DTP


 
Lively discussions on the graphic arts and publishing — in print or on the web


Go Back   Desktop Publishing Forum > General Discussions > Images

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 09-02-2006, 04:28 PM   #1
Andrew B.
Staff
 
Andrew B.'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 4,353
Default

For B/W conversion, here is a method I picked up from one of the Russell Brown tutorials:

Add two hue/saturation layer masks. On the top one, turn saturation all way down. On the lower of the two, set it to Color blending mode. And it is in this lower one where you will do all your adjusting. For example, the hue slider takes you through the range of color-to-bw filters. The saturation slider affects the intensity. Using the drop down in the hue/saturation adjustment layer lets you target one color in the conversion. And using the range sliders at the bottom of the hue/saturation adjustment layer lets you adjust the range of color that is targeted.

In many ways, this method is much easier and more powerful.

Last edited by Andrew B.; 09-02-2006 at 04:32 PM. Reason: corrected mistake
Andrew B. is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-03-2006, 02:12 PM   #2
terrie
Sysop
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,478
Default

Sounds like a most intriguing approach...will play with this...

Thanks!

Terrie
terrie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2006, 06:38 AM   #3
Cristen Gillespie
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 814
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by terrie View Post
Sounds like a most intriguing approach...will play with this...

Thanks!

Terrie
Russsel Brown's method really is a lot of fun. The Color blend mode layer is acting like a traditional filter on the lens for a film camera. Expensive plugins often let you add a "filter" for B&W conversion and this mimics that very nicely.

   
__________________
Cristen
Cristen Gillespie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2006, 11:17 AM   #4
terrie
Sysop
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
cristen: Russsel Brown's method really is a lot of fun.
Fun is good...'-}}

I usually find Russell's stuff quite useful...I'm hoping to have time to play with the approach this afternoon...

Terrie
terrie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2006, 11:19 AM   #5
ElyseC
Sysop Emeritus
 
ElyseC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: southeastern Iowa, in the technology corridor
Posts: 2,190
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cristen Gillespie View Post
Russsel Brown's method really is a lot of fun. The Color blend mode layer is acting like a traditional filter on the lens for a film camera. Expensive plugins often let you add a "filter" for B&W conversion and this mimics that very nicely.
I tried it and tested against what I got from ol' Mode > Grayscale and maybe it was the image I tried it with, but I couldn't tell the diff between the best of the Russell Brown method and simply changing Mode.

I supposed I should do a lot more experimentation on lots of images, but this first test hasn't persuaded me. Mode changing takes maybe two seconds (if you're a slow mouse mover).

   
__________________
Elyse
ElyseC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-05-2006, 06:17 AM   #6
Cristen Gillespie
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 814
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ElyseC View Post
I tried it and tested against what I got from ol' Mode > Grayscale and maybe it was the image I tried it with, but I couldn't tell the diff between the best of the Russell Brown method and simply changing Mode.

I supposed I should do a lot more experimentation on lots of images, but this first test hasn't persuaded me. Mode changing takes maybe two seconds (if you're a slow mouse mover).
If you mainly convert portraits to greyscale, you'll possibly not find using digital "filters" to be of any real benefit. The straight change uses heavy input from the green channel, some from the red, and almost nothing from the blue. This makes it a good general purpose conversion, but less than meeting the full potential of some kinds of images.

You're not going to want to use a deep red or orange filter on a portrait, normally, but you would on a landscape, perhaps, especially if you needed to punch up a sky. In the case of portraits, you can delete all but the green channel and often have a satisfactory conversion, so if that's what you're doing, stick with mode conversion (takes 3 keys on my Mac, no mousing about it<G>)

I have Russell, and several other B&W conversion methods, on speed dial. I'm currently enamored of one that uses Calculations. '-) But that's because I do this routinely with all types of subjects, either for the sake of creating a B&W or to use a B&W conversion layer in luminosity mode for super quick tonal adjustments.

   
__________________
Cristen
Cristen Gillespie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-05-2006, 06:20 AM   #7
Cristen Gillespie
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 814
Default

Quote:
Terrie:
I usually find Russell's stuff quite useful.
Russell is one of the few who constantly impresses me both with how well he understands what PS is doing, and with how well he explains it. I wish he weren't doing so much video, as that's just too much for dialup.

   
__________________
Cristen
Cristen Gillespie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-05-2006, 11:07 AM   #8
ElyseC
Sysop Emeritus
 
ElyseC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: southeastern Iowa, in the technology corridor
Posts: 2,190
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cristen Gillespie View Post
stick with mode conversion (takes 3 keys on my Mac, no mousing about it<G>)
Yeah, I could set it up as an action, I suppose, but I usually reserve action creation for long/multiple step procedures I'm doing lots of.

   
__________________
Elyse
ElyseC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-05-2006, 01:54 PM   #9
terrie
Sysop
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,478
Default

Quote:
cristen: I wish he weren't doing so much video, as that's just too much for dialup.
I haven't been to his site in a long while but I knew he was doing video and I'm assuming they aren't captioned but haven't had a chance to get over there and take a look...

Terrie
terrie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-06-2006, 05:59 AM   #10
Cristen Gillespie
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 814
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ElyseC View Post
Yeah, I could set it up as an action, I suppose, but I usually reserve action creation for long/multiple step procedures I'm doing lots of.
The B&W conversion actions do have enough steps to make it time-consuming to do by hand. Or just to remember, since some techniques simply aren't used enough for me to remember exactly the difference that made the technique interesting to me.

But I don't run an action for a mode conversion. The 3 keystrokes are Ctrl+Cmd+G (or R, L, C). Set up in keyboard shortcuts. As a Windows user, I hate mousing in menus. I'm used to keyboard shortcuts being there through the Alt+ underlined characters. So I recreated my most used on the Mac with the Control key being the main helper.

I think most of us wind up doing *something* akin to actions or keyboard shortcuts (or scripts for those capable) to speed things up in our primary software. It just gets SO repetitious we start looking for relief<G>

   
__________________
Cristen
Cristen Gillespie is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
B/W Styler - Black & White Conversion Plugin Andrew B. Software 14 07-18-2007 09:03 AM
Crisp white wine PeterArnel The Corner Pub 28 07-11-2007 07:55 AM
Drop shadows come out as white squares FlipSide Print Production & Automation 9 07-01-2007 10:28 PM
Force Printing Black-on-White PDF Files RJ Emery General Publishing Topics 9 03-17-2007 02:59 PM
Black and White JPEG Files RJ Emery Images 1 09-21-2006 01:07 AM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 09:23 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Contents copyright 2004–2019 Desktop Publishing Forum and its members.