Quality ACTION needed for converting to B&W

[rca1]

Trying to get my B&W conversions to look like B&W (Deep blacks and crisp whites). Have spent hours in the DEVELOP mode trying to get a nice action that I can save. Wondered if anyone had any they would share for me to try?

Regards

 

[Gronlund I]

Hi rca1!
I'm quite pleased with this one: Let your picture be in color format, just set all Saturation slides in HSL-panel to zero. This you can save as preset (make shure no other tabs are on in New Develop Preset panel) . After this, because you still are in RGB, you
can adjust the Luminance of individual colors an do other adjustments if you like.

 

[johnbeardy]

"set all Saturation slides in HSL-panel to zero"

No - this was a workaround for a bug! When b&w mode was selected, the Color Noise slider was fixed at zero, so you could get nasty results in heavily-saturated areas such as blue skies. As of 1.4, this was fixed. Once you move to 2.', there may be another disadvantage from using this workaround (can't say more).

Going back to the original question, the correct way to do b&w isn't to rely on someone else's presets but to do b&w properly. An "action" that produces "deep blacks and crisp whites" on one image will not produce them in another, or will merge distinct colours into the same grey tone. Get using the panel's adjustment painter (commonly known by its Pentagonesque name "targeted adjustment tool") - drag it on image areas, left to darken that colour's b&w rendition, right to lighten it. Much better for you than submitting yourself to presetitis.

John

 

[JBtheLD]

In addition to creating your own B&W Actions, you may be interested to read about running Photoshop Actions from Lightroom. Craig Minielly has got a tutorial explaining how to do it here: www.craigsactions.com/Tips/LightroomRT1.html
This link is to a 3 part tutorial which explains how to link Lightroom's "Export with Presets" to Photoshop Actions. Although referring to his own Actions, the steps will of course work with any Photoshop Actions.
Victoria and I have discussed Lightroom and Photoshop Actions in some detail in the past. Victoria may have more to add.

John

 

[rca1]

An "action" that produces "deep blacks and crisp whites" on one image will not produce them in another, or will merge distinct colours into the same grey tone.

John

Hi John

When people talk batch processing I often think 'how' for that very reason! I tweaked away last night and realised that certain subtle changes can be saved as an action and will work fine on similar images, so at least I have a base from which to work from. I have saved 5 actions for different lighting situations and subjects. This seems to work for me thus far. It is knowing when to stop fiddling with those pesky sliders, but thats what I love about LR, you can just go back a step!

 

[Richard Earney]

Develop Presets, not actions, in Lightroom are generally a starting point, but certainly can be useful as a visualisation tool and can work for many images.

They are simple to create and easy to use, so why not!

 

[rca1]

Develop Presets, not actions, in Lightroom are generally a starting point, but certainly can be useful as a visualisation tool and can work for many images.

They are simple to create and easy to use, so why not!

Apologies, I meant presets.

 

[johnbeardy]

Develop Presets, not actions, in Lightroom are generally a starting point, but certainly can be useful as a visualisation tool and can work for many images.

They are simple to create and easy to use, so why not?

I think your visualization argument is good and sometimes (especially thanks to Develop's Navigation panel's preview) help you see possibilities that might not have occurred. There's also the consistency argument - I use 3 or 4 split toning presets for that reason.

Why not? Well, they're so easy that in some users they do encourage a blind faith - I think that's obvious. Second, I don't think they're so valuable for b&w conversion - not once you've gone beyond a group that effectively simulates red, green and blue filters or Ctrl/Cmd 1, 2, 3 to flick through the channels in Photoshop.

The original post sounds like he's not falling victim to presetitis, but I think the point needed making.

John

 

[davidmknoble]

I started as a black & white photographer in Lightroom, scanning negatives to TIFF's and then adjusting and printing.

After also bringing in RAW files, I believe there is no one preset that will provide any good conversion to b&w. I say this because of the step process needed to properly set the contrast and range for a b&w image.

Adobe did a good job putting the development panels in order. I suggest to you that any conversion in b&w start first with the exposure settings.

Getting a reasonably good histogram is an important place to start. After that is achieved, then fine tuning with the image curve will help separate some tones further or compress them if need be.

Finally, if there is more tonal work based on colors in the photos, I would use some sort of HSL slider combinations to emulate colored filters. I created some based on some work done here by Chris Brandon. You can get them here: http://outdoorimages.blogspot.com/2''8/'5/lightroom-presets-available-black-white.html

I give you all this discourse, because any generic preset will tend to adjust all of these items. While the end result is important, in my experience the proper order is more important. Small adjustments along the way may change how you make further adjustments. Even starting with some dramatic preset that plays with the tonal curve will affect how you might make exposure changes - and this may not be what you want.

NOW, if you have a shoot with 2' or so images, correcting one and then synching the settings can be a very reasonable and easy way to adjust all the images to the correct settings - it stands to reason that the same subject in the same light would require roughtly the same settings. The issue is, this would be a onetime use setting, not applicable for a different subject in different light.

Hope this helps. I'd be interested in what other's think.