Black and white conversion.

[Doc William]

Hey gang,
I am new to the group and have had a little time to snake through some of the galleries that the membership has provided. I've seen some great B&W work. My question is regarding black and white conversion:

Are most of you using the B&W function within the camera or are you converting your RGB images within Photoshop via Channel Mixer or some of the 3rd party programs that are out there (Fred Miranda, Image Factory, etc.)?
In every other camera I have owned (1D Mark II D, for example) absolutely everyone says DO NOT use the in camera conversion.

I thank you in advance for your comments.
(Also, thanks Sean R. for referring me to this group.)

Cheers,
bill

 

[krimple]

I took a page from Sean when I read his luminous-landscape review--if you want to think black and white and visualize as such, shoot in RAW with the B&W mode set, and when you preview the thumbnails in Epson's RAW converter, you'll see B&W by default.

My favorite mechanisms, in order:

1. Adobe Channel Mixer
2. Epson RAW Converter
3. Stealing a channel from Photoshop directly as a new image
4. Fred Miranda's B&W Workflow Pro. I'm not using it much because it's a bit cumbersome, but it does give good results.

Ken

 

[krimple]

Also, view this URL:

http://www.adobe.com/tips/phs8colorbw/main.html

A very interesting take on the whole B&W conversion process from Adobe. I've just tried it in Photoshop CS-2 (trial) and it works great. Will also work in earlier versions.

Ken

 

[Sean Reid]

I use a variety of processes with other digital cameras but with the R-D1 I convert to B&W from RAW in PhotoRAW. That program gives a beautiful black and white interpretation. Most of my R-D1 work is in B&W unless it needs to be otherwise for commercial clients.

Sean

 

[Sean Reid]

And...you're quite welcome doc and welcome to the RFF.

Sean

 

[Doc William]

Thanks Ken and Sean,

Just tried Photo RAW Plug-in (I'm a Mac guy). Boy some of your posts aren't kidding. The edge enhance is worth the price of admission.

Sean: I use the Pixel Genius sharpening as well and was a little disappointed with the result (works great with my Mark II). I tried using a High Pass Filter in the Creative Sharpen and I got a lot more pop.

I typically use Channel Mixer (ala, the Greg Gorman technique), but I would like to compare the two on the same image. I also, have the Image Factory program that a lot of people rave about, but all the settings relate to processing in the chemical darkroom which I have no experience in. Their manual is about a paragraph when it should be at least 10 pages.

Finally, at the NAPP convention, Vincent Versace unveiled his technique (about 15 pages and available at the NAPP site), but there just aren't enough hours in the day, mang.

Then we can start talking RIPPs, fogetaboutit........ 🙄
Cheers!