Dodging/Burning B&W portraits

Namaste

Namaste

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Gary
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Hi all.

Im not sure if this is a stupid question or not, if it is please just come out and say it :-)

I'm just wondering, when taking black and white portraits, is it best to do all your processing on the colour RAW file and then convert it at the very end, or would anyone ever just convert their images first and then make whatever tweaks are necessary?

Or does it not even matter?
 
Dodging and burning straight onto the image can effect the colour as well as tone, so I would do it after conversion. However, it depends how you dodge and burn. If you dodge and burn directly onto the image (as most do) in Lightroom or something then convert first. If you do it properly using a 50% grey layer/Soft light layer blend in Photoshop, then it doesn't make any difference.
 
He may not be using Photoshop though... in which case he can't use layers.... so if that's the case, he should definitely make adjustments AFTER converting to B&W.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I use Photoshop (CS5, with Silver Efex for conversions.)

I do just dodge/burn directly onto the image. Must do a bit of googling about these layers...
 
In which case, I'd convert first, then dodge and burn in Photoshop using a 50% grey layer and Soft Light layer blend.

I'd consider not using Silver FX though, and using a black and white adjustment layer in Photoshop instead, as it's reversible, and offers the same control. It just won't have all the cheesy HDR style presets.. but they're crap, and cheesy anyway.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/th...image-for-b-w-conversion.522142/#post-6003226

Have a read of that.

I know you can make channel adjustments in Silver FX too, but once converted, and put back into PS it can't easily be reversed in the same way a B&W adjustment layer can.
 
Thanks, i'll take a look at this when I get time.
 
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