Converting to B&W... the Greg Gorman way....

[xerubus]

Okay people... here's a quick run down on how to convert to black and white (with photoshop) the Greg Gorman way. This technique is used (and created) by Greg Gorman http://www.gormanphotography.com/gorman.html , who is a primary photographer to the stars in hollywood etc etc .... Hope you find it useful...



Open an image in Photoshop, and convert it to 16-bit if you can afford the disk and memory space


Convert the image to LAB color, using Image » Mode » Lab


In the Channel palette, select the Lightness channel, then convert the image to grayscale using Image » Mode » Grayscale


Cmd+Click (MacOS) or Ctrl+Click (Windows) the thumbnail in the Channels palette to load a selection, then choose Inverse from the Select menu


With the selection still active, convert the image to RGB color, using Image » Mode » RGB


With the selection still active, create a Solid Color Adjustment layer, and fill it with whatever color you wish, preferably a rich, dark color


Adjust the opacity of the Solid Color adjustment layer and add a Levels or Curves adjustment layer to bump the contrast as needed


Tweak the color of the Solid Color adjustment layer to control various sepia tone looks. This technique produces wonderfully rich black and white photos. I've turned the above into a simple action. I recommend you do so as well.

[Matt. K]

xerubus
Thanks for that. It's a technique I haven't seen before. I'll give it a whirl tonight. As you are probably aware there are any number of different ways to get to B&W. I've yet to pin the absolute best way.

[xerubus]

matt... my pleasure....

i'm the same way... been through various techniques depending on the shot....

at the moment i switch between the above conversion and the carr b&w conversion.....

[jonnydee]

Thanks for this - i've just been playing with black and white with a portrait and I thought it was as simple as reducing the colour saturation! I'll give this a go and see how it compares.

Cheers,

Jon

[Greg B]

jon, aside from the process xerubus has outlined above (thanks xerubus, I'm looking forward to giving that a go), you can also have fun splitting your image into channels (in Photoshop and probably other programs) - you get quite different looking BW images from each of the R G & B channels.

[jonnydee]

Nice idea! I'm thinking Andy Warhol type look

[Raydar]

Thanks xerubus.

All ways looking for new approaches to anything concerning PS

I’ll have a play with that latter, "If I ever get through the new posts on this forum!!!!!! "




Cheers
Ray

[pippin88]

Interesting, will have a play.

Previously just desaturated (not that I've done it more than a few times)

[jdear]

xerebus... for us too lazy to create an action... could you post it for us?

JD

[xerubus]

xerebus... for us too lazy to create an action... could you post it for us?

JD

Robb Carr is the photoshop guy that works for greg gorman.... you can grab the action at the following:

http://www.designbyfire.com/pdfs/Carr_B&W.atn

cheers