Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Black and white conversion

Clickinmoms.com had a photoshop tutorial on black and white conversions.  I muddle through conversions but it's not often I am really excited about how a conversion comes out.

I did something stupid with this effort and started with a photo I wanted to "save"  It was a cute expression and I knew mom and dad would like it.  But it took cloning and fussing and I couldn't really get it all right.

Start: 



So,  I did what I could with the back blurred it out a little and just went on with the conversion.  The conversion part was simple,  but new to me.

1. desaturate the image completely
2.  add a "soft light" curve
3.  Add a level adjustment ( 20/.80) to darken the midtones/shadows
4. Add a level adjustment (10/1.4) to then brighten the midtones for contrast.

Then because every image is different,  I played with the opacity of the layers.   Then I did a quick eyeball sharpen.  I liked the outcome for this one (at least in terms of the BW conversion.  The background is another story.):

Do you have a "go to" process for BW conversions?

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