B&W tabletop photography

[Dave A]

I'm only somewhat happy with these B&W images. I really need to come to grips with a proper work flow for B&W conversions because I feel like a drunk just moving each slider (in LR) back and forth in hopes that it will improve the conversion.
CC is more than welcome and encouraged.

Thanks,
Dave


A couple old cameras dug out of the back of the closet.

[Shadowman]

Nice, the conversions and capture have a very antiquated look to them. Regarding your workflow for B & W conversions, do you take the image SOOC and just convert or do you edit the color version first?

[Dave A]

Thank John, I usually slide the saturation all the way to the left the start editing the now B&W image.

Dave

[Shadowman]

Thank John, I usually slide the saturation all the way to the left the start editing the now B&W image.

Dave

Dave,

Try this workflow prior to converting to B & W.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/he...ule-basic.html

[Dave A]

Thanks John I will try it.

Dave

[Mike Buckley]

I usually slide the saturation all the way to the left the start editing the now B&W image.

That method is called desaturating the image. Though doing so converts the image in a general use of the term to a monochrome, the technical use of the term, "convert," is to convert using a color filter. When desaturating, you are literally throwing away two-thirds of the data. When converting, you are keeping all of the data, so of course you have lots more data to work with.

I recommend that in all but very rare situations that you convert. The method in Lightroom that provides you the most control is located in the the B&W sub-panel of the HSL/Color/B&W panel. When moving the slider of a particular color channel to the right, that filter allows that tone in the color version to be displayed brighter in the black-and-white version. (That's also true when black-and-white film photographers place a color filter in front of the lens.) As an example, when you want the blue part of the sky to appear bright in the black-and-white version, move the blue slider to the right; when you want that part of the sky to appear dark, move the slider to the left. Fine tune those sliders until the various monochrome tonalities are as you want them.

Then dodge and burn the image to further fine tune the image by using the light to draw the viewer's eye through the image on a path of your choosing.

[DEAN01]

Dave,
Another way is to use LR's B&W presets as a starting point and then make further adjustments.

[Dave A]

Thanks for the tips. I re-worked the second image of the one camera. Moved the crop out to captures the whole book and re-did the conversion according to the advise. I think it is not too bad.

Dave

[DEAN01]

Very nice, I like the contrast and darken background.

[rtbaum]

Definitely an improvement.....and thank you for posing the question. I learned quite a bit as well.

[Shadowman]

Thanks for the tips. I re-worked the second image of the one camera. Moved the crop out to captures the whole book and re-did the conversion according to the advise. I think it is not too bad.

Dave

Much better, the background has a dual tone that is distracting.

[Mike Buckley]

I think it is not too bad.

It's a LOT better than "not too bad." Very well done! It's not just the vastly improved conversion; it's also such a much better composition and use of the reflection and the light.

[Mike Buckley]

the background has a dual tone that is distracting.

For me, that characteristic complements the rest of the image.

[Jeff Blakemore]

Dave that second one is great! Love how the camera and book really came alive, and the reflection is a wonderful touch as well.

Mike, thank you for posting those instructions. I've never used those adjustments before. I'll have to see if ACR has them. I really need to start using Lightroom. I'm just so comfortable in PS because it's what I've used day in and day out for almost 20 years. By the time LR was released, I was already a cynical old man set in my ways LOL

[Dave Humphries]

Mike, thank you for posting those instructions. I've never used those adjustments before. I'll have to see if ACR has them.

ACR does have them Jeff, that's how I convert when I (very rarely) produce a monochrome.


Dave, I have one remaining issue with the image; I think it would benefit from a clockwise rotation.

I appreciate the sides of the camera may not have been perfectly upright (e.g. if it was leaning slightly forward at the top), but I still think I would do it (if mine).

Cheers, Dave

[IzzieK]

I like the last edit, Dave...the book itself is that William Cowper's slavery poems...is that a first edition...it fits very well with the image. I usually use the Hue and Saturation filter inside Photoshop itself then work on the image. I am still on the hit and miss as far B/W is concerned as I am just starting. Maybe that is what Jeff means when he said in his own post about "after all the colours are eliminated" thinking...then it is easier to work on the image itself.

Cheers...

[Mike Buckley]

I really need to start using Lightroom. I'm just so comfortable in PS because it's what I've used day in and day out for almost 20 years.

I have very, very little experience using Lightroom and I've never used the full-blown Photoshop or ACR. Even so, I've read enough about all of them to know that anyone who has a command of Photoshop and ACR probably has no need for Lightroom. As an example, when converting to monochrome, Photoshop's capability to convert to monochrome using a color filter was called the Channel Mixer (and might still be called that) before Lightroom was ever released. It might have had it before ACR was released but I don't remember clearly about that.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Jeffrey, LR and ACR are the same thing. You don't need to start LR at all

Mike, thank you for posting those instructions. I've never used those adjustments before. I'll have to see if ACR has them. I really need to start using Lightroom. I'm just so comfortable in PS because it's what I've used day in and day out for almost 20 years. By the time LR was released, I was already a cynical old man set in my ways LOL

[bnnrcn]

Your second edit is a great improvement Dave

Thanks for the tips. I re-worked the second image of the one camera. Moved the crop out to captures the whole book and re-did the conversion according to the advise. I think it is not too bad.

Dave

[Dave A]

Dave, I have one remaining issue with the image; I think it would benefit from a clockwise rotation.
I appreciate the sides of the camera may not have been perfectly upright (e.g. if it was leaning slightly forward at the top), but I still think I would do it (if mine).

Cheers, Dave

Dave funny you mentioned that. I was thinking the same thing when I first opened up the image in LR then once I got going it totally slipped my mind. I was so focused at trying to get the conversion right that I neglected what I should have done first. I will certainly make that correction, thanks.

Dave