Different B/W conversion

Gary752

I recently watched a workshop on Creative Live with Yervant, and he shared a different way of converting to B/W in PS. I decided to give it a try, and this was the result. If you have any tips/tricks to further refine it, feel free to share them so I can learn to do it properly. If anyone is interested in the steps used, let me know and I will share them here.



GaryB

michaelglenn

good attempt, but the blacks are way overdone in the shadows of the photograph (bottom of hair), and those eye lashes. Did you use the burn tool in PS? Ease up on it a bit, and you'll be on the right track. If you post the original, I'll show you how I'd go about a BW conversion in PS.

Gary752

Here is the original. And no, I did not use the burn tool.



GaryB

Qarik

ok..so I have seen multiple editing attempts on this particular image. don't bother with it anymore. to me it simply is not good base image to work off of. Simply put the light and tonality is just wacky. throw this image away and reshoot.

michaelglenn

Holy super tutorial time! I've never done this, and this is pretty geeky..but in case anyone wanted to know, here is a general idea of how I tackle BW photos. Hope this gives you some insight Gaby!

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So this stuff gets a little tough to figure out. Understanding historgrams and their data helps a ton. However, once you understand the concept of these points on a linear bar, you can create certain curve designs that make the image more dynamic. This resource may help you out a bit too: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/photoshop-curves.htm

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See how dragging that point brings up the highlights on the part of her face that hit the sun? Curves controls exactly what part of the image you want exposed and how you want to expose it.

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Moving the black point upward causes a shift in exposure to the shadow point. See how the curve bends upward? This affected the exposure of light from the black point to the shadow point. It causes a cool effect where the blacks become muted, giving it a filmic look.

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I added another point to show that you can make the details even finer. I don't want the blacks that muted, so adding an extra point between the back point and shadow point allowed me to bring down the shadows a tad while still muting a small portion of blacks closer to the black point.

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So after using curves, I decided that you need to brighten that skin. Looks like this was shot under harsh light (next time shoot this under shade when shooting in harsh conditions). We can take the dodge tool to brighten the midtones in her face. Make sure you duplicate the photo layer, and experiment. I dodged her face at 15% exposure (selected the midtones). Then I burned the shadows around her forhead at 5% (very minimal). As a result, her face stands out much more.

BW Version using Curves:


Color Version after using Curves:


^ Color version needs the highlights toned down, but you get the idea.

Qarik

annnnnd..still looks bad!

you are never going to overcome the weaknesses in the original

michaelglenn

Qarik wrote: »

annnnnd..still looks bad!

you are never going to overcome the weaknesses in the original

I agree it could have been shot better. As I mentioned in my post, he must have shot this in harsh sunlight not in shade. There is not much range to work with on the face, but my point was more about tackling the editing part. There are ways to improve the image. I don't see it as a throw-away. But each to one's own right?

Gary752

Qarik wrote: »

ok..so I have seen multiple editing attempts on this particular image. don't bother with it anymore. to me it simply is not good base image to work off of. Simply put the light and tonality is just wacky. throw this image away and reshoot.

Qarik: First, I'm new to Photoshop and I'm trying to learn it. I'm not going to learn PS if I only edit perfectly exposed images. There comes a time when you do mess up, and that one photo is the one that the customer loves, and you have to do your best to try and save it. I don't post here to get ooooh's and aaaah's, I post here because this is supposed to be a community of people willing to help teach the newbies. If you don't want to help teach, that's your prerogative, then just ignore all of my threads and don't respond.

DIVA: See what I mean?

GaryB

Gary752

michaelglenn wrote: »

I agree it could have been shot better. As I mentioned in my post, he must have shot this in harsh sunlight not in shade. There is not much range to work with on the face, but my point was more about tackling the editing part. There are ways to improve the image. I don't see it as a throw-away. But each to one's own right?

Thank you Mike! I appreciate the time you spent in explaining your process. As I said in a post to Qairk, if I edit only perfectly exposed images, I will never learn Photoshop.

GaryB

michaelglenn

Gary752 wrote: »

Qarik: First, I'm new to Photoshop and I'm trying to learn it. I'm not going to learn PS if I only edit perfectly exposed images. There comes a time when you do mess up, and that one photo is the one that the customer loves, and you have to do your best to try and save it. I don't post here to get ooooh's and aaaah's, I post here because this is supposed to be a community of people willing to help teach the newbies. If you don't want to help teach, that's your prerogative, then just ignore all of my threads and don't respond.

DIVA: See what I mean?

GaryB

I actually have to disagree with you here. Keep shooting and editing. Don't edit the same image over and over again. Rather, experiment outside, see what works best to achieve the best edits. This is actually how I learned to shoot better. I realized which images were harder to edit and which ones were easier. As a result, my workflow is a ton faster, and I shoot loads better than I did months ago.

In short, listen to the critiques, don't take negativity to heart, experiment, and edit. You'll learn, and we will be here to guide you through the process.

Qarik

Gary, don't take it as a negative..is your client still around? Offer to reshoot. My point is the base image is not a good candidate to learn from at all. I am not talking about "perfectly" exposed, it can be way off and still be recovered. The kind of issues with your image are kinda complex and simply can not be processed away.

bmoreshooter

Not to step on any toes here but, I don't think this is a total loss. Even if you just use it to learn from I would keep playing with it. I have tried to attach a two minute adjustment here but i'm not very experienced at posting pictures here. If it works I will add the changes that I made.

bmoreshooter

Well that did'nt work. I'll try to figure it out.

bmoreshooter

http://vraspa.smugmug.com/Art/work-files/30184113_6t2h26#!i=2596590158&k=MpQXZ9z

bmoreshooter

Well at least I got it there. Perhaps not the correct way but you can see what I did.

Qarik

bmoreshooter wrote: »

Well at least I got it there. Perhaps not the correct way but you can see what I did.

to be frank..still not good at all. is it better than original..yeah I will give you that.