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B&W Conversions, PS Elements
Andy
Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
ATTN: PSE users - how about your best recipe for BW conversion here? I'd like to see examples, with screenshots, and the before/middle/after photos. We'd love to put up a tutorial on our tutorial site, http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1100284
Similar to this:
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1126557
:ear
Similar to this:
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1126557
:ear
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The simplest method I've seen for Elements is as follows:
Create a Hue/Sat adjustment layer (we'll call this layer #1). Set it to the color blend mode and just hit OK without changing any of the controls yet. Then, create a second Hue/Sat adjustment layer on top of the first one. Leave this in normal blend mode, but set the saturation to zero. You now have a black and white result.
Return to the hue/sat layer #1 and mess with hue and saturation and lightness for all the various colors and you can create all sorts of interesting effects. In some ways, it gives you even more control than the channel mixer in CS2 because you can do fine grain control on how much you want to emphasize any color range in the image.
Lastly, I usually apply a finishing contrast adjustment on any black and white photo to give it a little more pop. In Elements, you can do this with a contrast adjustment layer or with a levels adjustment layer. In PSE5, you can actually use a curve adjustment layer.
Sorry, I don't have time at the moment for a bunch of sample images - maybe someone can take this technique, try it on their own images and produce some samples. It works quite well. I sometimes like it even better than the channel mixer in CS2.
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Before we begin, here's the photo we're going to be changing:
Since PSE doesn't have a Channel Mixer, we first need to set up our own by way of several different levels adjustment layers. You'll set up one layer for each channel, plus a regular levels adjustment layer for adjusting the brightness / contrast on the entire photo. Why do we do this? A straight black and white conversion often looks flat. Being able to make these minute adjustments will give your photo more "pop". Also, setting up different layers for each channel gives you the opportunity to turn off that channel to see what the photo looks like with or without the effect. (NOTE: You can also get by with just a single levels adjustment layer and using it to adjust the channels and the brightness/contrast. To do that, just skip to step 4. If you prefer to tweak and compare each channel individually then follow steps 1-4. The choice is yours.)
We're not adjusting anything at this point yet, but we will very shortly!
1. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. When the New Layer dialog box displays, type Blue and then click OK. Click OK when the Levels dialog box displays. This will be your Blue Channel.
2. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. When the New Layer dialog box displays, type Green and then click OK. Click OK when the Levels dialog box displays. This will be your Green Channel.
3. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. When the New Layer dialog box displays, type Red and then click OK. Click OK when the Levels dialog box displays. This will be your Red Channel.
4. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. When the New Layer dialog box displays, type RGB and then click OK. Click OK when the Levels dialog box displays. This will be your normal garden-variety levels adjustment layer that you will use to adjust the brightness and contrast for your photo.
Yes, I know it was a little monotonous, but you'll be glad you did this ahead of time. When you're done, your screen should look something like this:
Now you're ready to convert the photo to Black & White. We're going to do the conversion using a Black and White Gradient Map. To do this you first need to find the darn thing!!
1. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. When the New Layer dialog box displays, enter a name if you want, and then click OK. The Gradient Map dialog displays. Your photo may look a bit gross, but not for long!
2. Click the Gradient Picker (item A). The gradient menu displays.
3. Click item B to display a pop-up menu.
4. Select Default from the pop-up menu (item C). The default gradient menu displays.
5. Choose the black and white gradient. Voila! Your picture is converted. If yours looks like a negative, don't worry, a simple click on the Reverse option will remedy that.
Click OK to close the Gradient dialog box.
You can leave the Blending Mode at Normal or you can apply the Color Blending More. It's up to you. Here's how mine came out with the Blending Mode set at Normal:
Now comes the fun part: playing with your makeshift channel mixer! Hmmm...those leaves on the trees in the background look a little dark!
Let's start with the Red Channel.
1. Double-click the layer you named Red. The Levels dialog box displays.
2. Choose Red from the Channel drop-down box and move the levers around to your heart's content.
To change any of the other channels just double-click on the layer you created, choose the appropriate channel. Don't forgot to play with the RGB layer too! You can also turn the layers on and off to compare their effects on the photo.
Here's how my end result came out:
1. Click the topmost layer, which is your Gradient layer.
2. Choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Color Fill Layer. When the New Layer dialog box displays, type Sepia and then click OK. The Color Picker dialog box displays.
3. Enter the following values for R, G, and B: R = 91; G = 56; B = 17. Click OK when you're done. Now you need to get rid of that solid sepia colored layer that's covering up your photo.
4. Apply either a Soft Light or Color blending mode to the layer to see the sepia effect (and your photo). You can also play around with the opacity to get the desired result.
5. Make adjustments to RGB levels as required.
Here's what you wind up with:
http://lrichters.smugmug.com
Very nice, Wonderful information and photos.
I just happen to be adjusting some B&W Photos, and decided to take a break and came right to this.
Andy got just what he asked for and more! (Oh by the way Andy, nice Avatar)
Pamela
www.exposedimages.net
I followed your tut and found it works very well. You did a super job writing it up.
I also tried the desaturation and levels dialogue method and the Conte Crayon filter and levels dialogue method (if that even is a method) and those worked ok. Here is a link to the-- purely subjective results-- if you're interested:
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/gallery/1792253/1/97219908
The photos are the last four in the B&W gallery.
I didn't control for anything, so you can't really do a comparison between the different methods-- it was just for fun.
I find that the levels tweaks are the critical parts and I would have to work on those more carefully to do a really good job. Also, I selected the sky because it was so grainy and then used the dust and scratches filter at a low setting to smooth it out so that it looked good to me.
-Steve
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/
This is an easy way in PaintShopPro:
Its very simple and VERY effective. Sorry won't do screen shots, because my neck doesn't allow the time.
I use color shots because they carry more pixel information, rather than shooting in B&W. But I suppose this would be helpful to a B&W also in PSP.
Open photo, go to
Image/greyscale
Adjust/Brightness-contrast/Clarify
depending on the lightness of your white and how much definition you need, choose a number between 1-5 [1 being the darkest contrast shadows] Don't overwhiten.
Need a little more definition between shadows?
Adjust/Brightness-contrast/ start with the number 5
in each box. Up the brightness number if the whites can still handle a little lighter. Lower the Brightness if the white can't take any more lightening. IE: a 2 and a 7 will make the darker areas pop. Basically, adjust the Contrast box to about 2-6 higher than the Brightness box.
Unsharp mask around 0.40 radius 200-300 Strength and 1 Clipping
Hand sharpen areas that need more than that so you don't oversharpen the background, especially water! Use the sharpen tool brush. Mine usually set around 33% in opacity and Hardness.
Use the Lighten-darken wand for areas that are shadowed too much. Works wonders to lighten faces! This was a tough one with all the whites.
And remember to reduce the numbers for compression, as B&W's have already lost pixels.
1) Open the photo.
2) Create Adjustment Layer; Gradient Map (make sure the Black, White gradient is selected), click OK and check out the B&W conversion.
If you want to tweak the result, create a Levels adjustment layer (just click OK) prior to the gradient map adjustment layer. Then after adding the gradient map, go back to the Levels adjustment layer and tweak the Red, Blue and Green channels individually to taste.
This is the technique I've used to do all of my B&W conversions. See this gallery for a bunch of examples. The most of the original color files are in this gallery.
Another example of this technique is my Mono Lake Reflections.
Linda,
Very nice.
I see you are using PSE3...
In PSE4 you don't need four adjustment layers for Red, Blue, Green and RGB. You can create just one Levels adjustment layer and set each of these channels indivdually within that one layer.
So for anyone using PSE4, just follow Linda's fine tutorial but save some steps and only create one Levels adjustement layer and adjust each of the channels there.
Here's an tutorial for the dual hue/saturation method.
First, I start with this image:
I create the first hue/saturation layer and set the saturation to -100:
That gives me a desaturated image like this:
You will notice this lacks much punch. What I want to do is to make the flower parts really stand out.
So, I create a second hue/saturation adjustment layer between the background and my first one and set the blend mode to color. You don't have to set the layer blend mode to color, but if you do, then you'll only be manipulating relative brightness, not overall brightness. You can actually try it both ways, but I find it easier to use the color blend mode.
I then play with the hue and saturation in several different colors and finally settle on this adjustment to the Yellow colors (this is all just trial and error based on what you know the original colors were):
That gives me an image that looks like this:
Lastly, I'd like to increase the contrast a bit more. You can do this several ways. I chose to make a mid-tone adjustment in a levels adjustment layer here like this:
That means my layers palette looks like this:
And that gave me this final image:
To summarize, we had this original image, this straight desaturated image and this enhanced BW image:
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Nice hat, Andy!
http://lrichters.smugmug.com
http://lrichters.smugmug.com