BW Recipe

leebase

I really like the look of the bw "color effect" -- any tips on how to get this on my own in paint shop pro?

Lee

Andy

leebase wrote:

I really like the look of the bw "color effect" -- any tips on how to get this on my own in paint shop pro?

Lee

some info here and here

leebase

Hi Andy,

Didn't know you hung out here...love your photos on the rebel (and now 20D) forums on dpreview.

I'll try your first link method minus the noise features (well, except when I want to attempt that look).

I was particularly interested in smugmug's recipe as I reallly like the results of choosing bw in their "color efects" function.

fwiw, I have come up with my own bw recipe too.

http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/34356838

http://leebase.smugmug.com/photos/9320733-L.jpg

Mine involves dupping the background layer and using the pencil sketch filter to add texture, and a hard light layer to add contrast.

Lee

ginger_55

Hi, Lee, would like recipe for my cookbook, please.
Hi, Lee. Yes, Andy is the main man, here, the benevolent leader and the effective user, at times, of tough love........... kind of like our very own god.

Since I had just posted "this" up on photo 101, it was easy to add what I could gather from your post with new bw ingredients. They sound quite interesting. Could you add to what you said. (I am in a hurry, but the effect did seem to help the very background that are the trees, but other than that, I didn't get a full advantage of what you experience, I would imagine. Do you just add vivid light mode by itself, or in conjunction with? Etc?

ginger

leebase

ginger_55 wrote:

They sound quite interesting. Could you add to what you said.

[/QUOTE] Be happy to help -- though I will start by repeating my request for the SMUGMUG recipe

Ok...

Step 1: Convert img to greyscale. Typical flat looking bw is the result.

Step 2: Duplicate background into it's own layer, set blend to overlay. Gives you a richer look already -- and you can adjust the opacity to alter the effect....but don't worry about that just yet.

Step 3: On the new layer, run the "black pencil" filter effect (or experiment with others). You can experiment with the settings...I find that finer detail is usually better for portriats.

Step 4: Adjust the opacity of this layer to control how much of the "pencil" look is applied.

Step 5: Add new adjustment layer, choose "hard light" as the blend mode. Gives you the high contrast look, and again you can fiddle with the opacity to control how much of the effect you like.

That's it.




Lee

ginger_55

leebase wrote:

Be happy to help -- though I will start by repeating my request for the SMUGMUG recipe

Ok...





Lee[/QUOTE]

Really cool picture, Lee. Thanks muchly for whole recipe. I probably started with too much contrast, etc...........

When I get back will do again. Love those short recipes.

(Do you have any really short recipes for blending photos.........ones you never planned on, need something, etc........... I mean, Andy, yours is great, really great, you can make your living on that stuff, lol, but it hurts my brain, once I get the tripod down, etc........meanwhile, a two step, that is it, a two step method. hehe)

Lee, I appreciate a new and exciting way to do blk and white. Especially using those filters that I was thinking just were there to support USM.

Are you just stopping by dgrin, did you join, or am I being dense?

Smile big,

ginger

(gotta go...........away in the car)

leebase

Really cool picture, Lee. Thanks muchly for whole recipe. I probably started with too much contrast, etc...........

My pleasure. I accidently came across this when fiddling around with a photo....I even made an action for it (paint shop pro script)

http://www.leebase.com/index.php/DigitalRebel/PhotoFreebies

(Do you have any really short recipes for blending photos.........

I'm still new at blending photos....maybe someday.

Are you just stopping by dgrin, did you join, or am I being dense?

I'm a big fan of smugmug. Didn't really know about this forum until looking to ask a smugmug question -- which I'm not sure has been answered. HELLO....what is the exact SMUGMUG recipe for bw...

But I digress.

Normally I hang out on the www.dpreview.com forums. For the last year it's been the 300D forum which is where I discovered Andy's amazing photography...and as of a few weeks ago I graduated to the 20D forum.

This place seems nice and I'm sure I'll stick around.

Especially now that I know one of my heroes, Andy, is here.....and since you gave me a compliment

Lee

Andy

thanks ginger but
i'm just a guy, trying to share what i know about an artform that i'm passionate about. please, i'm no god. i just want to help people, that's it

thanks.

ginger_55 wrote:

Hi, Lee. Yes, Andy is the main man, here, the benevolent leader and the effective user, at times, of tough love........... kind of like our very own god.

Since I had just posted "this" up on photo 101, it was easy to add what I could gather from your post with new bw ingredients. They sound quite interesting. Could you add to what you said. (I am in a hurry, but the effect did seem to help the very background that are the trees, but other than that, I didn't get a full advantage of what you experience, I would imagine. Do you just add vivid light mode by itself, or in conjunction with? Etc?

ginger

miketaylor01

Still Learning
I thought I would share some results I got from messing with one of my photographs using the suggestions and posted links to. Hoping you all would let me know how my results turned out and if I was able to get close to the old Tri-X look. I used about half of the suggestions andy gave and then had to improvise a little due to the fact that I am still using photoshop elements 2.0. God I need CS. Anyways.. let me know what you think.

This is the original photo I had to work with



and this is my final results with some cropping and cloning in addition to the change to B&W


Photoshop really gets addictive......

Mike

leebase

I like it, I might use a little more of the "hard light" than you did, but a nice effect as it is.

Lee

leebase

andy wrote:

here and here

Thanks Andy, I like the results.



Lee

wxwax

leebase wrote:

Be happy to help -- though I will start by repeating my request for the SMUGMUG recipe

Ok...

Step 1: Convert img to greyscale. Typical flat looking bw is the result.

Step 2: Duplicate background into it's own layer, set blend to overlay. Gives you a richer look already -- and you can adjust the opacity to alter the effect....but don't worry about that just yet.

Step 3: On the new layer, run the "black pencil" filter effect (or experiment with others). You can experiment with the settings...I find that finer detail is usually better for portriats.

Step 4: Adjust the opacity of this layer to control how much of the "pencil" look is applied.

Step 5: Add new adjustment layer, choose "hard light" as the blend mode. Gives you the high contrast look, and again you can fiddle with the opacity to control how much of the effect you like.

That's it.




Lee

Lee, thanks for sharing that technique. I'll be giving it a try. I'm a sucker for B&W conversion, if I can get a good contrasty shot.

miketaylor01

another try
Was up early this morning and decided to take a few photos around the building I live in over here. I was more out to try to get some for me to mess around with for andy's darkroom assgnment since I noticed yesterday for the first time that my little sony DSC-T1 has a bracketing feature where it will take up to 1 and 1/2 stops above and below the regular exposure. The more I messed around with it this morning to more i realized the incredible amount of control the camera offers the user. Anyways to get to the point of why I am making this post in the first place.. None of the bracketed shots I took today worked out because I never held the camera steady enough, and no i didnt use a tripod because I only own a monopod and the T1 is smaller than the head of my monopod and is too small to be able to mount. So since none of the pictures I was trying to get worked out at all I decided to start to play with this one below and ended up with the results that you see. I used parts of andy's Tri-X treatment and some of the other suggestions I have see on here and blended them all together into what I feel works for me in Elements. God I need CS.... Anyways let me know what you think. I more often than not lean towards B&W but I am torn between which of these two I like better. Please let me know what you think

The original..


After some cropping and cloning...


After my Tri-X treatment..

ginger_55

Black and white, hands down. That is a neat picture. I love black and white myself. Thinking about it, with TV and all, we see so much of Iraq in color, it is almost refreshing, to me, to see it in blk and white. I hope I get to see more.

ginger