B & W Conversion Software

[pipflash51]

Hello everybody.
Can anyone make suggestions as to a reasonably priced application to convert to B&W? I know about Nik Silver EFEX Pro but have also heard about one called Powerretouche which seems to be well regarded and looking at their website it does seem to offer a lot for a reasonable price.
Has anyone used this software and how does it compare to the Nik software product?
Finally are there are others I should also look at?

[briansquibb]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

DPP converts it very nicely

[Glenn]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

I've only used Nik Silver EFEX pro and it's an excellent plugin for photoshop and lightroom but at a price. Is it worth that price, only you can really decide. All my B&W conversion are done using lightroom and photoshop without any plugins and I find these 2 tools more than adequate for my B&W needs. I can't comment on DPP has I've never used it.

[BT Bob]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

I've only ever converted in PS or Lightroom. Currently, my method of choice is to use the Channel-Mixer in PS and select the Monochrome option. This allows a lot of control with the RGB sliders and works for me. There are at least 4 ways of converting in PS I can think of, and they all produce different results. And that's without any external plug-ins!

[Bryan Conner]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

I have used Powerretouche Pro for several years and love it. It is well worth the money. There is not a better B&W conversion software available (in my opinion), but there are others that will work as good. I do not exclusively use it for all my conversions. I do have a couple of BW actions that I like a lot also. Powerretouche Pro is very easy to use if you are already familiar with working in a traditional wet darkroom, but if you are unfamiliar, it could be a little bit complicated for some users. It will not do anything that you can not duplicate in Photoshop, but it does offer a lot of presets and a lot of different "Film" profiles.

I suggest that you give it a test drive with the demo version before purchasing it. The demo is fully functional except for you have "demo" watermarked on the images.

[pipflash51]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

Thanks for the replies chaps.
I really should have mentioned that I have LR 3 and PSE 7 as my editing and organising / workflow tools but recently attended a talk by a photographer who judges competitions and has ARPS after his name. He suggested that using software other than PS for B&W conversions would improve your images so hence my looking into what was available.
However, if my LR and PSE combination is more than adequate for the job in hand then I will stop looking elsewhere
Any thoughts on this?

[Bryan Conner]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

I do not use Lightroom, but I understand that it is similar in the B&W conversion area to Adobe Camera Raw. There is a lot of control in both for converting to B&W. I would say that whether using LR/ACR/Photoshop or a 3rd party plugin is the best, can only be decided by the individual user- you. Download trial versions of the plug-ins an try them out. Do a Google search for Lightroom Black and white presets and play with those. Jack Davis has some good presets (that include B&W conversions) available here at no cost. Find out what you feel the most comfortable with.

[Glenn]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

He suggested that using software other than PS for B&W conversions would improve your images so hence my looking into what was available.

Hmmm, interesting and tbh I don't agree.

I have Silver efex pro and I don't currently use it as part of my B&W workflow, all I use is LR3 and PS. As Bryan says in the end it will be you who decides which way to go but here are a few things that have helped me define my B&W workflow:

George DeWolfe's Digital Photography Fine Print Workshop
Digital Masters: B&W Printing

I've found these 2 books really helpful, the second one covers George's B&W workflow using LR and PS. I'll warn you that his workflow can be quite involved but of course it's up to you how much/little time you're willing to spend.

The digital-monochrome learning forum

The digital-monochrome learning forum is an excellent place for all things B&W with very knowledgeable people and I've learnt quite a lot from them. (If I shouldn't post this, let me know and I'll remove it)

HTH

[John Baker]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

I use a nice free bit of software from Fotomatic called B+W Plus - works with Elements and PS, it used to come as a stand alone freebie, now it is included in a nice free pack – see http://www.cybia.co.uk/fotomatic.html - looks like they added some nice actions in the pack!

The B+W conversion works really well, it is particularly good if you separate your image into layers and then convert the individual sections with different effects, my favourite is converting the sky with the red and ground with the green – works well… Here is what it did to a friends Red Porsche


So top left is with the Red filter conversion (it had to be), top right is blue (so I lost the sky), bottom left is green (great sky) and bottom right is yellow.

Example one - A quick example of the split process, sky with red, in this case I used yellow on the granite, to help bring out the texture


Example two - from my G11 - panorama of three shots combined converted with the yellow filter

[colin C]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

Many thanks for the tutorial John.

I hadn't considered using the different filters with a layered shot. That gives me food for thought and I might well have a go at that. Thank you for sharing.

Colin

[John Baker]

Re: B & W Conversion Software

Hi Colin the trick if you have PS is to preselect the sky area with a simple rectangle, then use the “Select – Colour Range” tool. Press the shift key to expand the selection, this means you can select all one colour e.g. blue, don’t have the selection tool set too high, as it is better to build up the selection as it gives far great control. Of course this will leave the white clouds on the original layer, once you have your selection, press ok. This will then highlight all the blue sky area, you can then simply copy the selection to a new layer (Ctrl J). I would then normally apply a graduated filter and then adjust the levels. Having split your picture you can apply different filters to each, as well as use different levels of sharpening.

The Colour Range tool is great, it gets over many of the problems of little bits of sky showing through the leaves in trees, etc.

Using different colour conversions is great, I am always surprised at what a difference you get from each of the colour filters – you can partly see the effect in the car picture above and what effect it has on the car, the sky, trees, etc. It is how I did my recent Scorhill post - have fun...