Need Some Help With B&W Processing... Wedding Candids

68lbs

68lbs

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Had a comment on a thread of mine a few weeks ago about my B&W processing not being up to parr. Am just wondering what people's thoughts are on these two, and if they have any suggestions on how to create 'great' monos.

Both were processed in Lightroom using the 'Grayscale Mix' tool to control each colour. AliB pointed me in the direction of some Photoshop Actions, but I was hoping I could sort things ok myself within LR.

1.



2.

 
I don't like LR conversions as the orange channel seems off - and they need too much extra black to get any decent result
 
spxxxx said:
I don't like LR conversions as the orange channel seems off - and they need too much extra black to get any decent result
Click to expand...

Cheers Simon. Anyone got any advice on how to do great B&W conversions? Or even what a great B&W conversion should look like?
 
It's all subjective. I think what you have done here is great, but of course it depends what you want from the image, there is no right or wrong way.

I personally like quite high contrast black and whites.
 
Nothing beats fiddling with all the sliders in PS to see what you can do :lol: The top one could do with the blacks being reduced imo (or some light filled???). My preference would be to bring out some of the detail on the suits. Atm, this is lost a bit on the man on the right (the groom?). In the opposite way, maybe the light in the second pic can be toned down a bit? It might also deal with the distracting line of the material against her arm, which, at first glance makes it look as if her arm is a weird shape. If the section behind the material was darker it would resolve this I think. I may be off the mark here though, so interested to know what others think.
 
Try using the clarify tool on both. The first at strength 10 and the second at strength 1. Lifts both nicely, and the first one also gives a nice amount of light on their faces :) I did it in Corel Paint shop pro x2, not sure what those strengths would be equal to in other apps :shrug:
 
the first one: on the guy on the rights face needs a levels adjustment, imo.

great shots though :)
 
Moved into Post Processing :)
 
foodpoison said:
I didn't realise it was that difficult... those two looks spot on to me!
Click to expand...

Tis to me... my eyes operate in colour and I am struggling to see what makes a great mono. I didn't think these two were too bad, but then again I couldn't see that previous ones I'd posted were 'flat'.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys... I shall try some out.
 
ok, have tried a reworked one, this time in CS3 with the help of a TP member. How's this...?

test.jpg


Again, a fairly quick job as I am trying to come up with a solution that can be applied en mass to a batch of say 50+ images.
 
Like the last! Nice.

I've done some B&W conversions in LR and they've been fine (by my tastes). Couple below. To be honest there's so much variety to how a B&W image can look it's all really down to what type of 'feeling' you are trying to get across.

_DSC0580_800px.jpg


_DSC0755-Edit_800px.jpg
 
This is my interpretation, I just tweaked the levels a bit to add more punch. I decided to go brighter in the end so that the background wasn't quite so distracting. I also did a bit of "creative pruning" and removed the person in the background in front of the window.

The skin tones are too bright but I did my best :bang:.

 
I use the Silver Efex Nik plugin for my B&W conversions, I'm rarely disappointed with what I get out of it.
 
68lbs, that's a lot better. You can really make out the groom's face properly now.

MrT, I agree with you that in your version the skin tones are too bright, but the background is more rather than less distracting now, so the compromise isn't worth it imho. Much better to have some recognisable objects out of focus than a white glare, no..? So maybe somewhere in the middle of both efforts for me.
 
I just had a look at my 2am PPing work and cringed. I re-edited my edit to make it look like it was actually shot on this planet :P. No more late night PPing for me!
 
I don't think there's anything too wrong with your initial LR processing. The 2nd one is shot on, and a great shot. The subjects in the first one are underexposed that's all. Bring the exposure up and blow the background a bit.
 
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