Kevin's B&W Tutorial

[SMcEvoy]

Kevin (khedquist) very kindly shared his B&W conversion technique with us in one of his photos. As people have been asking, I figured this was a better place to put it.... (Thanks again Kevin!!!)

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I always shoot in color in order to get all the nuances. Always in RAW


I always use a circular polarizer to add umph (very technical word)


I begin my processing in color. in order to get the best color shot I can. I also add some vibrance in raw. The raw processing screen is critical.


After I am satisfied with the look there I open it in CS4.


First I add a duplicate BG layer to clean up the image if necessary (Heal or clone out dust spots)


Next I add a levels layer and adjust. You always here me talk about the mids. I think they are the most important in getting depth.


Then I play with the curves a little.


After the image looks the best I can get it in color I save the file as a TIFF. All the layers are there if I want to go back and make changes.


I then crop it to the final size I want and flatten the layers.


I add a duplicate BG layer and open B&W Styler. This program is great. It is just like working in a wet darkroom plus. You can chose the type of film, paper, chemical processes, length of developing, filters (I almost always use a red or yellow filter). There are a grundle of controls to fine tune everything.


I accept the changes and it takes me back to CS4. NOT FINISHED YET


I make a dupe layer of the conversion and go to work with my burning and dodging brushes ala Ansel Adams.


After I am satisfied I save this image as a TIFF and name it B&W version of the original.


Now I flatten it again and add a dupe bg layer for sharpening. I only use the high pass filter to sharpen. that is another tutorial in itself.

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[RTaylor]

thanks Suzan and thanks Kevin for sharing your expertise in b/w conversions.

I made this a sticky and rated it high so it will show up top
I also made a copy of the thread and placed it on the front page in the middle section so it will be seen by many