Been staring at B&W Conversion too long, any comments?

BradfordBenn

Hello All-

After Divamum's thread about BW Conversion I started thinking about it for one of the photos I took from the photowalk. Pathfinder, thanks for all the links in the sticky on the thread. I seem to like the Gorman method as a start although I am making some changes in the workflow outlined. I also have looked at using Lightroom 2 and after looking at them for about half the day, I figure I should ask for other people's opinions.

Here is the original:


Here is the Gorman Conversion:


Here is the Lightroom Conversion:


Any critiques to share? Suggestions for which one looks more pleasing? I was going for a B&W Motion Picture tone not sure I got there though.

Thanks for any suggestions.

vintagemxr

I like the Lightroom conversion the best. To me it has a slight tone to it that fits the marquee title. The Gorman conversion looks a bit too light to my eye.

Something to consider: You've got a nice blue sky up in the corner so that's a good candidate for a conversion the tips the sky much darker. That would make the white columns pop and balance the the window glass on the left which would go a bit darker too if you filtered the whole image to get the sky darker.

The shadowed part of the sign would need to be bumped up with some selective lightening.

I work in Capture NX2 so I'm not sure what the specific techniques would be in the other programs.

Nice image. Looks clean and crisp.

Doug

BradfordBenn

Thanks. I did not even think about doing any selective work on it. I have 11 more hours to tweak, now if I didn't have to work....

aktse

I'm not sure what is "B&W Motion Picture tone", but with the movie marquee with a classic movie, I think of film grain.

1.


2. Maybe even with a bit of toning


3. Maybe even pushed towards the right



I just took the orig into SilverFX.

vintagemxr

To a large degree whether or not the image works is going to be a matter first of your own taste (and everyone else can GTH) and what your display intent for the image is. Some people love grain and the gritty street look. Some the aged look, and so on. I'm a long time fan of the the crisp, lots-of-levels-from-solid-black-to-white look, myself.

With your image that would leave the sky near black at the upper left with an increase in light across to the building and with as little grain as possible.

Again, a matter of preference and who your audience is. It would be tough to get it all correct without selective adjustments. I've never found a set method that works for every image or a B&W converter that got it right without more adjustments.

These days the first thing I do with a B&W conversion is use the histogram adjustment to bring out some definite black and white to see if things will go the right direction with at least some real black and some real white (but not blown out). There's always an element of trial and error to see what pleases my eye without bringing banding and too much grain out.

Being able to experiment with basic color filters or combinations is important. I grabbed your image and fiddled with it a bit and found that a yellow filter (60 on the CNX adjustment) seemed to give the best result for starters but then some selective adjustment to the sign face and sky were definitely needed to get it where I liked it.

Doug

BradfordBenn

Thanks. What is surprising me is how much the pipes are bugging me when I convert to B&W.

I am currently taking the Lightroom Conversion and tweaking it in PS3. Seems to be getting closer

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments

gtucker

Usually I hit the B&W button in LR3 and then I go through each slider and adjust the colors in the image accordingly...then I split tone it from there or use a preset to give it a little more character.