Atherton & District Amateur Photographic Society

Following on from the brief discussion under Chloe, her's an example of a black and white image made from only the red channel of the RGB image. This removes skin blemishes and the only clue tends to be a lightness of the lips.

Oh,that looks really good I must try that ,it's a much stronger image than mine.Danny

John wrote: an example of a black and white image made from only the red channel of the RGB image.

Hi John

I really like your black and white treatment. LAB mode conversion isn't something I've tried yet, but will give it a go.

I've never really been happy with any of my black and whites. I hope you don't mind me adding a photo to your thread. Here's my shot of Emma from the same session. I tried it in black and white and wasn't keen on it, so instead I added a blue/yellow gradient map adjustment layer.





John - when you get chance, have a browse through the model info I sent you before Xmas.

Mike E - I also copied you in on the email. Did you receive it?

Just as I mentioned in dannys- chloe b/w post ther are many choices for b/w conversion.
Both great images
Paul if you would like to post us a low res colour file via e-mail I could try the b/w action on it, and post the action for you to upload to photoshop if you like the result.
I had received your e-mail, but haven't as yet ploughed my way through them all.I plan to check out the salford location you recomended inthe new year, and look to place profiles on both the sites you recomended too

Great. Thanks Mike.

John, I like the tones on the photo, however, I tend to agree with Paul. Monotone is really hard to do. If you can't make it black and white (litterally, ie no grey), then I struggle also. I tend to find something nearly I'm happy with by desaturating, then turn the blue up a bit, so it looks deliberate.

Almost perfect white skin and a black outfit is my favourite though.

Having seen many b/w prints, particularly those from the early part of the last century, and the latter end of the one before
the most notable difference I see to modern b/w and particularly in digital straight b/w conversions is the colour of the paper base. I cannot remember ever seeing a b/w print having a pure white base.

The straw coloured paper- some of us may remember the late fifties/sixties and the school portraits - almost card like in quality always added a warmth to the highlights that both modern resin coated paper or digital b/w conversions lack ( they are often too cold looking)

Adding a colour balance layer in photoshop often just a 10% or 15% addition of yellow to the mid tones is enough ( you may consider a straigh 5% more yellow in highlights/midtones and shadows) is generally enough to make it more of a warmtone print reminisant of those old fibre based papers.
Try it see what you think/ feel about it