Hey BW-group!

 

I would be interested in how go on about shooting BW using a digital camera! I guess most people shoot in color and then convert the images to black and white in post-processing, but which software are you using to adjust what and why?

I know Nik Silver Efex is quite popular, but i do not have it. I do all my post-processing using photoshop and convert images to BW using the channel mixer. I then maybe adjust contrast, brightness and maybe the blacks, thats it.

I have tried to just set the camera to BW with different models, but was never really happy with the results, except with my Ricoh GXR, which delivers great BW .jpgs right out of the camera...

Try gradient maps in PS, I used that approach for a long time before I got Nik. But as you say, Nik is quite popular and much more affordable now that Google owns it.

 

Hi Lorenzo

 

This is very good and the fundamental question in this group...

 

Well, I'll try to write you some of my opinions and my experiences..

 

I am one of those who shoot only in color and then I convert my images in my computer. The only reason is that I do not trust my camera.., I do not believe that it would realize it better than me..:)

I shoot only to RAW files and this is why I use only LR5 to develop these.

 

In most of my cases I convert to B&W just in LR after a single click on B&W tab.

This step converts my color picture, but I am never satisfied with such a result. I always play with some brightness, contrast and adjust small amount of Black and always with a tone curve Higlights-lights-darks-shadows. But the most important for me is to adjust selectively each color canal. I never convert my pictures to B&W without doing these steps...never...

Nik SE is also very useful, it gives you an opportunity to choose between many of B&W conversion presets. But I do not use it, respectively I never use any presets because I consider each picture as an original and a specific treatment is needed to it...

There are a few very useful tools in Nik SE.., but I sometimes I use Nik Hdr tone mapping before uploading my image to Silver efex. Tone mapping is appropriate in many cases and it adds some more "punch" to the image... In Silver Efex you can manually change brightness in highlights, midtones and shadows, to change contrast especially by amplifying blacks and whites and very useful tool here is soft contrast.. You can add "more" structure or less ..as you want...

Very useful is a selective adjustment tool..I love it..You can do any local changes in brightness, contrast, structure and so on.. You can also choose from different types of films to create a film look of your image..

Or.., as I wrote above just to choose B&W presets from browser there...

Hope my hints will help.

 

Feel free to ask more... I am pretty sure that other members convert their images other way and I hope they would like to share their own methods with us..

 

Peter

Hi everyone I too do the same i.e converting the coloured to BW but i never get the desired result. As you guys have mentioned about Nik Silver Efex and it is a great software.But the problem with me is this is only for Windows and Mac. As i have Linux Ubuntu as my OS(open source),can you guys tell me any good converting software for Linux Ubuntu??

Recently, I discovered Lightzone, a RAW converter which is on the market since 2005 (about) and is now freeware in version 4. I posted about that in "Free Standalone Software." Lightzone has excellent B&W conversion tools and styles that may (after some learning curve) come close to Silver Efex Pro2.

http://lightzoneproject.org/

http://lightzone.helpmax.net/

I use gradient maps in Photoshop. In CS6, I discovered that there is a "photographic toning" set that has some beautiful monochromatic gradients that you can alter to your liking.

 

I've read about that too. If you put a curves adjustment layer under the gradient map, then you have individual color channel adjustments you can see though the gradient effect. Gives you similar controls to Nik.