Calling Dave and the other mono afficionados

Hacker · 18-09-2006, 17:23

Converting to mono is definite area of weakness of mine and are there any hints, tips, tricks or tutorials that you provide me with. Currently I just de-saturate and then play with levels, contrast etc but they never have that pizazz that I'm looking for. Using this method seems to increase noise levels as well.

Dave, I remember when you did the orignal conversion of the equestrian image on my home page (the one of water jump entitled 'Leap of Faith') but my conversion was nowhere near as good. I also recall some images you took at an airshow I believe and they were excellent. Help!

stevec · 18-09-2006, 20:20

Hi hacker I am no expert in black and white conversion but I have found a book that I can
recommend its BLACK AND WHITE EXPERT by MICHAEL FREEMAN it does not
give you a walk through but explains the various ways to get the effect you want hope this
helps in some small way

***Steve*** · 18-09-2006, 21:04

There is an OLD tutorial that I wrote quite a while ago that covers this subject in basic to medium detail available here. Have a look at it incase it includes something that you were not aware of and if you have any questions just shout. I know that there is a series of new articles and tutorials in the pipeline that are much more detailed and should be easier to follow but unfortunately they are not quite ready yet.

In the mean time I am sure that Dave will also respond to this thread tomorrow when he has time.

HTH

***Dave*** · 19-09-2006, 09:34

Hi Colin

I use the channel mixer method of conversion ,as described in Steve's link above, using mainly the red channel for landcapes. Have a play with different mixture of channels, as long as they all add up to 100% to get correct exposure.

Probably best if you post up an example colour shot at 1000 pixel width, & let members convert to Mono & describe method used. That way you can judge whoch processing you like & adapt accordingly. With some of our existing & new members having good PS skills, I expect there will be many ways to skin a cat ....can't belive I just said that being an animal lover

***Dave*** · 19-09-2006, 09:49

Have a look at this thread for some processing tips :- First Effort?

**Pixalo** · 19-09-2006, 15:01

Some more tips on here that are applicable to Mono as well as colour :- http://www.pixalo.com/gallery/showph...user/clear.gif

**Dabhand16** · 20-09-2006, 22:57

Hi hacker. There is more than one way to skin a rabbit, and I've been trying different mono techniques, and this one is a bit different.

Open your photo in CS2, and add two hue and saturation latyers. In the first (middle) layer, change the blend mode to 'colour'. In the top layer, blend mode is normal. Use this top layer to desaturate the master channel to -100.

Now switch to the middle layer. Here you can alter the individual channels to suit your picture using the hue control. You will find that in most pictures some of the channels will have little or no effect.

I find this technique gives as much control as the channel mixer, but seems easier to handle. Maybe it's just me.

If you want to add other ajustment layers you can.

lolyton · 21-09-2006, 07:43

If you are looking for Adobe Photoshop tips on B+W then this is a good link..
Resource Center / Tips & Tutorials / Advanced Search
Also good for so much other stuff.

Recently i've been playing around with converting stuff in Adobe Camera RAW. This i have done with dropping the saturation (sometimes i like to leave a slight bit of colour in it) then adjusting the tint and the temperature until i get a look i am happy with. This seems to work quite well, also it gives a quick indication of how an image will look as black and white before you open it up properly.

Hacker · 21-09-2006, 08:07

Thanks for the tips and links, I haven't had a chance to read them all yet, I appreciate the response.

VeddieEdder · 21-09-2006, 12:40

have you tried using black and white film?

***Dave*** · 21-09-2006, 17:07

Tried it once, but it wouldn't fit in the memory slot

lolyton · 21-09-2006, 20:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by VeddieEdder

have you tried using black and white film?

It's normally better to use colour film for all occasions as colour film is usually (not always) of a better quality, and is easy to print B+W, if you do it yourself then majority of colour films normally give you around a grade 2 filter to start with. Anyway that way you can choose whether you want colour or B+W prints (handy for weddings and the like i would suspect...howeve i am no wedding photographer).

Sorry!

VeddieEdder · 22-09-2006, 02:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave

Tried it once, but it wouldn't fit in the memory slot

Quote:

Originally Posted by lolyton

It's normally better to use colour film for all occasions as colour film is usually (not always) of a better quality, and is easy to print B+W, if you do it yourself then majority of colour films normally give you around a grade 2 filter to start with. Anyway that way you can choose whether you want colour or B+W prints (handy for weddings and the like i would suspect...howeve i am no wedding photographer).

Sorry!

I always assumed that most wedding guys who still shoot film, used medium format camera's and had extra backs loaded with B&W for their mono portion of the package.