Photoshop Tip: Mono

GeorgeFirth

GeorgeFirth

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George Firth
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This is the best way i have discovered to create great mono shots in Photoshop.

1. Open your image, crop and make any other changes to the structure of the image.
2. Select IMAGE fromt he top bar menu, then select DESATURATE, your image will now be grayscale.
3. Select IMAGE > AJUSTMENTS > HUE/SATURATION
4. In the opo up menu adjust the dials to the result you want, for portraits a good setup would be:

Hue +30
Sat +10
Lightness -3

5. Save and post!

This is how i create my mono shots, how about you?
 
Thats probably one of the worst ways to do it. A really good B&W photo is produced using certain colour channels. My personal favourite is high contrast red channel b&w.
 
Elements has a half decent b&w feature. You can adjust the channels in it. ACR I think also has it now. Set to greyscale and then adjust the channels. Desaturate basically removes all colour. Its really not the best way. Absolutely anyone who does a lot of b&w work will tell you that colour channels are the best way.

http://forrestcroce.com/Articles/DigitalBlackAndWhite.html
 
petemc said:
Elements has a half decent b&w feature. You can adjust the channels in it. ACR I think also has it now. Set to greyscale and then adjust the channels. Desaturate basically removes all colour. Its really not the best way. Absolutely anyone who does a lot of b&w work will tell you that colour channels are the best way.

http://forrestcroce.com/Articles/DigitalBlackAndWhite.html
Click to expand...

I know Element has the convert to B&W feature but I'm never happy with the results from it. My ACR doesn't have a channels adjustment feature unless it is on a later version (Mine's a year old now)
 
Apparently its in ACR4. I would really stress using the B&W feature in elements. You'll have better control and you'll understand B&W better than you will with desaturation. Its so much more than a photo without colour.
 
petemc said:
Apparently its in ACR4. I would really stress using the B&W feature in elements. You'll have better control and you'll understand B&W better than you will with desaturation. Its so much more than a photo without colour.
Click to expand...

My version is 4.2 so it must have been slightly later than that. I will certainly have another play with the convert tool and see what progresses. :thumbs:
 
Oh. ACR is different in both? How annoying. I just figured that the ACR bit was the same.
 
Hmm, not really a great way - that is the way to do it, when you don't know much about b&w.
I'm not expert, one method I use is - calculations (multiply or overlay) and blend red, green, blue, one or two channels that way. click save as new image. It gives you super contrast, without banding.
 
I use a gradient map to convert most of the time. Seems to give black blacks and white whites (if that makes sense?).

Hadn't tried the channel mixer plug in though, so will give that a stab.
 
Lightroom 2 has much the same capability as PS for B&W conversions.

As others have said; channels are the way to go.

-H
 
petemc said:
Thats probably one of the worst ways to do it. A really good B&W photo is produced using certain colour channels. My personal favourite is high contrast red channel b&w.
Click to expand...
Pete - do you mean simply open the image, open 'channels' layer, select the Red channel and voila! Is that what you mean here?
 
I gradient map it, then go to town on levels and curves. Gradient map tends to have a much nicer B/W feel to me.
 
Desaturate is the work of the Devil!!! Any of the other methods already mentioned are a million miles better!
 
The B&W discussed here, seems ok, or is it not?
 
Why is there so many different ways to do this? This is what confuses me with PS, too many ways to do one thing. So, what is the best way to achieve punchy B+W images from jpeg?
 
Personally I think the "convert to B&W" command in CS3 is ace... you can just move the sliders up and down for each colour to improve contrast in pretty much every part of the image. Cant see that there would be any 'better' tool.
 
68lbs said:
you can just move the sliders up and down for each colour to improve contrast in pretty much every part of the image. Cant see that there would be any 'better' tool.
Click to expand...

Take a look at the CS4 'The Target Adjustment tool' tutorial on Lynda.com (the 8th tutorial down, you don't need to subscribe to view it)... Fantastic new addition (it's in LR2 too), makes sliders almost obsolete!
 
subseasniper said:
Why is there so many different ways to do this? This is what confuses me with PS, too many ways to do one thing. So, what is the best way to achieve punchy B+W images from jpeg?
Click to expand...

Because the colour content of the image will decide which method is best, for example for a image that contains mostly greens and browns you can twiddle the colour sliders all you want without much effect on contrast or tone differentation, black and white film has no colours but its still hard to beat even when scanned ;)
 
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