First B&W

[Chrisclick]

I've been wanting to try this for a while. I have never converted an image to mono before, and so, today, after capturing this horse while driving into the country, thought I'd give it a try.

I know that I like the mono of this shot a lot more than the colour version.

Any pointers are very welcome.

1/400, f/5, ISO 100, 152mm





CC always welcome.

[IzzieK]

I like conversion even if I have not seen the colour. It is neat! Look at its bangs. I'd like to have me one of those... Joking aside, what are those dirt-like thingies on its fur? Is this originally a brown horse? Just curious.

[Donald]

Well done, Chris.

How did you do it? Maybe you could walk us through your workflow and tell us what software you used.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Chrisclick]

Thank you, Izzie. Glad you like it. I wasn't real sure it was a good conversion, although it looked acceptable to me. I suppose I posted it here to confirm that I was on the right track. Your comments are encouraging! As for the dirt-like thingies on its fur; I'll post the colour version below, where you can see that it's just little patches of brown coloured hairs. They look more pronounced after the conversion, maybe I added too much contrast.

Thanks again.


Hi Donald, thanks for having a look. While I have a small collection of B&W conversion software, I have not used any of them. Last night, I downloaded yet another. It is DXO's FilmPack 5. I have DXO Pro, and so, was on their mailing list. I received an email to download a trial version of FilmPack 5. That was the impetus to try a conversion. Although it is a stand-alone application, it's also a plugin for PS.

So, I used it in PS after opening the Raw file in ACR.

After trying several of the B&W presets, I settled on 'Ilford Pan 400'. While I liked the tonal quality, the grain was a tad too harsh for my liking. Luckily, I was able to reduce the presence of the grain and also reduced the overall effect of the filter - can't remember precisely how much.

When I had finished with the plugin, and the result opened in PS, the highlights on the RHS of the horse were a bit high. After duplicating the layer, I returned the image to the Camera Raw filter and reduced the highlights to a nice level. As a result of duplicating the layer before going back into ACR, I now had a layer with the highlight adjustments and, a layer without. That enabled me to make a direct comparison and so, mask the adjusted layer to affect only the areas that needed it.

It looked better, though I thought the adjusted area(s) needed more contrast. Added a 'Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and increased the contrast (just on the adjusted areas), by 16 points. No changes to the brightness.

Then created a 'Stamp Visible' layer (CMD, Opt, Shft, 'E'), and had a good, long, look at it. I decided that overall, it still needed some contrast. I added another Brightness/Contrast layer and lifted the contrast by 7 points on the entire image - no change to the brightness.

Then, I cloned out the wire fence, the steel post, and some tall grass. Also cloned out the flies that were near his eye. There was also a hint of a wire fence that was a few meters behind the horse. This can be seen as three blurry lines on the right side of the colour image that intersect with the horses' rump. N.B. I found it easier to clone in B&W than I normally find in colour - glad I left that step to last.

I think that's it.

Maybe you could walk us through your workflow and tell us what software you used.

Thanks for the opportunity to share this, Donald.

Here's the colour version, no PP:

[Sam W]

Chris, I think the conversion looks great the color version is beautiful too. The only suggestion I have is to adjust the cropping a bit on the right side. Well done! Thanks for sharing your workflow. - Sam

[Rebel]

Very nice Chris, I definitely prefer the black and white version!

[Mike Buckley]

Wonderful conversion. I especially like that there are so little true blacks and no true whites; the effect is very pleasing.

Consider cropping on the right side to center the horse. The current amount of negative space doesn't "say" anything to me. Also consider cropping on the left and right to center the horse within a square frame. I think I would prefer the latter composition.

[Wavelength]

Both are very nice; the conversion looks fine

[bnnrcn]

Beautiful horse, very nice image

[Donald]

Thanks for the opportunity to share this, Donald.

Thank you for doing so. It's a very good B & W conversion and it's always good to know how folk go about that task. The horse is standing out clearly from the background. That is a part of the conversion process that people starting out with B & W sometimes struggle with when the tones (NOT the colours) of main subject and background are quite close together.

[IzzieK]

Chris, I like both of them. You did very well in the conversion. It is very clean...

Thank you, Izzie. Glad you like it. I wasn't real sure it was a good conversion, although it looked acceptable to me. I suppose I posted it here to confirm that I was on the right track. Your comments are encouraging! As for the dirt-like thingies on its fur; I'll post the colour version below, where you can see that it's just little patches of brown coloured hairs. They look more pronounced after the conversion, maybe I added too much contrast.

Thanks again.


Hi Donald, thanks for having a look. While I have a small collection of B&W conversion software, I have not used any of them. Last night, I downloaded yet another. It is DXO's FilmPack 5. I have DXO Pro, and so, was on their mailing list. I received an email to download a trial version of FilmPack 5. That was the impetus to try a conversion. Although it is a stand-alone application, it's also a plugin for PS.

So, I used it in PS after opening the Raw file in ACR.

After trying several of the B&W presets, I settled on 'Ilford Pan 400'. While I liked the tonal quality, the grain was a tad too harsh for my liking. Luckily, I was able to reduce the presence of the grain and also reduced the overall effect of the filter - can't remember precisely how much.

When I had finished with the plugin, and the result opened in PS, the highlights on the RHS of the horse were a bit high. After duplicating the layer, I returned the image to the Camera Raw filter and reduced the highlights to a nice level. As a result of duplicating the layer before going back into ACR, I now had a layer with the highlight adjustments and, a layer without. That enabled me to make a direct comparison and so, mask the adjusted layer to affect only the areas that needed it.

It looked better, though I thought the adjusted area(s) needed more contrast. Added a 'Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and increased the contrast (just on the adjusted areas), by 16 points. No changes to the brightness.

Then created a 'Stamp Visible' layer (CMD, Opt, Shft, 'E'), and had a good, long, look at it. I decided that overall, it still needed some contrast. I added another Brightness/Contrast layer and lifted the contrast by 7 points on the entire image - no change to the brightness.

Then, I cloned out the wire fence, the steel post, and some tall grass. Also cloned out the flies that were near his eye. There was also a hint of a wire fence that was a few meters behind the horse. This can be seen as three blurry lines on the right side of the colour image that intersect with the horses' rump. N.B. I found it easier to clone in B&W than I normally find in colour - glad I left that step to last.

I think that's it.




Thanks for the opportunity to share this, Donald.

Here's the colour version, no PP:

[Chrisclick]

Thanks for looking and commenting, Sam, Matt, Mike, Nandakumar, and, Binnur. I appreciate you taking the time to add your thoughts.

Hi Mike, I have taken your advice and tried a square crop. I liked it so much, that I have processed another similar shot taken about 90 seconds after the first one.

I am a real stickler for maintaining the original aspect/crop ratio. While I have used square crop before, it has been a while since the last time. Thanks for suggesting it!

[Mike Buckley]

The last two images are also very nice. In the last image, consider applying just a very small amount of Gaussian blur to the foreground grass. That's because it distracts a bit from the horse, especially considering that the horse's neck is out of focus even though the mane is sharp enough.

[Dave A]

Beautiful images, well done.

Dave

[jcuknz]

What is that around its neck? something to stop it swallowing because it is over weight?

[Chrisclick]

What is that around its neck? something to stop it swallowing because it is over weight?

Not sure, John. I just came across the horse while driving, and decided to take a few shots.

[Marie Hass]

What is that around its neck? something to stop it swallowing because it is over weight?

No. it is a cribbing collar. This is a horse that, out of habit engages in stereotypic behavior of "wind sucking". There are 2 camps as to what to do about it.1. do nothing at all or 2. treat it as a bad habit to be eliminated.

Marie

[jcuknz]

Thankyou Marie .. my first thought it was something the SPCA should be told about. Still not sure I like the approach.

[bnnrcn]

The square crops work very well