When do you use B&W, when do you use color?

[bmattock]

Oscar,

In my experience, developers all do pretty much the same thing. I'd say find one you like and stick to it. I like Kodak D-76, but that's just me. B&W processing at home is dead easy, and you only need a couple of things to do it. I do my own B&W processing, and then scan the negatives. I don't have a darkroom, no enlarger, just process the negs and scan them.

It's a lot of fun, I'd encourage everyone to try it!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[taffer]

Thanks for the advice Bill ! I thought that as I'm direclty scanning negs and slides too, processing b&w at home would be the next logic step.

Do you use that "stopper" chemical to stop the action from the developer or simply wash negatives inside the tank with water during more time ? I remember reading about both methods when looking for info about it some time ago.

It's some kind of "i wish i had" thing, as I couldn't get into the photo lab group when I was in high school.

Best !

Oscar

 

[bmattock]

Oskar,

I use stop bath on my negs, but I'm told that you really don't have to. Oh well. I suspect that it does no harm, anyway. The whole thing is so simple to do that everyone should try it - not very expensive if you're just processing your own negatives, too!

My favorite B&W film so far is Ilford Delta 100. I am told that Fuji Neopan Acros 100 is pretty good too, but haven't tried it yet.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[rover]

Oscar, make the jump, I just did. Actually I have to wait for just a couple items I ordered today from B&H because my local pro shop didn't have them. I of course went overboard and spent too much money, but you can get started for a very reasonable price.

I also ran into the Dean of the School of Art at a local university here and had a nice conversation with him. An avid amature photographer, and rangefinder fan.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Flash Back. In college (late '70s) I shot nothing but Panatomic-x developed in Microdol and shot with an F2a or old Photomic F with a 55mm F3.5 Micro-Nikkor, 105mm F2.5, and 24 F2.8. I still have the cameras and the 105. Talk about sharp (for 35mm).

The 24 got traded off 10 years ago with an N8008 28~85 for an S4 with 5cm f1.4, 10.5cm, and 3.5cm. My second interchangeable lens RF, after the IIIf.

 

[GeneW]

Do you use that "stopper" chemical to stop the action from the developer or simply wash negatives inside the tank with water during more time ? I remember reading about both methods when looking for info about it some time ago.

Doesn't do any harm to use stop bath but I only use water between dev and fixer. However I *do* use a hypo clearing agent after fixing to remove any residual fixer. Then a good wash and the negs are archival in quality if they're stored in good conditions in acid-free sleeves or sheets.

Gene

 

[taffer]

Hey guys, thanks a lot ! You've really helped to convince me! In fact I remember that a friend from that high school photo lab offered some time ago to pass his developing tank and chemicals to me, as he wasn't using them anymore.

Bill, Delta 100 is my favorite 35mm b&w film to the date too! I tried Acros 100 for my first Lubitel roll. Not bad but probably not a real test of that film due to my poor knowledge of the camera back then.

Will keep you informed when I finally take the path.

Best !

Oscar

 

[Dave]

This is an interesting topic.

BW can be powerful, but sometimes it seems like a cheap way to make a picture "artsy". It's hard to say though.

 

[rpsawin]

I wish I could remember the photographer who made the statement that: "I use color to show you something and B&W to tell you something".

I think that says it best for me.

Bob

 

[GeneW]

Nice quotation, Bob. One other factor, for me at least -- I'm a different photographer when I'm shooting B&W than when I'm shooting colour. I see things differently and I think that alerts me to visual possibilities I'd pass over when I'm concentrating on colour. B&W was my first love in photography and I keep coming back to it. I like the photographic space it puts me in.

Gene

 

[JohnL]

Just a general comment about switching to B&W from color using Photoshop or some other image editor ...
If you only desaturate you may not get the best possible blend of the three color channels. In fact, most of the useful B&W info is usually in the green channel, although this depends on subject of course.
You get different contrast / color relationships in the 3 color channels and in the luminosity channel. It can sometimes be interesting / worthwhile even making a blend of 2 or more different channels with layers.
I haven't done this much - I don't do B&W except occasionally - so I'm no expert, but its not difficult. I have used this most when restoring of B&W / sepia family photos that have yellowed, faded and fungus blotches on them. In these, the blue channel sometimes yields the best image to start from.
Just my 2 cents, John

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Very useful 2 cents, John. Thanks!

Only, if you're not too bent on desaturation... what would you suggest exactly? Where does one find the luminosity channel? My PS knowledge is pretty rudimentary, and I was once adviced to scan b&W negs in color, and then desaturate instead of switching information (setting the file in grayscale).

Thanks again! 😀

 

[mothra]

In photoshop 7, the way I do it is to create a new adjustment layer from the little layers window, and one of the options is "Channel Mixer". You then get red, green, and blue sliders, and if you check the "monochrome" checkbox in the lower left, your image becomes B&W.

You can also get the Channel Mixer through Image->Adjustments->Channel Mixer. (But I prefer the adjustment layer method -- easier to change later.)

After I'm done with that, I usually use the curves to bump up the contrast a little, because I find most colour images converted to B&W are a little too flat.

 

[GeneW]

I mainly use Channel Mixer, as Mothra indicates, on a layer. Yesterday I came across this very interesting, and more elaborate method of B&W conversion by Russell Brown:
http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html

Click to the 2nd page (More Tips) and it's called Seeing in B&W. It's a QuickTime video so you need QuickTime installed (free plugin from Adobe). He's got a lot of other good tutorials on his site as well, and the videos make them easy to grasp and understand.

Gene

 

[JohnL]

Myself I use PS Elements 2 plus the Hidden Power tools that come with Richard Lynch's book. Check this site:

http://www.hiddenelements.com/

This gives me a one-click separation into color channels. There must be something similar in PS7 etc.
You can get the luminosity channel out of the HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) mode, as I remember.

HTH, John

 

[JohnL]

Very useful 2 cents, John. Thanks!

<snip> and I was once adviced to scan b&W negs in color, and then desaturate instead of switching information (setting the file in grayscale).

Thanks again! 😀

I'd say that's good advice. Work from a copy of the original RGB image, then you can always recover if you go wrong (which I do frequently 😡 )
Desaturating is one route to one possible BW result, but the others I mentioned often give a better color rendition in grayscale. All of them give a grayscale. The point is there is a choice. Or did I not understand the question?
John