Woodlands in B&W

[Kevin L]

As I continue to explore this medium, I thought I would convert some previous color photos to B&W to how they would turn out, and figured I would share them with my Canon friends.

#1

Inversion IMG_4331_BW by Kevin Lewis, on Flickr

#2

Woodland shoreline_IMG_4343_BW by Kevin Lewis, on Flickr

#3

Balance_IMG_4347 by Kevin Lewis, on Flickr

[El Sid]

Love the first one and the way it plays havoc with the sense or orientation and perception!...

Like the other pair as well but feel they could do with a wider tonal range to bring a little more life into the trees themselves.

What method are you using to convert them?

[Kevin L]

Hi Nigel,

I have Luminar ai for my editing software. I try to edit it to point where it will convert to a more "contrasty" black and white. Once there I tinker with the saturation sliders to try and bring out more clarity or as you write life. Open to suggestions as I am still figuring this out if you would like to share. Maybe we can work on one of the two that are a little light in tonal range and I can post them back here?

Yeah that first one is my fav also I find it fun to turn things around a bit.

[El Sid]

I'm not familiar with Luminar so it's a bit tricky to advise directly on what to do.

I use Photoshop mostly. In PS it's possible to go directly to mono from a raw file in the converter by switching the hue,saturation and lightness control to the greyscale option and then adjusting the lightness/darkness value of the various colours as desired. The downside is that the adjustments are global and affect the whole image and the output is 8-bit rather than 16 which can be a bit limiting when it comes to further processing.

What I normally do is process the raw file in colour as normal before sending it to PS. Once open in PS I use the Black & white adjustment layer option - this creates a layer over the original colour image which automatically converts the displayed image to monochrome according to either a preset filter effect such as yellow or red or you can adjust the way the underling colours appear by means of various sliders which make then lighter or darker as required. The advantage with this is that the image remains in 16-bit mode which allows greater tonal manipulation afterwards - it also means that you can go back to the colour image just by hiding the layer at any time. Another advantage is that masks can be used on the layer meaning it's possible to use different settings on different parts of the image - I often use a masked layer set to the red filter over the sky while using a second layer set to the green filter, for example, over the foreground - the net result is that the blue parts of the sky go quite dark without affecting the greenery and I can lighten/darken the greenery without affecting the sky etc. This is then followed up by localised contrast adjustments tailored to the effect I want in the area selected.

Localised adjustments of tonality and contrast/brightness are key to getting the best result, hopefully Luminar offers a means of doing this either with layers or adjustment brushes.

It's also best to start with an image that already has a good tonal range in it's native colour form. This doesn't mean it has to be a sunny day, just one that allows the scene to show good tonal separation.

Do you shoot in RAW? A handy exercise if you do is to set the camera to monochrome mode so you can get an idea of what looks good in mono and what doesn't when you shoot it - this is particularly so if using live view or a mirrorless model. Learning to see black and white images in a colour scene takes a bit of experience and time to acquire - even in the days before colour took over photographers had to learns how to assess a scene to see how it would look in mono and what filters might be needed to achieve the desired result.

Ultimately it's a matter of patience and learning - believe me, I'm a long way from being an expert...

I've had a bit of a play on one of your images using Pixlr X (an online editor) staring from the colour version. It's less clever than PS but I used a preset conversion that favoured the green tones a bit more and then added localised contrast adjustments on the trees and sky to get a bit more separation and drama...

52110108769_49232b747d_b-2.jpg

Ignore the slight softness - the forum software has limits on file size and downsizes over-size images somewhat badly.

[Kevin L]

Nigel,

THANK YOU! This is awesome. I am writing to you from my phone. When I get back to where I can us my Mac I will be better off to respond in more detail.

To answer some of your questions. I do shoot in RAW, I too try and edit a color photo entirely before converting it B&W. I have also switched at times my camera to shoot and have liveview display only B&W.

I am sure I have the same functions you describe in PS. Let me look for those so we can be talking apples to apples. Stay tuned.

Thanks again,
Kevin

[Colin W]

Nice set of photos in B&W. The area looks nice to be at.

[Kevin L]

Nice set of photos in B&W. The area looks nice to be at.

Thank you, it really is a gem of a little park, looking forward to going back in the fall and sharing with you all.

[antoeknee]

In my days of using film, remember that, I was taught a B&W image should have a true black and a true white.

When I've done a conversion I've tried to follow this guide where possible.

[Kevin L]

Hi Nigel

Hope your weekend is off to good start.

[QUOTE=El Sid;n744710]I'm not familiar with Luminar so it's a bit tricky to advise directly on what to do.

I use Photoshop mostly. In PS it's possible to go directly to mono from a raw file in the converter by switching the hue,saturation and lightness control to the greyscale option and then adjusting the lightness/darkness value of the various colours as desired. The downside is that the adjustments are global and affect the whole image and the output is 8-bit rather than 16 which can be a bit limiting when it comes to further processing.

Kevin>> I have another Application called Affinity, which for all intents and purposes is like PS, albeit a bit more intuitive for me at least. I wrestled with PS for months and just could not get it.

What I normally do is process the raw file in colour as normal before sending it to PS. Once open in PS I use the Black & white adjustment layer option - this creates a layer over the original colour image which automatically converts the displayed image to monochrome according to either a preset filter effect such as yellow or red or you can adjust the way the underling colours appear by means of various sliders which make then lighter or darker as required. The advantage with this is that the image remains in 16-bit mode which allows greater tonal manipulation afterwards - it also means that you can go back to the colour image just by hiding the layer at any time. Another advantage is that masks can be used on the layer meaning it's possible to use different settings on different parts of the image - I often use a masked layer set to the red filter over the sky while using a second layer set to the green filter, for example, over the foreground - the net result is that the blue parts of the sky go quite dark without affecting the greenery and I can lighten/darken the greenery without affecting the sky etc. This is then followed up by localised contrast adjustments tailored to the effect I want in the area selected.

Kevin>> Affinity also the ability for layers, I have just started to work with them lots of potential there to do some really interesting stuff. I originally bought the software to be able to stack photos and do focus merges. I too try to process the raw file as much as possible in color with an eye to converting it to B&W focusing on the shadows, highlights red and yellow colors and the blacks and whites. Luminar does have sliders to work with the contrast also. I try to be careful here to avoid overcooking the picture.

Localised adjustments of tonality and contrast/brightness are key to getting the best result, hopefully Luminar offers a means of doing this either with layers or adjustment brushes.

Kevin>> Luminar does provide some options and they do have an assortment of brushes to use also. I went back to the original photo posted and worked through it using some of things you mentioned. I had to rely on the masking features (still working through the layers in Affinity) namely a gradient mask for the sky to try and darken it tad by changing the saturation for red. I think I got there, curious to hear your thoughts. Also I can fiddle with the underlying colors after conversion to B&W, not to mention the shadows and highlights and contrast.

I "turned" up the yellow to lighten the small trees in front as the sun highlighting them in the color version. Increased the greens to make the background trees stand out a bit, dropped the whites and blacks by a small amount. Then changed the Red in the RGB curves.

Ultimately it's a matter of patience and learning - believe me, I'm a long way from being an expert...

Kevin>> so true, so true; patience and learning

Here is what I came up with.
Before Affinity by Kevin Lewis, on Flickr

[El Sid]

That looks a little more lively. However you process the image the end result is always a matter of personal taste.

I'm sort of familiar with Affinity as I do have it installed on my PC but I mostly use it for converting raw files that my aged copy of PS can't cope with. Interestingly I find Affinity less intuitive than PS but that's probably because I'm so familiar with PS - Affinity does some things just differently enough to catch me out; for instance I struggle with feathering selection edges which is easy in PS but seems extremely complicated in Affinity... I suppose I really should try harder...