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I did this before I found out about the other "methods" of converting to b&w, so it's not as rich as it could be, but I still like it. This is a good friend of mine.

kit lens, flash on the body

what IS you method for converting to black n white?

grayscalling? desaturating?

nice portrait !
any PP done to sharpness?

G'day,
The conversion seems to have come up well, nice and sharp. Liek the frame too...

I'd also be interested in the method of B&W conversion, as I'm new to that and would like to try some B&W portrature, so any tips would be helpful...

Lighting seems nicely balanced too, little bit of shadow but for flash on the body it's terrific...

Also, it's a nice natural pose...

Cheers,
Mudder

I think it is a good shot - especially considering whenever I use the on board flash I blow all the hightlights out - what was the focal length? BTW I use channel mixer for black and white conversion.

NetMagi - a very nice portrait shot with focus just right.

Here is another conversion method if the original RGB image has good detail and tonal distinction. This is for PSCS.

Open the channels palette of the RGB image and click in the eye column to toggle channels on and off. If the single channel images are in colour go to preferences - Displays and Cursors and click the Colour Channels in colour option so that it is off. Drag the Red channel to the new channel button at the bottom of the palette. Then delete the three colour channels leaving just the alpha red channel. It will be in Multichannel mode so just go to Image - Mode - Greyscale and voila greyscale with quality.

Chris

I think you get the same outcome by clicking on the channel you want in the channels palette and then going straight to Image>mode>grayscale - it will automatically ask if you want to drop other channels and convert to grayscale in one go.

Image>adjustments>channel mixer allows you to mix the various channels to get the perfect balance. Just check the monochrome box at the bottom of the channel mixer pop up and dial in what you want - say 50% red, 50% green. As a general rule just make sure it all adds up to 100% to maintain the same brightness.

I have read that for a great Ansel Adams effect in a mountain landscape you should go with Red = +160 Green = +140 Blue = -200 (still adds up to 100%).

Channel mixer can also be an adjustment layer which means you can make changes whenever you want and use masks.

I did this conversion using one mix for the building to maximise contrast, and a different mix for the sky to minimise noise. You'll generally find a lot of the noise is in one channel.


http://www.deviantart.com/view/13561565/

You can experiement with the channel mixer forever - it is the most flexible way I know to do B&W conversions.

Edit : because I worked out my image linking issues!

 BTW - do my image posts ever work!?!?! They work when I preview the message - maybe because the image is still in my cache - but then they don't seem to work when I come back. Or they work intermittently. Maybe it is the http://www.deviantart.com website that hosts the pics - although the addresses seem to remain constant ?!?

Answered my own question re my picture posts... the website I post my images on http://www.deviantart.com says...

"Can I link images from deviantART to my website?

No. Bandwidth theft or (hotlinking) is direct linking to a website's files and is not tolerated.

An example would be using an image tag to display a deviation so it will appear on your own site. Performing such an action will most likely result in your account being suspended and deviations removed from the deviantART service."

Didn't realise it was such an offence

G'day,
As always I have a sticky noe around the forum for a few minutes and I pick up tips like these... Good stuff... I'll go have a quick try that way shortly... thanks.

Cheers,
Mudder