Gull, To BW

Theoretical_Photographer · 27th Feb 2006, 01:19 AM

Had a go on BW conversion using Adobe channel mixer and layer masks to pick out detail. Would like feed back on technical qualities, not so much the shot its self

Shot was taken I raw giving 12bit depth

djspinnet · 27th Feb 2006, 04:42 PM

Somehow digital conversion doesn't quite look the same anymore, namely some loss of detail or distortion of detail. You might want to experiment more with the channel masks to bring out the yellow ring detail around the eye, it seems lost in the conversion, whereas a less prominent feature, the slight yellow iris, was accentuated against the grey eyes, so the eye looks a tad bit weird to me.

Also... there are some digital artifacts, I notice? Was the image saved on low compression or.. ?

Jeremy · 27th Feb 2006, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djspinnet

Somehow digital conversion doesn't quite look the same anymore, namely some loss of detail or distortion of detail. You might want to experiment more with the channel masks to bring out the yellow ring detail around the eye, it seems lost in the conversion, whereas a less prominent feature, the slight yellow iris, was accentuated against the grey eyes, so the eye looks a tad bit weird to me.

Also... there are some digital artifacts, I notice? Was the image saved on low compression or.. ?

UHH! Please do teach cause my B&W totally sucks.

djspinnet · 27th Feb 2006, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeremy

UHH! Please do teach cause my B&W totally sucks.

Oops my bad, I just realized inside my previous post I mistakenly wrote channel mixer as channel masks

But well, conversion.. channel mixer lor!

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer, then check the Monochrome checkbox (this is in PS CS2, should be more or less same on lower versions too). Play with the sliders till you're satisfied.

Usually the conversion is pretty cool.. one thing NOT to do is to convert colour mode to grayscale. But sometimes the channel mixer screws some minor details, so you need layer adjustments, for instance, like accentuating or lightening some details, I'll take the gull's eye for example..

create new overlay layer, fill with 50% gray, and then use the dodge tool to lighten the yellow ring around the eye to bring the colour out.

Also, the gull is white, but the conversion made it rather greyish, so I'd play with the channel mixer first to see that the white remains white, or else, use a curve correction layer to whiten the gull's fur, and then burn the ring around the eye (yellow is darker than white)

After all, a B&W film still shoots white as white and not grey

This might not be *the* solution but that's my method, so if anyone's got a better method to share... go ahead, I'd like to learn too

Jeremy · 28th Feb 2006, 12:52 AM

Jinny, thanks for the pointers and I just found out all this while I didn't set a white point for my B&W conversion. By the way, the overlay layer can be used as a selective brightening/darkerning tool as well.

Theoretical_Photographer: Very sorry I took your photo and edited it.

Theoretical_Photographer · 28th Feb 2006, 03:11 AM

Its fine, images are only in preview size

Thanks for the info dj

djspinnet · 28th Feb 2006, 06:08 PM

Jeremy: wow, that's a good conversion

Tehoretical_Photographer: no probs

Jeremy · 28th Feb 2006, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djspinnet

Jeremy: wow, that's a good conversion

Are you even serious with the WOW expression? I think what I've done wrong all this while is not setting a white/black reference point as pointed out by you in your earlier post.

djspinnet · 28th Feb 2006, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeremy

Are you even serious with the WOW expression? I think what I've done wrong all this while is not setting a white/black reference point as pointed out by you in your earlier post.

Haha, well, not until that WOW - could be better, but wow in this thread's context, as in, in comparison with TP's earlier attempt (Sorry TP, no offense meant!

)

Theoretical_Photographer · 28th Feb 2006, 10:49 PM

Nah, its fine. I don’t think I really understand BW, even read a tutorial on it lol

27th Feb 2006, 04:42 PM	#2 (permalink)
djspinnet Active Join Date: 3 Jun 2005 Posts: 591 Reputation: 583 Rep Power: 9	Somehow digital conversion doesn't quite look the same anymore, namely some loss of detail or distortion of detail. You might want to experiment more with the channel masks to bring out the yellow ring detail around the eye, it seems lost in the conversion, whereas a less prominent feature, the slight yellow iris, was accentuated against the grey eyes, so the eye looks a tad bit weird to me. Also... there are some digital artifacts, I notice? Was the image saved on low compression or.. ? __________________ Jinny Wong djspinnet.org

28th Feb 2006, 03:11 AM	#6 (permalink)
Theoretical_Photographer I'm a regular Join Date: 9 Mar 2004 Posts: 328 Reputation: 388 Rep Power: 8	Its fine, images are only in preview size Thanks for the info dj __________________ (Cams:EOS 350D, s7000 aka Dust monster) -------------------------------------------- Intel Core 2 Quad (now)@ 3GHz(4 cores) – 4GB of 1.2 GHz (SLI) Ram (PAE saddly) – 2x 8800 GTX (768mb) –case Lian Li v2100 Plus II – MB Abit IN9 32X MAX – Sound : X-Fi Fatal1ty (front panel ver) Last edited by Theoretical_Photographer : 28th Feb 2006 at 03:37 AM.

28th Feb 2006, 06:08 PM	#7 (permalink)
djspinnet Active Join Date: 3 Jun 2005 Posts: 591 Reputation: 583 Rep Power: 9	Jeremy: wow, that's a good conversion Tehoretical_Photographer: no probs __________________ Jinny Wong djspinnet.org

28th Feb 2006, 10:49 PM	#10 (permalink)
Theoretical_Photographer I'm a regular Join Date: 9 Mar 2004 Posts: 328 Reputation: 388 Rep Power: 8	Nah, its fine. I don’t think I really understand BW, even read a tutorial on it lol __________________ (Cams:EOS 350D, s7000 aka Dust monster) -------------------------------------------- Intel Core 2 Quad (now)@ 3GHz(4 cores) – 4GB of 1.2 GHz (SLI) Ram (PAE saddly) – 2x 8800 GTX (768mb) –case Lian Li v2100 Plus II – MB Abit IN9 32X MAX – Sound : X-Fi Fatal1ty (front panel ver)