A Couple of BW Conversions

[dazedgonebye]

Being too lazy to soup my own b&w, I get my color film done at the mini-lab, scan then do conversions.
I'm a channel mixer fan. Any other methods that you like better?

(All on Kodak 400UC)

Here are a couple of recent color shots and the conversions.

 

[f8&go]

Very nice, happy to see a
little Sonoran desert today.
Thanks

 

[espressogeek]

Alien Skin exposure. I LOVE that program.

 

[dazedgonebye]

I've downloaded the Alien Skin product. It seems most focused on making digital look like film.
It might be interesting to see how well the grain simulation fools folks around here...some sort of test maybe.

 

[Dougg]

Steve, interesting. I like the B&W versions better than the original color, especially true for the second one. Very nice!

 

[350D_user]

I'm also a channel mixer fan as well, although GIMP allows scripting so most of my b+w conversions are really just done from a script.

As for tinting, GIMP has a function called "Sample colourise". Basically, it lifts the colour off one image and applies it to another. This only works on b+w photos though.

 

[Nachkebia]

You can always use XP2 😀

 

[MCTuomey]

Steve, I like these a lot. Very well done!

I want to try the Alien Skin product soon. At Wim de Nies suggestion, i'm trialing ConverttoBW now. It seems to do a particularly nice job on skin tones, where it hold local contrast quite well. It's also "dummy" fast to use for the quality of the conversion.

 

[wdenies]

See the thread "B&W conversion revisted"in the Photoshop-darkroom-film forum.

Wim

 

[charjohncarter]

At the moment I'm trying Adobe Lightroom. The 'channel mixer' is very, very good. Don't use it because you won't go back to PS. I make my own presets in Lightroom. There auto is good, but try for a Tri-X effect: R38,Y82,G63,C72,B68,M90. I also have presets for T-Max, FP4, and a few others if you are interested. I then export the file to PS and use USM set at AMT 20, RADIUS 50, THRESHOLD 0. This isn't for sharpening, but it is used if the exported file looks a little flat. It adds some snap. Another way to snap a photo is to use the diffuse glow effect. Use very little of it only in the 245 to 250 range. Then adjust the intensity and the brightness.