My latest favourite.

[yappiez]

Here's my favourite retouch with PS.
Taken in Barcelona, Spain.

[STaylor]

This is an incredibly striking image... But is it my eye sight or is Jesus’‚’‚…‚’‚…¾‚ face blanked out? The image has great tones and is well framed... With what may be the most unique signature I have seen in a long time’‚’‚…‚’‚‚¦

[yappiez]

yes, there are no features not the face of Jesus. Seems like thats the style adopted by the architect, Gaudi. There are lots of other interesting sculptures and buildings too. I'll post some if I have time. Cheers!

[me_wrestler]

yappiez: Would you mind sharing what things you did in photoshop?

[yappiez]

i'll try my best to recall. I am still on the infant stage at PS....
rotate, crop, desaturate,
added gradient layer to even out brightness,
tweak with levels,
create new layer
apply filter, other/highpass/ - radius 4 on new layer,
change opacity of new layer to about 30% to see the halo effect.

play around with highpass and opacity level for your own preference.

Frame was done using Framez.atn. Free download but I forgot where. Check the links I posted in the actions forum.
Hope that helps.

[yappiez]

[i] With what may be the most unique signature I have seen in a long time’‚’‚…‚’‚‚¦ [/B]

wow, I am honoured to have interest you with just my signature..
That was done with PictureShark program. I posted the link and some comments on the programs forum as well.

Signature was actually concieved in 93 when i was thinking of a stamp to mark my pottery work. It's nothing special, just my name.
Cheers,
Eddie Yap

[IcarusFree]

Very nice! Was the original inn B&W or you converted it? I have ben trying to get a good action or technique to convert from color to B&W in PS 5.0, but so far I haven't had success. I would love to get the platinum look from my converted B&W.

[yappiez]

Originally posted by IcarusFree
Very nice! Was the original inn B&W or you converted it? I have ben trying to get a good action or technique to convert from color to B&W in PS 5.0, but so far I haven't had success. I would love to get the platinum look from my converted B&W.

Hi,
I desaturated it using PS. The original colour was something like dirty desert sand. Glad u like it.

[drlynnmc]

Originally posted by IcarusFree
[B] I have ben trying to get a good action or technique to convert from color to B&W in PS 5.0, but so far I haven't had success. /B]

Here's how I do it (using PS6). Others may agree or disagree.

1. View each channel (red, green, blue) separately to see which looks the best. Assume in this example we liked the green channel best.

2. Open a Channel Mixer layer. Set the green level on each channel to around 100-110. Set the red and blue levels to 0 on each channel (red, green and blue).

3. Tweak all three until the look is exactly what you want. FOr example, you might want to set the red to +10 to give just a hint of color the flowers in the background.

I have found that for my taste, this works better than the desaturate tool, because it is easier for me to customize the tonality to my preference.

Another very effective and much simpler black and white conversion involves using LAB mode.

Tweak your photo with curves or levels to achieve close to the contrast you want. Convert to LAB mode. View the luminence, #1 channel only. Go to image - mode - grayscale. Click ok when it asks you if you want to delete the other two channels.

Now you have a lovely b&w photo that you can further work to achieve the contrast and tonalities you want.

That is how I converted this image:

[BytePhoto]

RedShoesGirl,
An outstanding shot in all ways. I also use the same LAB mode for my B&W's.

[Gracious]

Hi Lara,
This method sound reasonably simple. I've been looking around in PS6 and can't figure how where I find "luminence"
Can you help me?

Btw, Lara is the name of my dearly beloved niece. :-)
Regards,

Grayce

Originally posted by RedShoesGirl
View the luminence, #1 channel only. Go to image - mode - grayscale. Click ok when it asks you if you want to delete the other two channels.

Now you have a lovely b&w photo that you can further work to achieve the contrast and tonalities you want.

That is how I converted this image:

Grayce,

Image -> Mode -> Lab. Look at Channels window...you will see three channels, a, b and luminence. You can grab a and b and drag to the trash in that little window or just highlight with one click the luminence channel. The image will then look b&w. Go back to Image-> Mode and convert to greyscale.

lara

[drlynnmc]

THanks for the tip, Lara. I have onlt been using PS for a few weeks, and am teaching myself. I had "discovered" the channel mixer's ability to desaturate, but had not used the LAB function before. I just tried it and will definitely use it again for true B&W images. I still like the channel mixer method when I want to leave hints of color in the background, etc.

[BytePhoto]

This method sound reasonably simple. I've been looking around in PS6 and can't figure how where I find "luminence"
Can you help me?

My version of PShop has 'lightness' instead of 'luminence' in the Channels window. Hope this helps.