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Black and White Conversions
Everything should be as simple as converting colour images to black and white, right? Open the image in PhotoShop or PaintShopPro or any other editor, click Image/Convert to Black and White (or whatever your particular editor says) and there it is: a beautiful monochrome image! Pity it isn't that easy. Not that it doesn't work; it just doesn't work very well. If you have any doubts, just look at the plethora of stand-alone products and third party plug-ins for PSP and PS that promise to do this simple job for you. And look at how much people are willing to pay for them! Have a look at Harry's Filters and follow some of the links to filter makers and you will soon realise what a task making an acceptable monochrome must be. A lot comes down to your personal expectations, of course. Some people have higher standards than others, but if you have ever handled a professionally developed print, dodged, burned, spotted, printed on the appropriate quality paper, you cannot help but be disappointed by one-click B&W images output on a home or office ink jet. This Intel won't go into printing: that is for another post. Instead it focus on producing a black and white image worth printing. There are many approaches, but we will look at just two: using a built in or add on filter, and using the channels method. Filters are sets of instructions programmed to produce particular effects. Various editors place them in different menu groups, so you may have to use your manual or "help" feature to find them if they don't appear under either the Effects or Image menus. Open an image with a good tonal range. Common sense says you should save any image you are going to work on under a different name to protect the original (although PSP does that automatically). That done, make any corrections to levels, noise, colour, brightness and contrast that you want to before you make the conversion to monochrome, but don't sharpen the image. Sharpening should always be the last operation you do. With the image looking as good as possible, go the menu where you located your filters and scroll down to Black and White Film (in PSP) or the equivalent in PS. Apply the various options and close the dialogue. The results will surprise you if you are used to the bland results from Image/convert. PSP also offers a range of monochrome options under Aged Film effects, letting you present your photos as if processed as daguerreotypes, Selenium tinted, box camera and a dozen other film styles. For a more traditional, hands on approach to making a quality black and white image from a colour file, try the Pros. Method. Start as above with the best image you can achieve: black and white conversion doesn't make good pictures out of junk: it emphasises certain qualities that were already present, but it can't put them there if they were absent. With the image prepared (and a copy saved) go to the Adjustment menu and choose Color / Channel Mixer. A dialogue box will open, showing sliders for the Red, Green and Blue channels. The Red channel will be selected as the output channel, and a check box on the bottom left will be ticked, making the image monochrome. Tick it if it isn't already done. Adjust the sliders, starting with the Red, using the preview to get the balance as you like it. Make sure that the value of the three sliders add up to about 100 before you close the dialogue and save the image. Simple and very effective!
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http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/harrysfilters/index.htm
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This intel was contributed by David Rich
David Rich
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May, 2012
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