Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/05/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]You did well. That is a very challenging image, with its wide range of tones. Jim Nichols Tullahoma, TN USA On 5/5/2015 6:50 PM, Ken Carney wrote: > Thanks for commenting and I think you are right, that I went a little > overboard. Here is hopefully an improvement: > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/kcarney/_MG_2525BWTX2.jpg.html > > Ken > > On 5/5/2015 4:15 PM, CJ andS wrote: >> Difficult scene for a B&W conversion. The black adjustment removed most >> detail in people pants and shirts creating walking specters. Looking >> at the >> color I don't see that there are too many blacks anyway except small >> sections of the lamp post or the back struts of the bench for >> example. A >> more subtile conversion without taking personal tastes or artistic >> endeavors into consideration should show tonal difference between the >> back >> of the bench by the persons behind and the diagonal strut >> underneath. I'm >> only imagining that is possible but in a darkroom situation I would be >> trying to get that sort of distinction from the tones. >> >> On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 4:46 PM, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net> >> wrote: >> >>> Ken, >>> >>> Nice job, but you are doing a much more sophisticated job than what >>> I am >>> attempting. I have abandoned Adobe, so the plug-in approach doesn't >>> work >>> for me. I open a RAW image in Picture Window Pro, make adjustments >>> and end >>> up with a reduced-size TIFF file. I take these to Focus Magic >>> and/or Neat >>> Image, as need be, saving the image as a TIFF or JPEG as the mood suits >>> me. I then take that to Silver Efex Pro 2 and use its tools to >>> change to >>> B&W. >>> >>> Recent image: Original TIFF >>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/P5054571.tif.html >>> >>> Final Converted Image: >>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/More+Rhody+Blooms.JPG.html >>> >>> Jim Nichols >>> Tullahoma, TN USA >>> >>> >>> On 5/5/2015 3:30 PM, Ken Carney wrote: >>> >>>> In looking over some recent threads on critiques and b&w printing, I >>>> thought it might be worth while to have some discussion on >>>> converting files >>>> to b&w. I'll post my approach, and maybe others can suggest >>>> improvements >>>> and describe other approaches. Here are the files in color and as >>>> converted to b&W: >>>> >>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/kcarney/_MG_2525-Edit-Edit-Edit.jpg.html >>>> >>>> >>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/kcarney/_MG_2525BWTX.jpg.html >>>> >>>> I opened the file in Nik Silver Efex Pro, but could have used >>>> Photoshop >>>> or Lightroom b&w tools. I have Nik, Alien Skin, Topaz and DxO >>>> packages but >>>> don't care for them for adjustments. For example in SEP the tones >>>> affected >>>> by the sliders are pretty broad. Instead, I used Photoshop masks as >>>> sold by >>>> Tony Kuyper (thanks again to Bob Adler). My camera has a range of >>>> about >>>> six stops, somewhere between slide and negative film, or in Zone >>>> System >>>> terms say Zones 2 through most of 8 as I measured it. In this image I >>>> thought the brights needed some contrast so I selected a Zone 8 >>>> mask and >>>> used an adjustment curve to pump up the brights a little. There is >>>> some >>>> spillover, but the curve mainly only affected the brights in Zone >>>> 8. Then >>>> I did the same thing with masks for Zone 2 and 3 to get the blacks >>>> down to >>>> taste. Finally I added a little grain (TriX) with TrueGrain. This >>>> software >>>> uses drum-scanned film stock for the grain, as opposed to digital >>>> interpretations of grain. >>>> >>>> So there you have it. Because of the flexibility of using Photoshop >>>> targeted masks and adjustment curves, it took about five minutes. >>>> >>>> Ken >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Leica Users Group. >>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>> >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >