[simpbow]

Need some help if i can get any guys, ive been messing around with a few pics trying to see if i can come up with some nice deep black tones that i could stick with but iam not having much success would appreciate any tips.

Cheers Simpbow.

[Markulous]

Hmmm, B/W's something I'm sadly lacking at doing even OK, but I guess the number one tool is Levels. Using that you can pick a suitable black point, then same for white - ensures image is at least using the widest spread of tone

[liljj323]

this is just my personal way to do it but:
>levels- take the shadow dropper and click it on the darkest point in the sky
>channel mixer- click monochrome @ the bottem, and adjust the colors as needed (more red will usually give a darker sky)
>gradient map- use the one that is black and white

and there you go, if you do the levels at the beggining everything will look very dark, but when you convert to b/w its much better.

[Bill too]

Originally Posted by liljj323

this is just my personal way to do it but:
>levels- take the shadow dropper and click it on the darkest point in the sky
>channel mixer- click monochrome @ the bottem, and adjust the colors as needed (more red will usually give a darker sky)
>gradient map- use the one that is black and white

and there you go, if you do the levels at the beggining everything will look very dark, but when you convert to b/w its much better.

If you are going to use the gradient adjustment layer to set up a B/W image then there is no need to use levels. The sliders in the gradient adjustment layer enable the black and white points to be set. In addition you can create more sliders to control the mid tones. It is even possible to colour tone the image by creating coloured sliders.

[simpbow]

Cheers guys thanks for the tips i,ll give them all ago & see what happens, not a easy subject this one but it looks great if you can get the right mixture of settings.

[liljj323]

Originally Posted by Bill too

If you are going to use the gradient adjustment layer to set up a B/W image then there is no need to use levels. The sliders in the gradient adjustment layer enable the black and white points to be set. In addition you can create more sliders to control the mid tones. It is even possible to colour tone the image by creating coloured sliders.

the trick w/ the levels is to use the shadow dropper as a black point.

and even after there is noticible results after the gradient map... it does make a difference (sometimes its good, and others bad)

[simpbow]

Cheers.

[Bill too]

Originally Posted by liljj323

the trick w/ the levels is to use the shadow dropper as a black point.

and even after there is noticible results after the gradient map... it does make a difference (sometimes its good, and others bad)

That's true it will make a difference in combination with the gradient adjustment layer. The two effects will be compounded. What the black point in levels does is to adjust the red green and blue input levels independently to make the chosen point black. The effect is as if the left hand slider were moved to the brightness that needs to be mapped to black for each colour. If the chosen black point is already black then nothing happens. But if the cohosen point is not the darkest part of the image a whole chunk of the histogram will be removed and shadow detail lost.

The black point adjustment can be done just as effectively in the gradient editor by moving the lower left hand slider and watching the effect both on the image and on the histogram. The result may be different in the mid range tones as the two adjustments map differently, but the midpoint slider in the gradient editor can be used to remove the difference. The point of using the gradient editor is to get full control of the tonal range mapping so adjustments are going to be made anyway.
The advantage is that only one lot of processing is being carried out and only one lot of image deterioration.

[fionaB]

hmmm all this talk about eye droppers and gradient editors.................. i dont use any of them and never seem to have a problem with mono............ its the colour ones that bother me! lol
i use Black and white adustment in CS3 adjust the sliders to where i want them then
I use the sliders in levels but i dont use the eye dropper i use my own eye to tell me when its wherei want it to be.

Fi

[simpbow]

Cheers Fiona youve a good eye in your head from what ive seen.