What Do You Like About...

[katrinak]

Black and white conversions?

There are many ways to do them. Some of those methods are listed here for LR here for CS3 and more here

What I'm wondering, is what makes a black and white look great to you? Deep contrast? Light grays? Blue tint? Brown hint? What makes it appeal to you? Any examples?

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

[Starlite9711]

Great question!! I love all black and whites...high contrast, greys, the tinted ones. I think for me it depends on the mood I want to convey. I posted one of my recent favorites here http://www.designerdigitals.com/digi...hp?photo=71408
It was created using Totally Rad Actions.

[cheekymonkey]

Katrina, this is a really great question!
I have been wondering about different ways to convert photos to black and white, because I really love the look of them all... can't wait to read everyone's methods! (Hopefully a few will work for me, I'm still in the dark ages of just using PSE6...)

[bluelemur01]

Cool question!

I like b/w photos that "pop", insofar as the blacks & whites have a good range of tones and are not stuck in that "muddy gray" look that sometimes plagues b/w conversions from digital color pics. I also like b/w photos that are exposed well and do not have blown highlights; sometimes I find that it's easy to "wash out" my details if the conversion is not done well.

One of my fave methods is to go into image --> adjustments --> black & white conversion (in CS3) and start adjusting the sliders to get just the right look. I usually do this after adjusting either levels or curves on the original photo. After I've got the b/w look the way I want it, I often check levels/curves AGAIN to see if further refinements are needed, and then I sharpen using Smart Sharpen.

Another method I like is to go into the original image and split the channels to get the look I like. I posted on this in another thread; I'll see if I can find it & link up so you can see my instructions I posted there on how to do it!

Jennifer

[bluelemur01]

Here's the link to a post I made about using the "split channels" technique in PHotoshop to turn a picture to b/w. It's hard to read my attachment b/c the font is so small, so let me know if you're interested & I can email it to you!

http://www.designerdigitals.com/ddms...4&postcount=10

[RatherBScrappin]

I haven't played around with B&W enough yet to know what I prefer, but hearing others preferences and trying them out will definitely help me figure it out! Great question!

[Jen D]

I use lightroom... I find that if I have a picture with a lot of grayish tones I bump the black up a smidge to make it have more contrast. Haven't perfected it but it has helped

[HeidiKnight]

Great question. Personally, I tend to prefer a b&w image that has some contrast. I typically don't like a muddy gray image. I usually do my b&w conversion in Lightroom so that I can adjust the fill light, brightness, contrast, etc. I also love a brownish tone with some b&w's.