Warning...B&W kids shots!

[stormygirl]

Hi Everyone,

I'm just trying out a few black and white conversions using channel mixer, levels, contrast, and unsharp mask. I believe I still have a long way to go, but I'm just after some opinions/ideas/suggestions!

http://members.optushome.com.au/janestu/photos/benb&w1130206.jpg

http://members.optushome.com.au/janestu/photos/benjessicab&w1130206.jpg

http://members.optushome.com.au/janestu/photos/jessicab&w1130206.jpg

....sorry about the links, for some reason the image tags wouldn't embed my images! I'll try again later....

[wendellt]

Never used the channel; mixer to make black and whites
I just simply if you greyscale them and tweak the mid tones
and shadows you get the same result

the 3rd one has the best tone - well done
2nd excellent picture but there are blown highlights int he girls hair that look too distracting, not sure if the original was overexposed or your channel mixing has caused that it looks like a post processed blowout

1st one is good too but the tone looks a bit flat, it may suit the mood though or the context in which the shot was taken, slight highlight and shadow tone contrast may be an improvement

this is very subjective so i woudl say apart form the technical things everything is sweet photographically

[Aussie Dave]

Hi Jane
I always use the Channel Mixer to convert to B&W.
One thing that I read, which I usually try and adhere to is that you should try to keep the totals of your percentages to 100% (eg. R:10%, G:65%, B:25%).

If your totals exceed 100%, you will start to make your photos look more "high-key" or over-exposed (which can sometimes be a great effect, too).

Nice photos, by the way. Some parts look a touch overexposed, but I'm not sure if this was because of how you mixed the channels, or how the photos were taken

[myarhidia]

Hi stormygirl,
I always use the channel mixer for B&W conversions. Here is something I shamelessly stole from another forum, use it for conversion to B&W to get similar effects of different film types. The "I like" at the end is actually from the original poster, not mine

Use them with channel mixer red-green-blue. In monochrome mode._Agfa 200X: 18,41,41 / Agfapan 25: 25,39,36 / Agfapan 100: 21,40,39 / Agfapan 400: 20,41,39 / Ilford Delta 100: 21,42,37 / Ilford Delta 400: 22,42,36 / Ilford Delta 400 Pro & 3200: 31,36,33 / Ilford FP4: 28,41,31 / Ilford HP5: 23,37,40 / Ilford Pan F: 33,36,31 / Ilford SFX: 36,31,33 / Ilford XP2 Super: 21,42,37 / Kodak Tmax 100: 24,37,39 / Kodak Tmax 400: 27,36,37 / Kodak Tri-X: 25,35,40 And these basic ones: Normal Contrast: 43,33,30 /High Contrast: 40,34,60 and at last a generic BW: 24,68,8. I like to 50,50,0 or 25,75,0.

[stormygirl]

Thanks Wendell and Dave!

I've just tried to embed them again, and the image tags won't let me...oh well!

The photo of the both of them was actually taken into the sun...hence the blown highlights on their hair and their faces in the shadow. I couldn't do much about it, and tried to burn it in a little, but really made no difference. It's a sweet photo of the both of them, so I thought I'd play around with it!

Thanks for those tips Dave, very handy to know, as I wasn't sure where the sliders should be. I just played around a little until I thought it looked OK!

I'll keep trying!

Oooh, just noticed your post myarhidia...thanks for these, I'll give them a go as I love B&W film!

[sydneywebcam]

I like the end result of these b&w conversions. Plenty of contrast too.

Myarhidia; great work on providing those b&w film settings for the channel mixer. I use a variety of methods for my conversions depending on the image, but I will give these a try
_______________________
Cheers,
Paul.

[sydneywebcam]

Oh, I also meant to add there is a nice little technique to add contrast to a b&w image. Best to do this on a separate duplicate layer and then adjust opacity to fine tune the result.

After you do your conversion open the Unsharp Mask filter. Adjust settings to: Amount 15%, Radius 65, Threshold 1. Apply this to your image for a noticable increase in contrast.
____________________
Cheers,
Paul.