Learning Raw

Clixphoto

I have been shooting RAW lately and one of my favorite things about it is the great control over black and white conversion. This was just a snapshot before church one morning but I love the range. Any advise on black and white conversion software? This was done in the program that comes packaged from Canon.


My family.


Thanks for looking,

Wes
www.clix-photo.com

wolf911

Not sure what your budget is
http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro/usa/entry.php

I've also used
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/index.aspx

You can also find some nice actions out there for free
http://www.atncentral.com/bw_conv.htm

Nice Pic btw!

Scott_Quier

First - I think this is a very good start on the B&W conversion. I think it might benefit from "making your whites white and your blacks black) - it looks just a touch muddy. B

As for conversion software - I'm thinking the B&W converison adjustment took in PS CS3 (and following) and also in LR is a very good place to start.

There's a "Greg Gorman" B&W conversion action on Action Central that I've used quite a bit. Of late, I've found it to be bit limiting and a little to "fiddling" to get things right. This action works in PS CS2 and following. It might work in earlier versions, but I'm not sure.

Clixphoto

Scott_Quier wrote:

I think it might benefit from "making your whites white and your blacks black)

Thank you both for the suggestions. I watched an intro to the SilverEfexPro and love what you can do with that. That might be a future investment.

Scott-
How do you accomplish the whiter whites and blacker blacks? I would love a quick lesson if you have time. I only did a levels adjustment in PS Elements after the RAW conversion. It would be great if you could show me with this image for side by side comparison.

InsuredDisaster

In photoshop, (i'm using a trial version of CS4) I dragged the black levels slider up to 14. I took the highlights (the on the right) and dragged it down to 210. This is what I came up with. I only did these two quick changes, and didn't adjust the midtones, though it might work to have thrown some curves into the mix to bring up the contrast even further, to go with the already pretty contrasty image. You might just play with the levels (if you have such a control) a bit.

divamum

There are a few dgrin/smug tutorials about conversions (also one about "adding pop" - I can't find that one right now, but it shows how to use the threshold slider in PS to find true black and true white - very useful)

Here's the link to the tutorials list page

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/6885600_qzSwN

For my own conversions, I really REALLY like using LR. There are more than a few (free!) bw presets, some of which are terrific, and I also like that it's grayscale conversion dialog offers an *orange* slider. More often than not, I've found that's the one which allows me to keep skintones appropriate easily (instead of red or yellow on their own); it also means I can darken red (for lips) and lighten orange (for skin) - works a treat.

But I do find I use a couple of BW presets a lot - two of my favorites are Seim bold and snappy and PH naturally BW (I have no idea where they came from - just google, and I'm sure they'll turn up on somebody's preset site). Of course, this means using LR, but you'll probably head down that route eventually as most of us do....

InsuredDisaster

Have you tried that tool that you just click on an area of the photo, then drag up or down to change whatever you want, saturation, luminosity, etc. You dont have to use the particular color sliders. Want a darker sky? Just click on the sky and drag it up or down to darken it. Lighter face? just clcik on the face and drag up. It can really help as it might select multiple sliders at once for you. I can't remember what you call the tool though.

Miguel Delinquento

I believe you are referring to the Targeted Adjustment tool in Lightroom. it is very handy. I use it mostly for color work, when I can change a specific color range's Hue/Saturation/Luminosity (HSL). Speaking of HSL, that is my favorite method of B&W conversation as well.

M

InsuredDisaster wrote:

Have you tried that tool that you just click on an area of the photo, then drag up or down to change whatever you want, saturation, luminosity, etc. You dont have to use the particular color sliders. Want a darker sky? Just click on the sky and drag it up or down to darken it. Lighter face? just clcik on the face and drag up. It can really help as it might select multiple sliders at once for you. I can't remember what you call the tool though.

InsuredDisaster

Miguel Delinquento wrote:

I believe you are referring to the Targeted Adjustment tool in Lightroom. it is very handy. I use it mostly for color work, when I can change a specific color range's Hue/Saturation/Luminosity (HSL). Speaking of HSL, that is my favorite method of B&W conversation as well.

M

Ah yes, I forgot the name. I also use it a lot. But I think it is handy in BW work as well.

divamum

Miguel Delinquento wrote:

I believe you are referring to the Targeted Adjustment tool in Lightroom. it is very handy. I use it mostly for color work, when I can change a specific color range's Hue/Saturation/Luminosity (HSL). Speaking of HSL, that is my favorite method of B&W conversation as well.

M

Ooooooo.....! "Targeted adjustment" is yet another LR goodie I didn't know was there (I was given my copy via educational institution - it's 100% legal but didn't come with a manual, so I've been figuring it out on my own). This is a GREAT tool to know about!!

JimPR4

I've been really happy with Lightroom the past couple of years. Since it looks like you have a child who is in school you can buy it at a discount at http://www.academicsuperstore.com/products/Adobe/Photoshop+Lightroom.

bdcolen

Clixphoto wrote:

I have been shooting RAW lately and one of my favorite things about it is the great control over black and white conversion. This was just a snapshot before church one morning but I love the range. Any advise on black and white conversion software? This was done in the program that comes packaged from Canon.

www.clix-photo.com

Best bet is to come up with your own conversion action/actions. I posted mine a while back, and I know that Rutt posted a pretty detailed tutorial on conversions. I gather from people that the CS4 built-in black and white conversions are much improved over earlier versions, which were pretty much useless.

My3Sons

bdcolen wrote:

I gather from people that the CS4 built-in black and white conversions are much improved over earlier versions, which were pretty much useless.

CS4 new conversions are awesome! They still need a little tweaking, depending on the picture, but all in all, they work great.

-Melissa
www.naturalphotography.smugmug.com

InsuredDisaster

My3Sons wrote:

CS4 new conversions are awesome! They still need a little tweaking, depending on the picture, but all in all, they work great.

-Melissa
www.naturalphotography.smugmug.com

I haven't tried those yet. I'll have to. Learn so much on this site.

Miguel Delinquento

Martin Evening's Lightroom guidebook is wonderful. Worth purchasing which I did. I refer to it all the time.


M

divamum wrote:

Ooooooo.....! "Targeted adjustment" is yet another LR goodie I didn't know was there (I was given my copy via educational institution - it's 100% legal but didn't come with a manual, so I've been figuring it out on my own). This is a GREAT tool to know about!!

Clixphoto

Thank you all for the wonderful tutorials. I'm currently working with Elements with hopes of purchasing CS4 by the end of the year.

Wes