

Thanks, Dave!
Now if only the original picture were a bit less bland:-)

dlscott56

Nikolai wrote:

Thanks, Dave!
Now if only the original picture were a bit less bland:-)

Sorry, been working too much :. Too bad I couldn't make it to your workshop, then I'd have more to work with -).

Looks like a great two day event

JackieHollow

Hope it's ok if I play.



XBW


Edited to add a posterized version of the XBW

Nikolai

JackieHollow wrote:

Hope it's ok if I play.
XBW

Nice conversion!
What method did you use?

JackieHollow

Nikolai wrote:

Nice conversion!
What method did you use?

Thanks!!! I opened in PS, converted to grayscale. I made a radical levels adjustment. When going back through and checking the pixels on teh water and tree, there was still a bit of gray. Then I did a pretty severe brightness & contrast layer that got rid of all the gray.

Oh and I cropped because the bridge just did not add to the pic with this conversion.

Mike J

This is very interesting.

The snow makes this one easier...





Done in LR2. Here's the recipe
Convert to grayscale
Bump exposure up 2.5
Run Blacks up to 100
Run Contrast and Brightness all the way up
In the Grayscale mixer run everything up to 100
In camera calibration I played with the sliders. The red hue/saturation I ran up to 100. The green and blue hue/sat I ran down to -100

The hardest part was getting rid of the red without making it too black or too white.

Nikolai

JackieHollow wrote:

Thanks!!! I opened in PS, converted to grayscale. I made a radical levels adjustment. When going back through and checking the pixels on teh water and tree, there was still a bit of gray. Then I did a pretty severe brightness & contrast layer that got rid of all the gray.

Oh and I cropped because the bridge just did not add to the pic with this conversion.

Just FYI, while this is nice, it's not a guarantee for the true Black or White conversion (Stamp and Posterization are:-)

Nikolai

Mike J wrote:

This is very interesting.

The snow makes this one easier...

Done in LR2. Here's the recipe
Convert to grayscale
Bump exposure up 2.5
Run Blacks up to 100
Run Contrast and Brightness all the way up
In the Grayscale mixer run everything up to 100
In camera calibration I played with the sliders. The red hue/saturation I ran up to 100. The green and blue hue/sat I ran down to -100

The hardest part was getting rid of the red without making it too black or too white.

Thanks Mike!
Please see my previous comment about getting 100% black or white

JackieHollow

Nikolai wrote:

Just FYI, while this is nice, it's not a guarantee for the true Black or White conversion (Stamp and Posterization are:-)

Ok. I'm in Posterize in PS. When it says "Levels" Do I leave the default "4" there? I guess Stamp and Posterize are a couple things I've never messed with...

.. I keep editing my own posts. Anyway in PS I went to posterize and changed the levels to 15. I reuploaded the picture (tho I really didn't see much change) but wanted make sure I did it right. Hope I fixed it right.

Mike J

Nikolai wrote:

Thanks Mike!
Please see my previous comment about getting 100% black or white

So I understand that the tweak the slider method is not a guarentee to get 100% black or white. I don't know much about the posterize filter so I need to learn more...

You mention that posterize and stamp guarantee 100% B/W. Here's one using a threshold adjustment level that I think would also guarantee this?

Nikolai

Mike J wrote:

So I understand that the tweak the slider method is not a guarentee to get 100% black or white. I don't know much about the posterize filter so I need to learn more...
You mention that posterize and stamp guarantee 100% B/W. Here's one using a threshold adjustment level that I think would also guarantee this?

Threshold is OK:-)

sfdavis

I want to play
Here is my original


and here is the extreme BW version


I applied the red channel to the original, used unsharp mask to bring out the details, curved it for more contrast and used threshold to get the final image.

Steve

Nikolai

sfdavis wrote:

Here is my original
and here is the extreme BW version
I applied the red channel to the original, used unsharp mask to bring out the details, curved it for more contrast and used threshold to get the final image.
Steve

Thanks Steve, great entry!
The reason I personally prefer to throw a B&W or Channel Mixer adj layer into the mix is that I can play with those channels and see which one (or what mix) gives the best results.

ic4u

Hi Nik
Thought I'd give this one a try. I have no formal training in post work, so I have just been trying ideas that I've read...so I could be way off on this





Gradient, levels, posterize

Thanks,
Karin

Nikolai

ic4u wrote:

Hi Nik
Thought I'd give this one a try. I have no formal training in post work, so I have just been trying ideas that I've read...so I could be way off on this
Gradient, levels, posterize
Thanks,
Karin

Karin,
thank you!
While going for extreme I think it's important to keep the spirit of original picture. The lack of nose in XBW version makes it look skull-like and generally non-pleasant for a western human eye.

JAG

Ok I have tried this in 3 different programs. 2 of them are totally new to me...first the original...


This first one I did in PSPx2...which is a program I am very well rehearsed with. I converted to bw then ran a dynamic contrast filter and blew the image to the extreme. This is a filter I use frequently...although usually I will leave a little more grey for defining areas. But since you wanted more black and white...this is what I got...


This one I did in PSE6...which I am totally new too. It came free in a bundled package with my Wacom Intuos3 tablet. This is basicly the first time I have ever played with it...so to tell you exactly what I did I am not sure I might miss something. I converted to bw by clicking on a bw icon then played with contrast sliders that I found from a drop down menu. Although this program seems to have eliminated the greys better...it took twice as long and at least 4x the amount of clicks than psp..


This last one is from a LR2 that I downloaded a free trial for today. I converted to bw and went down the basic tool list and just slide the sliders all the way down to get this result....I have not made up my mind by any means on LR2 yet, the results are for you to see.

Nikolai

JAG wrote:

Ok I have tried this in 3 different programs. 2 of them are totally new to me...first the original...


This first one I did in PSPx2...which is a program I am very well rehearsed with. I converted to bw then ran a dynamic contrast filter and blew the image to the extreme. This is a filter I use frequently...although usually I will leave a little more grey for defining areas. But since you wanted more black and white...this is what I got...


This one I did in PSE6...which I am totally new too. It came free in a bundled package with my Wacom Intuos3 tablet. This is basicly the first time I have ever played with it...so to tell you exactly what I did I am not sure I might miss something. I converted to bw by clicking on a bw icon then played with contrast sliders that I found from a drop down menu. Although this program seems to have eliminated the greys better...it took twice as long and at least 4x the amount of clicks than psp..


This last one is from a LR2 that I downloaded a free trial for today. I converted to bw and went down the basic tool list and just slide the sliders all the way down to get this result....I have not made up my mind by any means on LR2 yet, the results are for you to see.

Joyce, thank you for experimenting!
One of the goals was to find a menthod wich would GUARANTEE you black-and-white-only conversion. in PS terms AFAIK there are only few ways to do that: posterize(2), threshold and a few artiscic filters from the Sketch section.
Anoth point of exercise was to isolate BW conversion from the content, thus gaining a complete control fo what's going black and what stays white.
I honestly don't think you have mastered that separation and control yet, even though the results are nice:-)

JAG

Nikolai wrote:

Joyce, thank you for experimenting!
One of the goals was to find a menthod wich would GUARANTEE you black-and-white-only conversion. in PS terms AFAIK there are only few ways to do that: posterize(2), threshold and a few artiscic filters from the Sketch section.
Anoth point of exercise was to isolate BW conversion from the content, thus gaining a complete control fo what's going black and what stays white.
I honestly don't think you have mastered that separation and control yet, even though the results are nice:-)

You are absolutely right that I have not mastered this separation/control yet. To be honest Nikoli I am use to using filters that are preset in PSP...and that limit my time spent on an image (at times). I feel like a total dweeb when it comes to looking through the PSE program...I have not figured all the menus and it took me forever to figure out how to get to the basic menu controls! It looks like I can do anything PSE does in PSP. LR2 seems to be easier to figure although I havent had enough play with it. I am wondering if I should upgrade to a CS4 for half price (which I have an opportunity to do through the Wacom site for my purchase of the tablet). Do you have CS4? If so do you feel its worth the expensive pricetag in comparison to PS or LR2?

dchris

Extreme BW - Golden Gate
This was a fun assignment and the conversion was more challenging than I expected. Here is the original -I liked the viewpoint but never the color / lighting in this shot:


Here is the final result:

I used PS CS3. I started with a B+W filter then used the curves tool to get to only black and white. But I couldn't retain any detail in the bridge or water with an overall adjustment so I did 3 curve layers with masks for the bushes, water/hills, and sky/bridge to retain some detail in these areas.

-Chris

Nikolai

dchris wrote:

This was a fun assignment and the conversion was more challenging than I expected. Here is the original -I liked the viewpoint but never the color / lighting in this shot:
Here is the final result:
I used PS CS3. I started with a B+W filter then used the curves tool to get to only black and white. But I couldn't retain any detail in the bridge or water with an overall adjustment so I did 3 curve layers with masks for the bushes, water/hills, and sky/bridge to retain some detail in these areas.

-Chris

Chris,
thank you for playing!
As I explained above, curves alone do not guarantee 100% separation. You have to use one of the Extreme tools...

dchris

You're right, I missed that. There was a tiny bit of gray left but it is gone after a posterize adjustment.

Nikolai wrote:

Chris,
thank you for playing!
As I explained above, curves alone do not guarantee 100% separation. You have to use one of the Extreme tools...

Candid Arts

Re did mine with the new instructions...posterize.

Original: (again)


XBY: (Cropped, Adjustments>Black & White, Posterize, adjust slider to 2, save, upload)

Nikolai

Candid Arts wrote:

Re did mine with the new instructions...posterize.
Original: (again)
XBY: (Cropped, Adjustments>Black & White, Posterize, adjust slider to 2, save, upload)

Come on, do you have another other picture?