B&W CONVERSION

[jethro]

did some PP work on this using hue and saturation reducing the saturation for what i think is a reasonable result. she's my youngest daughter.

[mic]

Beautiful Jeffro,

I didn't know what was going to appear B&W Heels Maybe

I would like it a bit more Black & Whitey if you know what I mean, it sort of has a slight purpleish tinge to it ?

But that could be my work Monitor.

Nice.

Mic.

[MHD]

It is a very strong image...
A bit over sharpened for my taste...

I like the blue in the eyes!

[jethro]

mic no high heels and the intention was for an edgy saturated feel. mic just keep inverting your pics its a good effect and your monitor wont pee you off

[mudder]

Seems a very strong. almost confronting image style... Background seems to take my attention away though...wonder if masking the subject and blurring the background would work? Dunno, just a thought, might make the subject even more strong or dominant...

[SoCal Steve]

Jethro -
Just my (very humble) opinion, but I don't think your doing this beautiful young lady justice using an 18mm lens for the portrait (I looked at your EXIF data). It just makes the middle of her face protrude too much. I would also take the B&W all the way rather than leaving a hint of color.

The magazine "Photoshop User" which is edited by Photoshop Guru Scott Kelby has a full article on Conversion to Black and White using the Color Mixing Method in the March 2005 Issue.

[dooda]

Here's what Val Brinkerhoff suggests. He teaches photoshop in Uni. Does anyone make sense out of this? He loses me in creating the Hue?Saturation adj layer thing.


BW work: Go to the Channel Mixer adjustment layer. Click on the BW
button and adjust the different color sliders. Then create a Hue /
Saturation adjustment layer between the image and the Channel mixer adj.
layer. Move the saturation slider within each individual color to move
values around.

[jethro]

thanks guys for your comments ill take them on board

[sirhc55]

Jethro - my critique would start something like this: young ladies and even old ladies love to see a soft image because this hides their imperfections. I am not suggesting that your daughter is imperfect but the use of 18mm close up has added an offset distortion that hides the beauty of her facial form.

The one thing I love about this portrait is the petulent form of your daughters lips.

[jethro]

chris as you probaly know and appreciate im from a graphic background and i shoot different to most people diffent angles and different perspectives which i believe is what photography is an Artform. you being a designer will appreciate this and i believe that a lot of creative people on this forum should let go and express their own creativity.
thanks for your kind critique

[sirhc55]

You are absolutely right Jethro re creativity and we certainly see a lot on this forum and hopefully a lot more to come

[Aussie Dave]

I have just started using a very similar method to what Dooda suggested.

Using the Channel Mixer, I "tick" the Monochrome checkbox and then adjust the colour channels accordingly. From what I've read, just make sure that your percentages add up to 100%.

eg. Red = 50%, Green = 30%, Blue = 20% (total 100%)

Experiment with making each channel dominant and you can enhance different tones of the photo.....much better than just desaturating the image (which is what I used to do until I came across this method).

Happy channel mixing....

[SoCal Steve]

Jethro - How right you are. We absolutely have no right to criticize artistic intent, only to give our own personal reactions to it.

I didn't know (or remember) that you were a designer. I've mucked around with it since high school when a good friend taught me the basics. He went on the a great art career.

Let me give you my opinion about the B&W conversion another way. As you know, if a line in your graphic is out of square by only a very tiny amount, it looks like a mistake. While if it is a little bit more out of square it looks intentional and becomes involving. To me that's what is happening with the amount of color you left in. It's just enough to make the picture look tainted. Either more or less would work better IMO.