BW conversion application for digital files

Hi guys,

What soft you use to convert your digital files into black and white? ( needed for mac ) Thanks and best!

by Mikhail Galustov at Thu Jan 17 23:48:13 UTC 2008 (ed. Mar 12 2008) Moscow, Russia | Bookmark this | Digg this |

Photoshop, in duotone mode. Then back to RGB.

by Shahriar Nouri | 17 Jan 2008 23:01 | Oslo, Norway |

Exposure 2.0
Do a great job.

by Marc André Pauzé | 17 Jan 2008 23:01 | Montreal, Canada |

The lights right studio has an impressive collection of readymade PS-actions free to download with good manuals as well:

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/photoshop-tools.htm

I have found especially their b/w-conversion, noise-reduction and sharpening-kits being valuable.

(It is good style to give a small donation for something that well made)

by Ty Stange | 19 Jan 2008 09:01 | Copenhagen, Denmark |

Lightroom with B&W presets and One Phase Wow presets.

Lightzone.

by Daniel Legendre | 19 Jan 2008 10:01 | Paris, France |

In Photoshop, Channel Mixer. In Adobe Camera RAW, HSL/Grayscale (only in CS3, and the same as Channel Mixer in PS except in RAW, so better.)

LightRoom has same, but also some nice presets. (LR uses Camera RAW, just the same as PS does.)

by ted dillard | 19 Jan 2008 10:01 | boston, ma, United States |

Hey Misha,

I use Black and White workflow pro and find it works very well.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/DBWpro/

by Graeme Jennings | 19 Jan 2008 17:01 | London, United Kingdom |

image ~~-> adjustments -~~> desaturate

by Ed Leveckis | 19 Jan 2008 17:01 | New York, United States |

Black and White workflow pro is not yet upgraded for Photoshop CS3 ?

by Daniel Legendre | 19 Jan 2008 20:01 | Paris, France |

Alien Skin Exposure… doesn’t just convert to black and white but adds film grain, for a variety of black and white film types, too.

by Ben Curtis | 19 Jan 2008 20:01 | Nairobi, Kenya |

Cool, thank you.

by Mikhail Galustov | 19 Jan 2008 21:01 | Moscow, Russia |

I do correct One Software PhotoPresets at

http://www.ononesoftware.com/photopresets-wow.php

by Daniel Legendre | 19 Jan 2008 21:01 | Paris, France |

I use C3’s BW thingy in ACR which is similar to channel mixer but a little better.

Playing with it too much leads to a lot of ugly noise in images but subtle tweaks do a lot.

*Discliamer: the following is not aimed at anyone in particular, just a general thought.

I find the idea of adding grain to a photo pretty amusing… and paying extra for software to do it to try to look like some sort of film even funnier.

Isn’t shooting B/W antiquated enough.

In 20 years people will reminisce about the pixel quality of their old trusty 5D and some company will open up shop selling software to adjust your gigapixel hologram images to give them that 5D look.

Move with the times, embrace your medium and try not to pretend its something it isn’t.

by skyler b. ramin | 19 Jan 2008 21:01 | Vancouver, Canada |

a hearty second to that. a lot of the bw methods posted here are designed to mimic film… with a little practice and testing you can develop your own channel mixer conversions that will do what you always liked film to do, and also what you never could get film to quite do!

...rather than doing just a desaturate or a preset you don’t understand.

by ted dillard | 19 Jan 2008 21:01 | boston, ma, United States |

Aperture B/W conversion method – monocrome mixer. For the toned images, I use Photoshop’s duotone method.

by Peter Koraca | 19 Jan 2008 21:01 | Ljubljana, Slovenia |

“Pictures, regardless of how they are created and recreated, are intended to be looked at. This brings to the forefront not the technology of imaging, which of course is important, but rather what we might call the eyenology (seeing).” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Conversion to B&W is an action to catch the reality as seen by the eye and soul of the photographer, so to create an image that tell a story. Software like Exposure, CS, Lighroom or Aperture (and many others) offer the possibility to tweak, play with curves and slider, by adjusting details so the eye of the photographer is satisfied with the result.

“They . . . asked me:
”’How do you make your pictures?’ I was puzzled . . .
“I said, ‘I don’t know, it’s not important.’ – Henri Cartier-Bresson

by Marc André Pauzé | 20 Jan 2008 00:01 (ed. Jan 20 2008) | Montreal, Canada |

great point, and, as I endlessly preach to my classes, learning your medium, photoshop, digital photography is about learning to use all these tools to fulfill that vision, that seeing. use the tools, don’t let them use you.

note, in this quote the suggested (maybe?) contradiction… the question was how do you make your pictures, not how do you process them… heh.

by ted dillard | 20 Jan 2008 11:01 | boston, ma, United States |

Yesterday I sat through half a day of judging by three terrific photographers/editors at the White House News Photographers Assn annual competition. It may have been something based on what they were shooting when they started their careers, but time and time again their final cuts contained disproportionate numbers of black and white shots. One could not tell whether the images were from film or digital, but they definitely were black and white.

So black and white remains powerful…..

by Neal Jackson | 20 Jan 2008 11:01 | Washington, DC, United States |

Thanks for your tips, very appreciated.
m

by Mikhail Galustov | 20 Jan 2008 13:01 | Moscow, Russia |

I desaturate my image with photoshop, then I use curves and layer masks.
I don’t like batch operation for B&W conversion..

by Luca Quagliato | 20 Jan 2008 13:01 | Milano, Italy |