Help with BW; yes, one more time...

the fist

Aren't you all so thrilled....

Yeah :clap another photoshop-challenged idiot asking about BW conversion....

:bow I humbly call upon the multitudes of the wiser and help my sorry-self...

Groveling aside, let me explain...
I have been asked by a dear friend of mine to take a picture of his boss' boat while sailing slightly off the shores of Lake Michigan. Wanting a view of the city, I set-up directly north of the Adler Planetarium on the Museum Campus and took plenty of pictures.

Original Photos found here

My intent is to create a BW conversion of one of these photos.

Please help me learn the ways so I can quite bothering you nice people...atleast until I decide to learn more about this so called "dodging"... :evil

My 3 favorites (still in color) are found below...
Need help picking favorites as well... :wink
Thank you so much....

lynnma

the fist wrote:

Aren't you all so thrilled....

Yeah another photoshop-challenged idiot asking about BW conversion....

I humbly call upon the multitudes of the wiser and help my sorry-self...

Groveling aside, let me explain...
I have been asked by a dear friend of mine to take a picture of his boss' boat while sailing slightly off the shores of Lake Michigan. Wanting a view of the city, I set-up directly north of the Adler Planetarium on the Museum Campus and took plenty of pictures.

Original Photos found here

My intent is to create a BW conversion of one of these photos.

Please help me learn the ways so I can quite bothering you nice people...atleast until I decide to learn more about this so called "dodging"...

My 3 favorites (still in color) are found below...
Need help picking favorites as well...
Thank you so much....

First of all grovell away... we all do.. it's part of our nature. Also be as bothersome as you can be.. .
These shots are really nice in my humble opinion. I use channel mixer to create my black and whites. Others use many different means. I use layer adjustment... channel mixer... check monochrome and mess with the sliders. You'll find some nice tutorials in the halls of wisdom forum. My fav. pic here is number two.
Look forward to seeing your black and white.

the fist

Thanks....

I agree; I like #2 alot as well-- I don't mind the lack of urban presence, but Im not sure if the owner wants to incorporate more "Chicago" elements....TBD I guess...

tmlphoto

the fist wrote:

Thanks....

I agree; I like #2 alot as well-- I don't mind the lack of urban presence, but Im not sure if the owner wants to incorporate more "Chicago" elements....TBD I guess...

Here is 50% red channel, 50% Green; selecive color "Black" up +11; bumped up constrast +7


You may want to check out a free plugin for Photoshop that has a great b&w conversion filter. It is produced by optikVerve Labs. Can't recall the site, but you should be able to google it.

PerezDesignGroup

tmlphoto wrote:

Here is 50% red channel, 50% Green; selecive color "Black" up +11; bumped up constrast +7


You may want to check out a free plugin for Photoshop that has a great b&w conversion filter. It is produced by optikVerve Labs. Can't recall the site, but you should be able to google it.

I don't think virtualPhotographer can pull off what you did, TML! Nice work.

Here's the link anyways. It's super fun. http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

And a B&W Conversion tutorial as well...
http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/b-w_better.shtml
and
http://www.digidaan.nl/indexframedigidaan.html?channelmixer/index.html

wxwax

Hey Fisty, don't worry about asking for guidance, lots of friendly folks here love to share what they've learned.

Click on this link for a great thread by Andy on B&W conversions. Be sure to click on the link in his first post. It leads you to a discussion of various ways to convert.

Personally, I prefer the Channel Mixer. Another esteemed member, Zero-Zero, prefers the Saturation Layer method.

Nice pics, BTW. My favorite's the last. And tml did a really nice conversion.

the fist

Thanks for the tips...

Here's the 1st attempt at BW conversion -- Im sure it'll look pretty darn similar to TML's....good advice can't be ignored, right ?
I wish I had some more exciting cloud features...replacing the sky might be a task for the future...



More to come...

lynnma

the fist wrote:

Thanks for the tips...

Here's the 1st attempt at BW conversion -- Im sure it'll look pretty darn similar to TML's....good advice can't be ignored, right ?
I wish I had some more exciting cloud features...replacing the sky might be a task for the future...


More to come...

Nice conversion Fist. I think it could be a tad brighter tho.. maybe a tad more contrast?

cletus

the fist wrote:

Thanks for the tips...

Here's the 1st attempt at BW conversion -- Im sure it'll look pretty darn similar to TML's....good advice can't be ignored, right ?
I wish I had some more exciting cloud features...replacing the sky might be a task for the future...



More to come...

Nice work

I don't think you need to replace the sky, just darken it a bit. These shots are kind of unusual since the horizon is almost all straight lines. It should be fairly easy to select the sky so you can darken it without changing the rest of the image. There are several tools you could use to make the selection bu the straight edge laso tool is probably the easiest method.

wxwax

The problem with converting this particular shot to B&W is the sail. It gets hot to quickly. So in order to get the rest of the shot nice and contrasty, I think you'll need to use Layers, and make a couple of exposures: one for the sail, another for the rest of the shot, then combine them.

Sam

the fist wrote:

Thanks for the tips...

Here's the 1st attempt at BW conversion -- Im sure it'll look pretty darn similar to TML's....good advice can't be ignored, right ?
I wish I had some more exciting cloud features...replacing the sky might be a task for the future...


More to come...

Here is a new sky, very fast and dirty....would need some clean up around the building edges.