how to obtain this grayscale image

babygodzilla

hi guys. anyone can tell me how to get this kind of grayscale image? is that the right term, grayscale? at first i wanted to call it black and white, but looking at it closer i find no true black nor white. everything is in some shade of gray. ive been trying to do it in Lightroom and I think I've come pretty close by playing with Highlights and Recovery, but I have yet been able to reach this level of grayscale. in particular, my whites are still too white, not gray enough.




pictures linked from seanflanigan.net
appreciate your inputs. thanks!

babygodzilla

no one at all?

Richard

Use a curves adjustment layer in PS or the point curve option in LR. Drag the black end point up the vertical axis to make the darkest point whatever shade of gray you want and drag the white point down the vertical axis to control the brightest shade. You can then add other points to make other adjustments as you like. Be aware that by doing this you are going to decrease the overall contrast in the image--usually most people prefer to do the opposite.

adbsgicom

It would be easier to help if you provided a starting image that you are trying to get to look like the images above.

babygodzilla

Thanks for the advice guys. Here is an image I took that I'd like to use a sample and turn it grayscale like the previous examples.

adbsgicom

So, is your issue that the white van remains much too white for your desire and when you crank down the exposure, the family in the buggy become much too dark? If you are using only LR, you need to hit the van and any other white spots with an adjustment brush with the exposure set to something like -1.5 to make them grey. Use the automask to help not get other things caught when you do the brushing.

babygodzilla

i have just managed to bring some of the whitest parts down to a shade of gray by increasing Recovery a lot and reducing Highlights a lot, and i counter the lack of contrast by increasing Clarity.

adbsgicom

Okay, I see what you get when you do that. If you go the route I suggested, I ended up with something like this. Note that I didn't bother much being too careful on the adjust brush so there are misses there. But you get the idea of going the route of bringing down the really white parts and then dealing with the rest of the image.

20100621-201.jpg

What do you think? Is this sort of what you were aiming for?

babygodzilla

yeah thats similar to what i got, but i did not use the brush so i guess my route is faster but not as precise as yours. thanks a lot still.

i just noticed something interesting about the picture of the 2 individuals in front of what looks like a garage door. the bottom part of the pic looks like it has a lot of bokeh. do you guys think that's natural or is that photoshopped in? it doesn't look natural to me...

bham

babygodzilla wrote: »

hi guys. anyone can tell me how to get this kind of grayscale image? is that the right term, grayscale? at first i wanted to call it black and white, but looking at it closer i find no true black nor white. everything is in some shade of gray. ive been trying to do it in Lightroom and I think I've come pretty close by playing with Highlights and Recovery, but I have yet been able to reach this level of grayscale. in particular, my whites are still too white, not gray enough.




pictures linked from seanflanigan.net
appreciate your inputs. thanks!

Top picture there just isn't much that would be a true black once converted from color that I see. The haze of the distance helps with that. The second pic there isn't too much either except pants and edge of door and it could have been shot a little overexposed or done in post.

Yes in the second photo there has been some blur done on both the top and bottom of the photo, probably with a gradient blur, and the light (or whatever it was) above the door directly above the man and woman heads looks like it was blurred a little extra as well.

How to get the "look" you are looking for is very image dependent. Some images you may only have to make easy changes to the whole image, while other could require more detail work.

One thing you might think about is using the color range tool for selections and replacing blacks with a grey of some degree but doing a selection, then just copying that selection to another layer, adjusting just that layer. Could do the same with whites.

babygodzilla

bham wrote: »

Yes in the second photo there has been some blur done on both the top and bottom of the photo, probably with a gradient blur, and the light (or whatever it was) above the door directly above the man and woman heads looks like it was blurred a little extra as well.

thanks for confirming!