B&W help

dconnelly

I took some pictures today in monotone mode thinking I would get some good B&W pictures, butthey are more like grey scale. Is there anything I can do to process these to get better results? I currently only use PS Elements.

Here is a sample.

System

the standard method is to take a good color photo and convert to bw by several different methods-

channel mixer is a good way to convert-

I'm sorry, but I don't know what you have available to you for pp with pse-

you might search here on dgrin (conversion ps elements) and/or google-

arroyoshark

Check out www.Digital-Monochrome.com

Martin-Images, who is a member of this forum maintains an excellent rescource site for black & white digital imaging technique. Much of what is on his site will be applicable to PS Elements. Elements does not have curve adjustments, so you will do most of it with levels.

Check it out.

Scotty_R

I start with a color photograph then do all of my b&w conversions with a plug-in developed by Fred Miranda called B&W Workflow Pro. The plug-in has many pre-defined actions that run without any intervention on your part, but it also includes several very good actions where the photographer can tweak channels, adjustment layers, hue and saturation adjustments on selected layers, etc. It's an excellent plug-in which can be purchased for $29.90. Well worth the investment. Browse to here for more information.

dconnelly

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I need to decide how serious I am with this "hobby" and buy PhotoShop. I will look into everyone's suggestions. Thanks!

dconnelly

Seems pretty involved to get good results. Is it possible to take a monotone image and make it look better via these conversions?

nikos

dconnelly wrote:

Seems pretty involved to get good results. Is it possible to take a monotone image and make it look better via these conversions?

I've never used PS Elements so bear with me here. An easy way to get a contrasty B/W image out of your photos, whether they're in color or grayscale, is to use the Gradient Map feature which I believe Elements has.

I don't know if Elements has adjustment layers -- if not, just duplicate the layer, select the Gradient Map and choose the Black / White swatches. Your image should have more contrast now. If you want even more contrast, repeat it again on a new layer and then back off the opacity if the contrast is too high.

You can then use a layer mask to tone down any harsh shadows or blown highlights.

HTH,
Nikos

arroyoshark

dconnelly wrote:

Seems pretty involved to get good results. Is it possible to take a monotone image and make it look better via these conversions?

Probably you would get better image to work with by shooting in color, then converting to b & w in photoshop elements. Avoid just converting to grayscale or "desaturating" in hue & saturation adjustment. Use the standard adjustment mode and either convert to b& w using channel mixer adjustment layer or graidient layer to start out with.



I took the liberty of "playing" with your image a little bit tonight. Photoshop Elements has the capability to work with 'adjustment layers' and to make layer masks. These are available in the standard adjustment mode. May take a little reading (help function or Elements reference book) to fully understand, but it is relatively easy. In this case I used levels adjustment layers and masked out parts of the image that I didn't want the adjustment to take effect. By making independent level adjustment of the background (fence) and the forground (boy) you can add some pop to image, without blowing out contrast. I did this example just with level adjustments, available in Elements.

richtersl

dconnelly wrote:

I took some pictures today in monotone mode thinking I would get some good B&W pictures, butthey are more like grey scale. Is there anything I can do to process these to get better results? I currently only use PS Elements.

: Try this: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=43213&highlight=elements