Converting to Black & White

shootin'mom

I shoot in RAW with a Canon 30D. Most of my portraits are done with my Canon 24-70mm L lens. I post-process with Lightroom. When I use the Lightroom pre-sets (Grayscale or low contrast B&W) to convert my color shots to black & white, I find that they become very grainy. What is the best way to convert to B&W?

jeffreaux2

shootin'mom wrote:

I shoot in RAW with a Canon 30D. Most of my portraits are done with my Canon 24-70mm L lens. I post-process with Lightroom. When I use the Lightroom pre-sets (Grayscale or low contrast B&W) to convert my color shots to black & white, I find that they become very grainy. What is the best way to convert to B&W?

Not sure that only one answer applies to your question. There are many good methods out there, but if you find a "good" method it may not look good on every different photo you treat. Are the photos at a high ISO? If so you may need to up the noise filter, or back off on the default sharpening. I am using lightroom more and more, but still am not happy with the way it handles some photos.

I like to do a LAB conversion when I can for portraits. It doesnt look good on some, but for the ones it works well with it can produce some very nice soft tones. I then usually convert back to RGB and add a tad bit of a warming filter. I do this in Photoshop.

If you can play around in LR and come up with a decent BW conversion, you can save the settings as a preset.....then use it anytime you want.

If you use photoshop I can give you more info on the LAB conversion I use.

I have seen some really nice LR conversions here, so I am sure someone else is gonna fix you up!!!

Here is a LAb conversion sample

Mr. 2H2O

I use LAB for some and the color mixer for others (in grayscale mode). The method depends on the subject, composition, lighting, and available colors in the original.

I prefer to make a contrasty B&W so I tend to use the color mixer more to bring out the reds and greens without distracting from the relative lightness.

- Mike

Eric&Susan

I use this set of presets in LR:

http://kubotaworkshops.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16177&category_id=258

It has some pretty good BW presets.

Eric

shootin'mom

Eric&Susan wrote:

I use this set of presets in LR:

http://kubotaworkshops.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16177&category_id=258

It has some pretty good BW presets.

Eric

Thanks. I'll look into that package.