Short intro to black and white processing

onona

onona

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Leigh
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Since I love mono processing so much, and keep seeing questions being asked around the web about how to go about it, I figured I'd write up a really basic summary of some of the considerations and fundamentals of black and white photography. I'm no master myself but am sharing what I have learned so far.

Clickety click for the article here.

I think I've managed to cover all the basics, but please let me know if you feel any part needs to be expanded on.

I hope it helps some of you!

(Hopefully I've posted this in the right place, but if not, then my apologies to you mods!)
 
Thanks for putting the effort into writing and posting that - an interesting read! I quite enjoy playing with mono conversions, you can get away with bumping up the contrast in a way that would look revolting on a colour image.
 
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Brilliant write up :clap:
Many thanks for sharing, i and many others don't use 'clicky' links but i am glad i did this time :thumbs:
Thats some CV you have there too :eek:,
Best wishes
Cliff
 
Brilliant article. Thanks very much for that. Made an interesting read :)
 
Leigh

Just had a quick look at this and bookmarked to read properly when I have more time - looks excellent - thank you

One question re the Niksoftware plug-in. Is it a case that this simply saves you time in producing a good conversion or is it that it does something that is very difficult to replicate without the software?

Thanks again.
 
Hi Adrian, that's a good question. I'd say that Silver Efex doesn't strictly do anything that's not possible in Photoshop, but to accomplish a lot of the stuff in Photoshop would be very time consuming. The u-point technology that Nik uses saves you the time you'd be taking to paint masks in Photoshop, and I think the toning system in Silver Efex is much nicer than using gradient maps or adjustment layers in Photoshop to accomplish the same. I also think that some things, like the film stock emulation and grain tools would be tricky to reproduce in another package, since the emulation would be a fiddly curves adjustment and the grain tool looks and works a little differently to Photoshop's grain filter. I also think the colour filtering is a little better than in Photoshop's Black & White image adjustment filter.
 
Thanks Leigh - really helpful answer. I guess I'm trying to understand why it is so expensive and is it worth it.

I've just downloaded the 14 day trial to have a look at it but I think I'm going to need to watch quite a few of their tutorials to get the most out of it, especially the U point technology

Thanks again
 
I'm fairly new to photography but have found that Lightroom 3 can also be used to produce some good b&w conversions. There are some presets that include different colour filters and the contrast can be adjusted by altering exposure/brightness and increasing the 'blacks' as well as using the contrast slider +/- tone curve. A bit of dodging and burning with the adjustment tool can also be done. Are there any situations where use of these techniques is not sufficient and more specialised software is required?
 
Apologies for this ridiculously delayed reply - I've been extremely busy for the last two months or so, and have only started posting again in the last few days.

@Buck, I hope you gave the software a shot and enjoyed it!

Spillage said:
I'm fairly new to photography but have found that Lightroom 3 can also be used to produce some good b&w conversions. There are some presets that include different colour filters and the contrast can be adjusted by altering exposure/brightness and increasing the 'blacks' as well as using the contrast slider +/- tone curve. A bit of dodging and burning with the adjustment tool can also be done. Are there any situations where use of these techniques is not sufficient and more specialised software is required?
Click to expand...

My reply above to Buck would hopefully answer your own question. You can do great mono conversions in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture or any app that gives you a basic toolset for it. An app like Silver Efex simply makes the process a little more streamlined and efficient, since it's an entire, specialised toolset for a very specific type of processing with all the tools together in a single UI. At the end of the day, if you don't mind spending a little cash, I'd definitely recommend Silver Efex. But if you're not keen on forking out for a plugin, then stick with the tools you have. Lightroom is not going to hold you back in terms of the finished product, although it may take you a little longer to get the results you're after.
 
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