Your B&W digital workflow...
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C_R
Established
There is no universal workflow, depends on the color photo. But Silver Efex is my first choice and often I am very satisfied with the result.
When you have the time: because LAB color does not alter contrast, try to get a good starting point in LAB color mode (BTW, Silver Efex uses LAB color, too ). A good idea is to intensify color variation in LAB mode first, and then convert to B+W (channel mixer, channel calculations, PS actions, or Silver Efex, for example).
Example for the LAB workflow:
Carsten
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38068178@N08/sets/
When you have the time: because LAB color does not alter contrast, try to get a good starting point in LAB color mode (BTW, Silver Efex uses LAB color, too ). A good idea is to intensify color variation in LAB mode first, and then convert to B+W (channel mixer, channel calculations, PS actions, or Silver Efex, for example).
Example for the LAB workflow:
Carsten
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38068178@N08/sets/
Last edited:
T
Todd.Hanz
Guest
Thanks for all the responses, I'm on the road right now (replying from my phone) but the examples shown look outstanding! I will check them when I get home.
Todd
Todd
Florian1234
it's just hide and seek
To kind of refresh this topic, let me first tell you what I usually do in my workflow and then ask stuff about my obvious "problems".
Here's what I do: I scan the e.g. Tri-X negative in Vuescan set to b&w 16bit (input and output of course) to let it do a dng file. This dng file I open in Lightroom 2 and mostly just adjust a bit the black point and maybe if I metered wrongly I adjust the exposure. That's it.
Now, I have some problems with both my b&w and my color photos after I let Lightroom 2 give out a jpg of the image from dng. They mostly look like there's some grey foil put over the image. In b&w no real whites somehow and in color it all looks kind of greyish. In addition I have to say that I work on a notebook computer from Asus without a calibrated screen.
Do you maybe have time and knowledge to have a look on my flickr stream and tell me what I'm doing wrong? By not having a "real" histogram like in the Epson scanner software I feel I'm set to accept whatever Vuescan gives me and LR still is kind of a mystic thing, too.
Here's what I do: I scan the e.g. Tri-X negative in Vuescan set to b&w 16bit (input and output of course) to let it do a dng file. This dng file I open in Lightroom 2 and mostly just adjust a bit the black point and maybe if I metered wrongly I adjust the exposure. That's it.
Now, I have some problems with both my b&w and my color photos after I let Lightroom 2 give out a jpg of the image from dng. They mostly look like there's some grey foil put over the image. In b&w no real whites somehow and in color it all looks kind of greyish. In addition I have to say that I work on a notebook computer from Asus without a calibrated screen.
Do you maybe have time and knowledge to have a look on my flickr stream and tell me what I'm doing wrong? By not having a "real" histogram like in the Epson scanner software I feel I'm set to accept whatever Vuescan gives me and LR still is kind of a mystic thing, too.
kevinparis
Established
not a complete solution - but this is my basic quick b/w workflow using only Aperture.
http://vimeo.com/13075833
cheers
http://vimeo.com/13075833
cheers
P
Peter S
Guest
Florian,
You need to callibrate your monitor. If you do not want to spend money on a spectrometer then at least do a visual callibration (anything better than nothing).
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html gives a good explanation and recommends (assuming you are on Windows) a free tool called Quickgamma for visual callibration. www.quickgamma.de
Vuescan: by the sound if it you are getting flat low contrast scans which is exactly what you want. The bite you bring back in post processing. Below links give a good idea of how you can set Vuescan to get as much information out of your negative as possible. Some of us even develop our negatives to a lower contrast to make it easier to scan them.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15304
http://www.flickr.com/groups/ishootfilm/discuss/72157608204093047/
Lightroom, if you are not happy with whites and blacks you may not be setting black/white points correctly. There are enough Lightroom tutorials to be found with a quick search on the internet and otherwise I suggest Martin Evening’s book on Lightroom. Use clarity slider for midtone contrast.
Good luck
You need to callibrate your monitor. If you do not want to spend money on a spectrometer then at least do a visual callibration (anything better than nothing).
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html gives a good explanation and recommends (assuming you are on Windows) a free tool called Quickgamma for visual callibration. www.quickgamma.de
Vuescan: by the sound if it you are getting flat low contrast scans which is exactly what you want. The bite you bring back in post processing. Below links give a good idea of how you can set Vuescan to get as much information out of your negative as possible. Some of us even develop our negatives to a lower contrast to make it easier to scan them.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15304
http://www.flickr.com/groups/ishootfilm/discuss/72157608204093047/
Lightroom, if you are not happy with whites and blacks you may not be setting black/white points correctly. There are enough Lightroom tutorials to be found with a quick search on the internet and otherwise I suggest Martin Evening’s book on Lightroom. Use clarity slider for midtone contrast.
Good luck
lynnb
Veteran
My procedures vary a bit as I tend to fly by the seat of my pants - when I take a photo I often have a good idea of what end result I want so it's a matter of how do I get there.
1. film - scan and save as TIFF; digital - import direct into LR2.7
2. if the original is colour I have a look at Grayscale in LR Develop module to get an idea of how a no frills conversion might look. This is just to evaluate the photo. I might also play around with the Point Curve and Tone Curve, as well as Blacks and Contrast at the same time. Then I reset to colour and try to give myself as much information to play with in CS4 for the actual conversion.
3. Open in CS4 with LR adjustments. Create a duplicate background layer and spot, remove blemishes, general touchup. Merge with background.
4. Create duplicate background layer and select AutoTone (and sometimes Auto Colour and Auto Contrast) to see what CS4 does. If this looks promising I may play with the transparency of this layer.
5. Create Black and White adjustment layer and play around with the colour channels to give the b+w colour filter effects I want. Before CS4 I used Channel Mixer for the same purpose.
5a. Take a snapshot as insurance
6. Create a Levels adjustment layer and play around with the tone curve. Vary the layer transparency to get the tonal effect I'm after
7. Create a Curves adjustment layer and play with the tone curve for either the whole image or just part of it. If part, create a layer mask and only permit the changes for the desired part of the image to be visible. I can end up with several active Curves layers, each one adjusting the tone for a different part of the image. Sometimes different Curves layers can be merged.
7a. Take another snapshot if I remember.
8. Adjust the layers using brush transparency on each layer mask as well as layer transparency until I'm happy with the results
9. Make another cup of tea and save the Photoshop file, then turn each layer's visibility on and off to evaluate whether I've achieved what I want and whether more tweaking is necessary
10. Flatten and save as TIFF.
12. Resize to output size
13. Fine detail sharpening by eye, usually start with USM Amount=200, Radius=0.2 to 0.8, Threshhold=0. What I look for is the point just before sharpening artefacts become visible in a print.
14. Contrast sharpening by eye, start with Amount=15, Radius=40, Threshhold=0
15. Realise that a straight auto conversion in LR would have been better all along.
I'll second that recommendation for Martin Evening's books on LR and Photoshop.
1. film - scan and save as TIFF; digital - import direct into LR2.7
2. if the original is colour I have a look at Grayscale in LR Develop module to get an idea of how a no frills conversion might look. This is just to evaluate the photo. I might also play around with the Point Curve and Tone Curve, as well as Blacks and Contrast at the same time. Then I reset to colour and try to give myself as much information to play with in CS4 for the actual conversion.
3. Open in CS4 with LR adjustments. Create a duplicate background layer and spot, remove blemishes, general touchup. Merge with background.
4. Create duplicate background layer and select AutoTone (and sometimes Auto Colour and Auto Contrast) to see what CS4 does. If this looks promising I may play with the transparency of this layer.
5. Create Black and White adjustment layer and play around with the colour channels to give the b+w colour filter effects I want. Before CS4 I used Channel Mixer for the same purpose.
5a. Take a snapshot as insurance
6. Create a Levels adjustment layer and play around with the tone curve. Vary the layer transparency to get the tonal effect I'm after
7. Create a Curves adjustment layer and play with the tone curve for either the whole image or just part of it. If part, create a layer mask and only permit the changes for the desired part of the image to be visible. I can end up with several active Curves layers, each one adjusting the tone for a different part of the image. Sometimes different Curves layers can be merged.
7a. Take another snapshot if I remember.
8. Adjust the layers using brush transparency on each layer mask as well as layer transparency until I'm happy with the results
9. Make another cup of tea and save the Photoshop file, then turn each layer's visibility on and off to evaluate whether I've achieved what I want and whether more tweaking is necessary
10. Flatten and save as TIFF.
12. Resize to output size
13. Fine detail sharpening by eye, usually start with USM Amount=200, Radius=0.2 to 0.8, Threshhold=0. What I look for is the point just before sharpening artefacts become visible in a print.
14. Contrast sharpening by eye, start with Amount=15, Radius=40, Threshhold=0
15. Realise that a straight auto conversion in LR would have been better all along.
I'll second that recommendation for Martin Evening's books on LR and Photoshop.
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