OCT 14 Blog Post | B & W conversions Tips & Tricks

How do you girls do your black and white conversions?

For the October 14th Blog post, I want to do a write-up/tutorial about doing black and white conversions. I am going to offer a few suggestions for how I turn my photos into black & white images for my pages and I was hoping to get a few Pink Lady volunteers to share their fav process(es) and tips as well.

-You can just write a few sentences explaining what you do ... and hopefully you can provide an image and/or a page. (these do not need to be new pages, although you are welcome to make news ones, any page with mostly PRD product that shows your B&W conversion would be fine!).
OR
-You can give us a SIMPLE step by step with a screen shot to show us your process. Again providing a B&W image and/or a page would be ideal. We can keep it simple so the post isn't too long. (If anyone is worried that English isn't their first language and has a hard time with the writing, I can help you! No worries!)

I'd love to get 3 or 4 Pink ladies for this ... and hopefully we end up with 3 or 4 different approaches to black & white conversions. This will then tie into the Oct 15th Blog Challenge. We are going to do a Party/Celebration themed challenge to go along with Mirjam's Designiversary and as a bonus each participant will get a 2nd entry if they try one of the B&W conversion tips (and tell us which one) on their page.

Please let me know if you are willing to help out with this (and just make a little note about what you do to turn your photos B&W if you can, so I can make sure I have enough different approaches and they are not all alike!) Due Date is Oct 1st.

I am going to share my fav process which is using a gradient map. I am also going to list 1 or 2 fav presets that I use for quick B&W conversions.

I use the Black & White adjustment layer... there are different options to chose from (green filter is what I use most).

Anja ... ooh, the green filter, very cool. so you will be willing to provide a sample B&W photo or a page that has your B&W conversion and a little blurb about what how you do this, for this blog post?

yes, of course!
Deadline?

awesome! Oct 1st please!

okay!

I use Totally Rad actions- THE ORIGINAL MIX, I can do a few screen shots and a new page...?
is it okay if I promote Rad Actions? with it? I am the lazy photo fixer...actions all the way!
I could use a few other ones too..to show...the coffee shops and perhaps Paint the Moon or My four hens?

Anne, THANK YOU! I think it is OK ... Mirjam didn't say no to the fact that presets/actions might be something the girls turn to (i want to list my 1 or 2 fave actions or presets as well) so i think its all good since Mirjam doesn't make actions/presets anyway. Appreciate your help! :)

Also anyone want to share iphone/smart phone apps as an option. 95% of my photos these days are iphone piccs so i turn to VSCO and pictapgo for quick solutions often. Would be great if any of you want to share your tips for working with that to get Black and Whites ...

Anne ...actually i use Coffee shop and Paint the Moon Actions too (which were what i was gonna mention) ... so why don't you do all the actions and I'll just stick to the Gradient Map tips.

I am natural lazy. Once I realized the hardest part to using ACTIONs is loading them in your program. Then it is just a matter of pushing the play button!  I fell in love with Totally Rad actions.  They have a big sale once a year, and it happened I had extra funds and got a bundle. TRA1 – THE ORIGINAL MIX
http://www.gettotallyrad.com/photoshop-actions/

I use the B&W actions so much! For this page made with Pink Reptile's I Believe in Miracle and One of a Kind and the TRA1-Bitchin B&W, but I played with the other two, and you can see the difference.  I kinda liked the AWESOME, but it lightened the background sky and sidewalk to much for me.   Mostly personal taste.

I don't work for Totally Rad, but you can get a freebie pack and try a few of the actions, just by signing up. HERE http://www.gettotallyrad.com/photoshop-actions-presets-trial/

***feel free to edit, add or subtract to make it fit!

Here's my way of converting an image to b+w!

First of all, I never work in a destructive way, meaning, I use adjustment layers for nearly all my editing, also for converting an image to b+w. It's become a habit of mine ;-)

So what I do is, I choose the adjustment layer 'black & white' (in the layers menu, the circle icon half empty / half black). That will give me several options for converting an image to black & white. It really depends on your picture, I'd say for most portraits or pictures with people, the green filter will work best, because of the skin tone. But I found a picture of a building (from www.freeimages.com) that shows how different filters might be fine, just with a different result.



So the top left image is the original of course. In picture 1 I have used the default black & white filter. Nothing much to say about this one.
In picture 2 I have used the 'high contrast blue filter'. This filter will not work with faces, but it works just fine here I think. It lightens the sky, and gives a nice clean and crisp contrast. In picture 3 I have used the 'maximum white' filter. That gives the picture a nice high key effect...
I usually will try them all, to see what surprising results I come up with. And it all depends on what you look but do play around, you might be surprised!

awesome, awesome Anne & Anja! you girls rock! thanks so much for the help for this blog post ... huge hugs to you both.

anyone want to share iphone/anroid phone b&w tips??? i can do iPhone if noone else is willing ... but i don't have an android so if there is anyone out there that can share a quick tip or too...

thank you!!!

glad you liked it!
I'm sorry, I won't be of much help with the phone, I have just a very simple and old Nokia phone, it's not even smart LOL

OMG this is AWESOME! People are SO going to love this info!