FlickrCentral / Discuss

drp    says:

I would go to the master of that technique:

www.flickr.com/photos/nachosan/3844287/

If the page doesn't show up, I'd send a mail to him directly. I'm sure he'd be happy to help.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

fd    says:

Picasa 2 has several rather nice b&w conversions (and other filters/effects) and instant preview. It even has one that applies a colored filter during the conversion. Nothing to lose by trying it since it's free.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Punsalan    says:

Ergh I don't have access to a PC. The only reason I brought it up was because I figured the feature set in Picasa was comparable to that in iPhoto 5.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Bobby Alcott    says:

There are several ways to do this, 0401, in PS:
- Desaturate: this is quick and dirty, and usually doesn't give me the control I want
- Grayscale Mode: this dumps all the color info from the image; last recommended, IMO
- Channel Mixer: This is my favorite lately. Open this up, choose a channel (note the difference between the channels and try this with each) and click the 'Monochrome' checkbox at the bottom of the window. I've had most luck with mono-ing the Green channel.

Good luck!
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

lazaro says:

I agree with Urban, the channel mixer is the way to go. You should check out:

One of the better forums on this topic:
www.flickr.com/groups/topic/4115/

Or

www.flickr.com/groups/technique/
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Punsalan    says:

Schweet. Thank you much Urban Tiki and lazaro.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

bosquetango    says:

My favorite quick and nice mac shareware photo software is Graphic Convertor. By far the best for batch and basic conversion, like colour to grayscale, size and rotating and cropping. I absolutely love it and have not found an equivalent in the PC world.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Kenkun says:

If you get a chance to shoot raw...
Then try the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in.

1. Click the "advanced" button.
2. On the bottom of the "adjust" tab is a saturation slider.
3. Make exposure/ contrast/ brightness corrections etc.
4. On the "calibrate" tab adjust the rgb hue and saturation for subtle, but beautiful tweaks to the b/w image.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Norby    says:

Go search on adobe.com for "Caponigro" and maybe also B&W or "action". There is a whole article you can read and a quickie action you can download which splits your images out into R, G and B (or L, a and b) based layers which you can then tweak to suit.

-/\/
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Punsalan    says:

Thanks everyone. I ended up taking the time to sit down and read up on all the possible ways to convert images based off of everyones recommendations. Using 'channel mixer' is by far the best option I see myself using right now. Simple and quick, yet easy to adjust.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Nell M says:

I don't think this technique was mentioned (the technique is after the photos).

There's an action here.

0401, I recognize you from your Gravatar :)
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Punsalan    says:

Nell M wrote:

----------------
I don't think this technique was mentioned (the technique is after the photos).

There's an action here.
----------------

emily ann    says:

I use Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 in Photoshop. It allows you to choose the spectrum to which you're desatuating. This is important to me because I find that I get much better tonal variation in skintones when using a different spectrum than the default. The plug in pack is slightly costly, but I use it to much it's definitely been worth it for me.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

{ cary }    says:

The Channel Mixer in Photoshop will give you the most control...even a couple of minutes of playing with it, and you will understand how well this technique works. Just grab those sliders and start pushing : )
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

hockadilly    says:

Thanks all for the channel mix pointers. My new camera doesn't have a B&W setting & at first I was annoyed ... but now I think it's a Good Thing!
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

sbpoet    says:

Does Photoshop Elements 3 have a function similar to "Channel Mixer"?
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Hourman says:

Does anyone use the b&w setting on their camera? Isn't it better to have the control after the fact?
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Punsalan    says:

sbpoet wrote:

----------------
Does Photoshop Elements 3 have a function similar to "Channel Mixer"
----------------

lazaro says:

Hourman, I actaully shoot everything in color, although my canon has a b&w filter setting. IMO, it is much better to control it afterwards.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)

Nell M says:

0401, I saw you in Jon Hick's blog. I don't have a gravatar yet.
Posted 87 months ago. (permalink)