Conversions

[Bill Pierce]

My professional work is almost always in color, and my personal work is almost always in black-and-white. That means, since going digital, that I’ve converted a lot of color raw files to black-and-white. Over the years I’ve used specialty tools like Silver Efex and a variety of tools that are built in to primary editing tools like Lightroom and Capture One. But there is one very simple tool I use a lot that seems to be somewhere between overlooked and unknown. I’ve gotten several questions that essentially say, “How do you convert to black-and-white?” That’s sort of like asking, “How do you untie the Gordian knot?” But here’s one quick, super simple, one-step way that seems to be totally neglected - which is amazing considering that it does an excellent job very quickly with most images.

Do the basic adjustments to a color raw file in PhotoShop. (You can also adjust a raw file in Lightroom and import it into PhotoShop or bring a tif in from a different program.) Open the gradient tool and click on the first b&w option in the basics folder. THAT’S IT. One click and a color image is converted with rich lower tones that often take a little fiddling or can even be the weak spot of other conversion techniques. Sometimes I think this technique is neglected because people think something this simple can’t be as good as something complicated and time consuming. It was certainly something that I was initially guilty of. Those of you who need to convert digital images to b&w, try it out and let me know what you think.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Thanks, will give that a shot. Always looking for something better.

 

[Schuter]

Thank you, Mr. Pierce. That's why I come here.


I think that is going to save me some time. I just used your suggestion to reprocess a couple of recent photos and found that it got me closer to my finished images with a lot less work. I followed it up with a little adjustment in Levels while watching the histogram, and I was nearly there.

 

[robert blu]

I use the SEP plug in for LR. Sometimes use a preset, sometimes I do not.

But this is only the first step, thanthere are all the small adjustements I used to do in the wet darkroom many years ago, a little bit of dodging here, some more comntrast on this side, etc etc.

In addition I think different photos require different process: for a lanscape you probably want to maximize all the details and for a portrait you prefer a softer look. Of course I?0m simplifying it here.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I don't use Photoshop. It has utterly non user friendly everything. I use Lightroom.
It has BW button and all bunch of else tools, adjustments to get BW from color RAW, TIFF, etc.

 

[Bill Clark]

It has utterly non user friendly everything.

I felt the same way at the beginning of my use of Photoshop.

Photoshop has a learning curve, for some it’s steep, but the program lets the photographer decide how to accomplish what s(he) desires. For every desired end result, sometimes there are many options to choose the path on how to get there.

This thing called actions can help. Maybe check that out if you’re interested. Also there are add on programs that can make working with Photoshop easier.

What helped me the most is that I’ve found Photoshop is all about layers and blending. Once I had that figured out, it was like I set sail and the ship left port, out sailing!

There are several ways to make black and white files using either ACR (Bridge in Photoshop) and/or Photoshop itself. One of the lady photographers that worked with me had an Epson printer and could make beautiful black and white prints using water color paper.

 

[Dogman]

I don't use Photoshop. It has utterly non user friendly everything. I use Lightroom.
It has BW button and all bunch of else tools, adjustments to get BW from color RAW, TIFF, etc.

Agreed.

I don't even like PS Elements.

 

[View Range]

The Lightroom Develop module is the same as Adobe Camera Raw; it is the same software with a little different interface. With the latest ACR version the differences are very minimal. Camera Raw comes up when a raw file is opened, when a jpeg is processed using "open in Camera Raw", or when Filter/Camera Raw is selected. If you can use Develop, you can use Photoshop; the rest of the stuff in Photoshop is additional capability which can be learned over time.

 

[RichC]

What about in-camera conversions? Anyone use an electronic viewfinder (EVF) camera with the view set to B&W?

I see the world in colour and learnt photography by taking only colour images, so never learnt to see B&W. Understanding how colours and tones appear in B&W is of course essential, as what works in colour may fail utterly in shades of grey...

Anyway, I now use the Sony A7R series, and have used B&W for some recent projects because with the EVF set to B&W, I can actually see the world in B&W rather than (fail!) to imagine it.

Mind you, unless you use Sony's own clunky raw software, the photos revert to colour in, say, Lightroom! I use Capture One, and spent some hours tweaking a conversion recipe to match the Sony's EVF. I got close enough to be happy...

 

[rhl-oregon]

What about in-camera conversions? Anyone use an electronic viewfinder (EVF) camera with the view set to B&W...?

Yes—and I imagine many other digital BW photographers use a variant of this. I have done so for as long as my in-camera software permitted a BW view on the screen and/or EVF (about 10 years). M43, Ricoh GR/GXR, Fuji X, Sigma Merrill, Sony A7x....

In my case, it certainly made shooting a film camera loaded with FP4 (TM400, etc.) more predictable and consistent. And conversely, has tempered any tendency to ISO-giddiness so that I have however gradually come to treat base ISO in digital as a a fundamental good—rather than the equivalent of training wheels on a road bike or skiing the bunny slope in Aspen.

I was not schooled/mentored in film photography; my pursuit of the craft shifted from the dilatory to the daily/devoted only in my later 50s; access to the darkroom arts was spotty for financial/career/family/housing reasons: intuitively at the time, and in the clarity of hindsight, treating my digital camera as a field advisor in BW exposure was a good thing.

My main camera is now an M10 Monochrom. The optical rangefinder doesn’t filter chroma phenomena, the Typ 020 EVF does—and displays something close to the result I’ll finalize in Lightroom. Yet in my post-cataract-surgery world, rangefinder focus is a supreme good (at least up to f2 and in decent light).

Although this surely won’t be the case for everyone in this thread or at RFF, it simplifies my LR workflow (and makes shooting Foma 200 in a 1937 Ikonta 520 better informed than it used to be—like a blind man trying to register an elephant’s ghost-plasma on emulsion).

Digital cameras that afford BW EVF also typically feature a JPG sidecar file option, and these can be set as BW. This isn’t news to y’all, I’’m sure, but can still be useful for shooting practice or an A/B reference tool in converting RAW color into tones.

 

[Dogman]

I came to digital photography in 2007 after 35+ years of film photography and darkroom work. By 2008 I was 100% digital. I shot Raw and processed in whatever software came with the camera in use. Eventually I came to Lightroom and did my processing there. I played with several tricks but never saw any particular reason to not just click the "Black & White" button when developing as a mono image.

One thing the COVID fiasco has done for me is to get me to experiment with JPEGs. After years of Raw shooting and converting to B&W in LR, I'm a little amazed at the quality of the simple JPEG mono file. I still muddle with the files in LR because...well, that's how I've always done it. Considering how my photos will be used in the end--prints, none larger than 12x18 inches or a low rez online posts--the simplicity is very appropriate. Besides, at this point in my life I'm lazy and I don't have that much time left to use up diddling unnecessarily with my pictures.

 

[Darthfeeble]

A long time ago I saw an article that offered this solution: Clarity up all the way, Saturation down all the way. That's all. Does a very good job.

 

[DwF]

Thank you Bill

Thank you Bill

I just pulled this file at random to try your suggestion. It is an image that had such vibrant color,I never considered it for a conversion to B&W. The gradient tool yielded good shadow detail and a very easy to work with file!

Thank you for the tip

David

 

[Corran]

Adjusting colors individually in the HSL panel while previewing in b&w in your RAW editor of choice gives you plenty of options to adjust tones and tonal relationships, as if you have an infinitely-variable color filter post-exposure.

Cranking clarity - yeowch! The faux-HDR look from exaggerated fake micro-contrast is a big no from me personally.