BackdoorArts
Senior Member
I've always found that the basic level of B&W conversion available in Lightroom and Photoshop to be adequate at best, simply desaturating the image and leaving you with an image that is a little flat and one-dimensional requiring you to then tweak it to the best of your abilities. (Note: I'm using Photoshop Elements 9 since it should provide a basic starting point for most folks here, and it should be easily adaptable to newer versions of Elements or Photoshop.)
The basic conversion methodology is just to take the color image and completely remove any saturation. As you can see, details that are very clear in the color image, like the net and line, are all but lost in the conversion, and playing with brightness and contrast will do little to bring them out.
Starting Image + 100% Desaturated Image:
View attachment 26087
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There are some tricks that I've read here and there, but shy of spending money on software like Silver Efex Pro 2 I've never found anything that was really effective. That is until my brother, who has a couple decades experience shooting digital as a pro and who teaches occasional classes in Photoshop Elements at the Newark Museum here in NJ, offered me this tip.
As previously, take your original image and add a Hue/Saturation layer, but this time set the Blending Mode to "Color" instead of the default of "Normal"...
View attachment 26089
Now add a second Hue/Saturation layer, this time leaving the Mode set to Normal and desaturate as before...
View attachment 26090
View attachment 26091
Now, switch back to the first Hue/Saturation layer. Making adjustments here has the effect of applying all sorts of colored filters, but to an exponential level, simply by moving the Hue adjustment bar. By simply moving the Hue to the far right you can see how the bright yellow float in the middle of the net, which disappeared in the original conversion, now pops out again as it did in the color image...
View attachment 26092
As I move around the Hue slider you can see how different objects will pop and fade depending on the position of the slider. Notice the differences in the Yellow Float, Blue Water and Orange Bucket at the different Hue values...
View attachment 26093
View attachment 26094
View attachment 26095
I now have what I consider a far superior conversion to the original I got with plain desaturation. But this wouldn't be a worthy blog post if I didn't give you my best Ron Popiel and tell you, "Wait, there's more!!" We've just been playing with the hue at the Master Color level. What if I drill down to the individual colors and play with them one at a time? In the layer window I go to the drop down and start moving through the colors, hanging the Blues and Cyans to bring out the detail in the water, tweaking the reds to bring out the bucket on the dock. And remember, you can play with both the Hue and Saturation levels now and maintain your B&W image...
View attachment 26096
View attachment 26097
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View attachment 26099
Now I have an image that more accurately reflects what my brain sees when it looked at the original color image and imagined it in Black and White (compare to the simple desaturation)...
View attachment 26102
Oh, and because I know you're curious, what would this Black & White image look like in color? Just go back to the top layer and add back your Saturation...
View attachment 26100
Not exactly what I'd call a pure conversion.
Giving credit where credit is due, my eternal thanks to my brother, Tony Kurdzuk, for the lesson. Tony is a full time news photographer at the Star Ledger, as well as a digital photography instructor with experience that goes back to the first batch of Kodak backed cameras in the late 80's/early 90's. He's a pretty darn good photographer (NJ Press Photographer of the Year three times, East Coast Press Photographer of the year once). Feel free to look up his stuff at NJ.com
The basic conversion methodology is just to take the color image and completely remove any saturation. As you can see, details that are very clear in the color image, like the net and line, are all but lost in the conversion, and playing with brightness and contrast will do little to bring them out.
Starting Image + 100% Desaturated Image:
View attachment 26087
View attachment 26088
There are some tricks that I've read here and there, but shy of spending money on software like Silver Efex Pro 2 I've never found anything that was really effective. That is until my brother, who has a couple decades experience shooting digital as a pro and who teaches occasional classes in Photoshop Elements at the Newark Museum here in NJ, offered me this tip.
As previously, take your original image and add a Hue/Saturation layer, but this time set the Blending Mode to "Color" instead of the default of "Normal"...
View attachment 26089
Now add a second Hue/Saturation layer, this time leaving the Mode set to Normal and desaturate as before...
View attachment 26090
View attachment 26091
Now, switch back to the first Hue/Saturation layer. Making adjustments here has the effect of applying all sorts of colored filters, but to an exponential level, simply by moving the Hue adjustment bar. By simply moving the Hue to the far right you can see how the bright yellow float in the middle of the net, which disappeared in the original conversion, now pops out again as it did in the color image...
View attachment 26092
As I move around the Hue slider you can see how different objects will pop and fade depending on the position of the slider. Notice the differences in the Yellow Float, Blue Water and Orange Bucket at the different Hue values...
View attachment 26093
View attachment 26094
View attachment 26095
I now have what I consider a far superior conversion to the original I got with plain desaturation. But this wouldn't be a worthy blog post if I didn't give you my best Ron Popiel and tell you, "Wait, there's more!!" We've just been playing with the hue at the Master Color level. What if I drill down to the individual colors and play with them one at a time? In the layer window I go to the drop down and start moving through the colors, hanging the Blues and Cyans to bring out the detail in the water, tweaking the reds to bring out the bucket on the dock. And remember, you can play with both the Hue and Saturation levels now and maintain your B&W image...
View attachment 26096
View attachment 26097
View attachment 26098
View attachment 26099
Now I have an image that more accurately reflects what my brain sees when it looked at the original color image and imagined it in Black and White (compare to the simple desaturation)...
View attachment 26102
Oh, and because I know you're curious, what would this Black & White image look like in color? Just go back to the top layer and add back your Saturation...
View attachment 26100
Not exactly what I'd call a pure conversion.
Giving credit where credit is due, my eternal thanks to my brother, Tony Kurdzuk, for the lesson. Tony is a full time news photographer at the Star Ledger, as well as a digital photography instructor with experience that goes back to the first batch of Kodak backed cameras in the late 80's/early 90's. He's a pretty darn good photographer (NJ Press Photographer of the Year three times, East Coast Press Photographer of the year once). Feel free to look up his stuff at NJ.com
I looked through the threads in the B&W forum in hopes of finding a thread explaining steps for B&W conversion. I finally came across a thread you started that linked me to this blog. I wish there was a sticky in the B&W forum where members could post there own processes of B&W conversion.