Dean's black and white technique

DeanS

I have been experimenting with some new black and white techniques and this is what I've come up with. First I make a color copy of the photo. Then I change the copy to HSL. Then I return to the first photo and make it black and with via the split channel technique. Then I create a new group and use the inverse of the saturation (from the HSL color copy) as the controlling mask for the group layer. I use the saturation (from the color HSL) for the adjustment mask on the curves level under the group layer. To my beginners-eye, it seems to adjust the mid-tones of the black and white image and kind of balances out the gray tones in an interesting way. It takes some extreme pulling on the curve create a noticeable effect. I'm know quite sure why this technique works but it does seem to be doing something interesting.

pathfinder

Dean, why don't you post an image, and demonstrate the steps as you work through your sequence, so we can see exactly what your process is, and the final and intermediate steps as well?

DeanS

some step by step details for this black and white conversion
Step 1: create a duplicate image of the image you are going to convert to black and white. Then select this duplicate image and covert to HSL via the filter->other-HSL. Then set this duplicate HSL image aside.

Step 2: return to the original image. It’s best to work with a copy of the original image since splitting the channels is destructive to the image. After the image is split into channels, copy the blue image back onto the red image by using the move-tool. Hold the shift key when you do this so that the images will a line. Then copy the green image back to the red image again using the move tool and holding the shift key. You will now have three layers in the red channel image but now they are actually layers in the now converted black and white image. Adjust the opacity of these layers to get the balance that looks best to you.

This is the basic channel splitting conversion into black and white. There are action sets that will perform this channel splitting and re-combining if you are not familiar with this technique. John Paul Caponigro has a downloadable action set that will perform this process. The thelightsrightstudio also has an action set the will perform this channel splitting and re-combining into a black and white image.

Step 3: Above the 3 new layers that represent the red, green and blue channels create a new group using Layers->New->Group. Then click the add-layer-mask button at the bottom of the layers panel to add a mask to the group layer. Then from the menus select Image->Apply-Image. In the pop up box that opens use that HSL copy that you created in the first step as the Source, for Channel use the one labeled green, which is really the saturation layer in the HSL and check the Invert box. You should now have the inverted saturation layer form the HSL as the mask for the new group layer. Then use Layer from the menu and select New-Adjustment-Layer and then select a Curves Adjustment Layer. This new curves adjustment layer should be under the new group that you just created. It should also be offset to the right a bit to indicate that it is a member of the new group that you just created. If it is not offset just drag it to the new group layer, release, and it should offset itself. The curves adjustment layer automatically creates an empty mask and so if you immediately, after creating the new adjustment layer, return to the Image->Apply-Image menu selection it should still have your previous Source and Channel information from when you used it to create the mask for the new group. It should still read the HSL copy as the Source and green as the Channel but this time unclick the Invert box because we need the saturation layer as the mask for the curves adjustment layer.

Step 4: now play around with the adjustment curve. You will need to alter the curve quite a bit more that usual to see any changes. What you’ve just done has been to create a mid-tone mask that will adjust the mid-tone values in the black and white image. Since this is a black and white image it adjusts the mid-tone shades of gray.

These are not the typical adjustments that we usually make to black and white images but I think they are subtle but very interesting. Compare it to a black and white adjustment layer conversion and I think you will see the simple layer conversion leaves the image looking a bit dull compared with this technique. I’d be interesting in hearing what people have to say after giving this technique a try on some of their photos.