B&W Trees

[Mike Buckley]

When you convert to monochrome, whatever tonal variations in the sky were displayed in the color version should also generally be displayed in the monochrome version without having to do anything special. The overall tone of the sky will look very different in the monochrome version depending on the color filter and the strength of that filter that you use to convert. As an example, when I convert your image using a yellow filter at full strength, the entire sky is pure black as in your first attempt. However, if I reduce the strength of the filter to 50%, the overall tone becomes more like charcoal grey and the tonal variation begins to become apparent. If I reduce the strength further to 25%, the overall tone has a luminosity value of about 40 and the lighter tones become about 55. When I reduce the strength to 0%, the overall value is about 60 and the lighter tones about 75.

If I want the sky to look its brightest, I will use a blue filter at 100% strength. However, my experience is that the rest of the landscape scene generally suffers using that filter compared to using the yellow filter.

I generally determine the color filter I want to use and I then adjust the strength of the filter as needed.

Everyone has their own way of thinking about converting to monochrome and, indeed, there is no right or wrong way.

[Sam W]

When you convert to monochrome, whatever tonal variations in the sky were displayed in the color version should also generally be displayed in the monochrome version without having to do anything special. The overall tone of the sky will look very different in the monochrome version depending on the color filter and the strength of that filter that you use to convert. As an example, when I convert your image using a yellow filter at full strength, the entire sky is pure black as in your first attempt. However, if I reduce the strength of the filter to 50%, the overall tone becomes more like charcoal grey and the tonal variation begins to become apparent. If I reduce the strength further to 25%, the overall tone has a luminosity value of about 40 and the lighter tones become about 55. When I reduce the strength to 0%, the overall value is about 60 and the lighter tones about 75.

If I want the sky to look its brightest, I will use a blue filter at 100% strength. However, my experience is that the rest of the landscape scene generally suffers using that filter compared to using the yellow filter.

I generally determine the color filter I want to use and I then adjust the strength of the filter as needed.

Everyone has their own way of thinking about converting to monochrome and, indeed, there is no right or wrong way.

Mike, I'm probably doing something incorrectly. For B&W conversion I import into LR, crop if needed then hit the 'B&W' button in the tonal adjustment panel. So when I do that I have sort of the opposite effect to what you describe. The blue gray level only effects the sky for this photo. The yellow grey level slider does not effect the sky but brightens or darkens just about everything else. This makes perfect sense to me. I don't doubt that I found some unorthodox way of doing things. After your post I experimented several different approaches but see the same results. I checked the last image I posted and I have the blue gray level set at -40%. All the other colors (gray levels) are set to -100%.

[Mike Buckley]

Sam,

You're not doing anything wrong.

It might help you to understand the context of my previous post. My primary software application provides the ability to choose any single color in the spectrum that is visible to the human eye. My point: I have one slider that picks whatever the color is that I want to use and no other sliders for selecting the color. There is an additional slider that allows me to determine the strength.

I have never used Lightroom to convert monochromes, so the information you provided was very helpful for following along. You have a slider dedicated to each of the 8 channels. The values for each channel ranging from -100 to 100 seem to be comparable to the "strength" slider in my software. Those aren't "percentage" values but that's relatively unimportant.

My guess is that once you become more experienced at using your sliders, you'll find that setting all but one of them to -100 will be unorthodox. However, the only thing that matters is that you make an image to your liking. In this case, you've made an image not only to your liking but also to the liking of others. So, it doesn't matter if those settings are unorthodox.

If you think you're on the verge of getting hooked into making monochromes, consider evaluating the Google/Nik suite of plugins. All of them work with Lightroom (and Photoshop). One of the products in the suite is Silver Efex Pro and it's widely regarded as one of the best if not the best software for making monochromes. The conversion aspect of that software works essentially the same as my primary software in that you can convert using any color and then fine tune the conversion by controlling the strength. There are some other capabilities in the software and some of the most notable of them are the "structure" and "fine structure," the control point masking technology, and the mini panel that displays where each of the 11 zones invented by Ansel Adams appear in the image. I rarely use Silver Efex Pro because I know how to achieve the same results in my primary software. However, if I ever decide to ditch my primary software (it was discontinued years ago), I will definitely go with Silver Efex Pro either as a plug-in to Lightroom or Photoshop.

[Sam W]

Sam,

You're not doing anything wrong.

It might help you to understand the context of my previous post. My primary software application provides the ability to choose any single color in the spectrum that is visible to the human eye. My point: I have one slider that picks whatever the color is that I want to use and no other sliders for selecting the color. There is an additional slider that allows me to determine the strength.

I have never used Lightroom to convert monochromes, so the information you provided was very helpful for following along. You have a slider dedicated to each of the 8 channels. The values for each channel ranging from -100 to 100 seem to be comparable to the "strength" slider in my software. Those aren't "percentage" values but that's relatively unimportant.

My guess is that once you become more experienced at using your sliders, you'll find that setting all but one of them to -100 will be unorthodox. However, the only thing that matters is that you make an image to your liking. In this case, you've made an image not only to your liking but also to the liking of others. So, it doesn't matter if those settings are unorthodox.

If you think you're on the verge of getting hooked into making monochromes, consider evaluating the Google/Nik suite of plugins. All of them work with Lightroom (and Photoshop). One of the products in the suite is Silver Efex Pro and it's widely regarded as one of the best if not the best software for making monochromes. The conversion aspect of that software works essentially the same as my primary software in that you can convert using any color and then fine tune the conversion by controlling the strength. There are some other capabilities in the software and some of the most notable of them are the "structure" and "fine structure," the control point masking technology, and the mini panel that displays where each of the 11 zones invented by Ansel Adams appear in the image. I rarely use Silver Efex Pro because I know how to achieve the same results in my primary software. However, if I ever decide to ditch my primary software (it was discontinued years ago), I will definitely go with Silver Efex Pro either as a plug-in to Lightroom or Photoshop.

Hi Mike - thanks for the valuable information. I have read about Silver Eflex Pro and it is good to know that you endorse it. Yep, it seems that I am hooked for the moment on monochrome in addition to color photography. I don't think I will ever reach anywhere near expert level in either and will be relying a lot on the luck factor for a long time. This image was unusual in my B&W library as I normally have multiple colors gray levels applied (not just one). I like the fact that you mentioned in essence that it does not matter how one gets there if the end result is liked. Best regards,
Sam