Black & White

[John Thawley]

I've added some of my black & white images to the APN Gallery. Some of you may be familiar with the images, but I thought they'd be a good topic to kick off some post processing discussion(s). Often the camera is only the beginning in the life of our images... so lets try to expand the dialogue and find out more of what others do in the digital darkromm.

http://gallery.johnthawley.com/albums/albuo60/aac.jpg

http://gallery.johnthawley.com/albums/albuo60/aaf.jpg

[Nathan Leach-Proffer]

Seeing this post makes me happy because I have been getting into black and white photography (in the post at least) to me B&W photos can just caring such emotion. The photos I like most have more contrast and noise then some people care for. I am looking forward to any discussions on the subject.

Hope you don’t mind me adding a few of mine to this thread.
http://static.flickr.com/53/146669486_118b6ef862_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/76/185854156_2155b432bc_o.jpg

and one from NAIAS

http://static.flickr.com/52/131680735_59a570f949.jpg

[Todd Corzett]

I find that with motorsports I'm not as big of a fan of b&w because of all the bright colors... but for other things it's great:

http://www.unitonestudios.com/_Other/NYC/GST_h2.jpg
(a higher resolution version (http://www.unitonestudios.com/_Other/NYC/GST_h2L.jpg) is also available)

Anyone have any feelings on b&w conversion methods? With this shot I pulled one/two of the color channels (I think the blue and red) and then adjusted their opacity and levels. Did a little shadows & highlight to bring-up the ceiling a bit. Desaturating things can work OK, but often leaves the photos flat and without contrast. For example, Corvette yellow becomes bland in b&w compared to in color. Any tips of this? How do people feel about the selective b&w stuff? I know they can be really overdone, but sometimes I think the effect can be very nice:

http://www.unitonestudios.com/portfolios/offtrack/images/041016_20055x.jpg


-Todd...

[John Thawley]

I find that with motorsports I'm not as big of a fan of b&w because of all the bright colors... but for other things it's great:

http://www.unitonestudios.com/_Other/NYC/GST_h2.jpg
(a higher resolution version (http://www.unitonestudios.com/_Other/NYC/GST_h2L.jpg) is also available)

Anyone have any feelings on b&w conversion methods? With this shot I pulled one/two of the color channels (I think the blue and red) and then adjusted their opacity and levels. Did a little shadows & highlight to bring-up the ceiling a bit. Desaturating things can work OK, but often leaves the photos flat and without contrast. For example, Corvette yellow becomes bland in b&w compared to in color. Any tips of this? How do people feel about the selective b&w stuff? I know they can be really overdone, but sometimes I think the effect can be very nice:

http://www.unitonestudios.com/portfolios/offtrack/images/041016_20055x.jpg


-Todd...


Honestly, the selective color image does nothing for me. I guess it has it's place with vintage styled images or if you're going for that romantic ,art deco, handpainted style... this one just doesn't work for me.

I think with your Grand Central Station, I'd like to see blacker blacks and whiter whites. It's a little muted with a "grayscale" conversion feel.

There are a couple of filters out there that focus on filtering each of the channels selectively. I find selecting the right channel to be a moving target based on the scene and the origianl colors. Flesh tones can be a nightmare.

I agree with you regarding converting current race cars over to black & white. I think is a conditioning thing. Our eye, mind and psyche anticipate blazing colors when looking at a contporary race car. I mean what's the point of a Champion Audi R8 in black & white? If you'll notice, the Porsche is not as offensive because I think we've seen that silouette in black and white. If you can find shots with some traditional feel to them, they can work.. I think the Aston shot I did with the trees in the forground at Laguna works... and sometimes the Vette. But, there again, both of those cars aren't anything special in color anyway.

The trick is to get to a good vintage race or Goodwood and shoot 100% black and white... make your mindset think and your eyes see black & white.

My process involves several steps and filters... more than the black and white conversio, I soften focus, add misting, work on dodging the corners... and even adding ISO grain. My goal goes beyond the black and white part of it. I want the FILM black & white llook and the vintage feel of film.

It's a lot of fun.

JT

[John Thawley]

And since Nathan had to bring out the ladies....

http://www.fredmiranda.com/hosting-data//500/18921partygirl.jpg

[Matt Kowalchyk]

usually i "save" my bad color shots by making them black and white. usually anything that i shoot in iso1600 is made into black and white because if the grain.

http://matttakesphotos.googlepages.com/11th05.jpg

[Dennis Murray]

When I know I need a black and white for something (for example, our regional SCCA Newsletter) I usually will try and think black and white when shooting. Obviously, you lose your ability to use color to highlight your subject and you have to use contrast to bring it out.

I've started reading the wedding photographer forum over at Fred Miranda and have noticed some members have a formula to what they post. There's always something color, something b&w, and something selective color. It seems like they go to the latter two when they have otherwise run out of ideas of what to do with a photo.

A good photo is a good photo to start with....bad photos don't end up as good photos by going b&w.

[Kenneth May]

Nice shots Todd....and well..I like the selective color image sample you have shared....not to distracting.
KM

[Brian McCormick]

I usually use the gradient map adjustment for B/W. I can easily adjust the black color values to get more warmth or coolness. It all really depends on the photo. Sometimes if I am feeling adventurous I'll use Optik Verves Virtual Photographer to grab a unique B/W filter conversion which I can then use as a layer blend.
BMC

This one is straight gradient map black and white with heavy USM for contrast.
http://i.pbase.com/o4/17/538217/1/57267982.caddylightsbw.jpg

[John Thawley]

I usually use the gradient map adjustment for B/W. I can easily adjust the black color values to get more warmth or coolness. It all really depends on the photo. Sometimes if I am feeling adventurous I'll use Optik Verves Virtual Photographer to grab a unique B/W filter conversion which I can then use as a layer blend.
BMC

This one is straight gradient map black and white with heavy USM for contrast.
http://i.pbase.com/o4/17/538217/1/57267982.caddylightsbw.jpg

That is crazy.... I love it!!! :cool:

[Daniel Buck]

Even in digital, black and white is still more enjoyable to me over color!

I do alot of contrast blending to mine. I create a curves layer, and mask out the area I want to control, then I adjust the curves layer till I'm happy with that area, then I move on to the next area. Sometimes the mask is a subtle gradient, sometimes it's a specific area thats painted in. I also mix the different RGB channels around in the same way, blending them around.

I usually spend alot of time on my black and whites, it's alot of fun to push and pull the image exactly the way you want it, and photoshop offers so many different ways to do that!



http://www.404photography.net/photos/bw/26.jpg

http://www.404photography.net/photos/bw/20.jpg

http://www.danielbuck.net/wip/corral_canyon_04.jpg

http://www.danielbuck.net/wip/latigo_01.jpg

[Jason Jenkins]

I find that a lot of people do not know how to process a digital image into black and white. I am not saying that I do, but I know a few people who do it very well and maybe it's their selection of images or their post process, but I always enjoy looking at their photos.

Here's mine, I hated this picture in color but I converted it to B&W and fell in love with it.
http://www.jasonjenkins.com/gallery/albums/2006_0409/2006_0407_1730268.jpg

[Jason Jenkins]

Oh Daniel, I abosultely love that first image of the dragster. Hope you don't mind, but I will be copying that. :)

[Daniel Buck]

Oh Daniel, I abosultely love that first image of the dragster. Hope you don't mind, but I will be copying that. :)

don't mind at all :) it was actually a lucky shot as things were happening so fast I didn't have much time to concentrate (I'm a very slow shooter, and don't shoot drags very often). After flipping through all of the images that day, this one stuck out as the best, and next time I go I'm going to try to capture a few more good perfect side shots that crop out just one or two features of the cars. I can't honestly say I enjoyed shooting at the strip, but some of the images turned out real well, and I'm glad I went!

I guess that just attests to the quote I heard somewhere "Photographs never turn out the way I want them to, they are either better or worse than I expected" :D haha!

[Erik Anderson]

I've been working on my B&W conversion skills using multiple adjustment layers. Although not a B&W, I thought this image lended itself to a sepia toning. This was one of two frames that I was able to fire off before the shot was blocked (it was at a car show, early in the morning and cars we being placed). I would like to eliminate the highlights on the hood and windshield and improve the quality of the toning, but overall, I think it fits well with the subject. Thoughts?

http://www.erikandersondesigns.com/images/2006/samples/0715-16-06/071406-FordFest-04.jpg

[Jeff Kapic]

I haven't done much converting, but this one felt right to me. I think it helped because the bike is mostly black and white to begin with.

http://www.paradigmimages.com/photos/70881921-M.jpg

[Mark Delbrueck]

Daniel Buck has some of the greatest BW work I've seen in a while. Hopefully we can extract a short tutorial from him in the future :D

[Daniel Buck]

Daniel Buck has some of the greatest BW work I've seen in a while. Hopefully we can extract a short tutorial from him in the future :D

Thanks :) Maybe if I have some time this weekend I can throw together a general techique guide or something. I use alot of different techniques, even within just one image.