B&W conversion, critique pls

Hi Brian,

Don't worry.. I used this as an experiment only, and I'll remove it from my server if you want me to.

Cheers

Liam

Hi Brian,

Have you tried using the levels adjustment in PS. That's what I used to do this, although with GIMP. Basically, you just play around with the arrows under the histogram, until you find the correct levels of shadow, highlight and contrast.

This is what it the tool looks like in GIMP, and I assume very similar in PS..




The histogram shows all the pixels in the image, and how many of each there are. It's split into 5 stops, of 51 points each. At the dark end of the histogram, it shows a fairly regular amount of pixels for three stops, and then very little in the two lighter stops. Imagine that you have a bar chart with 255 columns and each pixel in the image is rated for how dark or light it is, and stacked accordingly in columns. That's what the histogram shows. In this image, 3/5ths of the pixels are in the range of black to dark-mid grey, with virtually none in the lightest two stops. To get an overall well exposed image, you can drag the right hand arrow back towards the middle, until you get to the start of the 4th stop, just where you see the most action in the histogram end. This when OK'd will average out the vast majority of pixels over the whole image, which in turn will lighten it, but by averaging out the lightness/darkness of each pixel relative to it's neighbouring column. This means that black stays as black, and white stays as white, but the midtones are gradually stretched across the whole 5 stops, rather than just three, giving greater tone across the image as a whole.

If you alter the contrast, then it removes whole columns of pixels from the histogram, so that you don't get the subtle changes between shades, Have a play and see what you come up with by moving the arrows around. I was going to explain further, but it's too early.

Cheers

Liam

The basic principle with Levels is to move the left arrow until it meets the histogram, setting the black point. Then move the right slider until it meets the histogram, setting the white point. Finally, adjust the overall brightness by moving the centre (gamma) slider. This will indeed lose some tonal values, but providing it is not too extreme it will not be a problem.

However, bear in mind what the histogram represents and a picture of, say, largely black, will have a histogram bunched to the left - and so it should. So doing what I have just described may be way too severe.

So moderate adjustment to taste is the way to go!

Brian,
Here's what I see...I see a talented eye with a strong sense of composition.
I see a desire to improve. I see you mastering your tools and in the future I see you using the tools to make the image fit your vision.
Don't give up. you have talent.
The guys here have given you some good advice, and it'll be hard to add to that but here goes:
your slr has a convert to b+w option...never use that for a final image (it creates a new file without erasing the original) use it instead, for estimating a scenes potential for b+w when out in the field.
There are ps plug-ins that may make doing b+w easier, but with practice, and perserverance you won't need them. Read up on "old school" chemical darkroom techniques to become familiar with the terms and techniques that the software developers tried to incorporate into thier programs when writing "photo" software.
use the "add noise" filter to give it a grainer film look.

WOW!, thanks for the huge compliment Don. Im trying hard to improve but still very much still in the learning process both with the camera and the post processing but as you say the guy's and gal's here are superb, always willing to part with their knowledge and expertise.

I use an *istD, don't now that this is true...is it?

I'm not sure, i thought they all did.
press the blue playback button, then the Fn button, then press left on the 4way rocker switch for a filter menu (on my ds2 anyways) for a b+w, sepia, soft, distort.

Hi Don

The *istD does not have any built in filters or an Fn button, it's more of a "PRO" camera than the DS.

Don't know whether it's just my current mood but I'm enjoying playing around with B&W conversions.

The latest attempt. At last, the gray scale, more naturally, at least to my eye.

Ted