Biker Portrait

[Mike Buckley]

Is there some place I can learn about - "nuance where each colour fits into the final GREY TONE range, can have a large impact on the final B&W image"?

I think that comes mostly with experience and experimentation.

There are a few basics that can be found almost anywhere. The color in the scene that matches the color filter being used will be the brightest part in the scene (a blue sky will be bright if you use a blue filter). The color that is on the opposite side of the color wheel will then be the darkest tones in the scene. The colors gradually in between will be gradually darker or lighter tones of grey.

Caucasian skin tones often look best when using a green filter. Landscapes often look best when using a yellow filter.

I've found that the rest is a matter of trying different filters being used at full strength and then observing what I like and don't like. Once I've settled on a particular color for use as the filter, I then experiment with changing the strength of the filter.

Everything else I do is just a matter of fine tuning the details.

[Donald]

Is there some place I can learn about - "nuance where each colour fits into the final GREY TONE range, can have a large impact on the final B&W image"?

Michael Freeman, 'The Complete Guide to Black & White Digital Photography', ILEX, 2009.

[William W]

Is there some place I can learn about - "nuance where each colour fits into the final GREY TONE range, can have a large impact on the final B&W image"?

To answer your question specifically - and to answer it in the same context of meaning as I wrote the comment noting the use of the word ‘nuance’ – then Freeman’s book is excellent and I would recommend it to everyone who is serious about attaining a detailed understanding and an high level of skills and OPTIONS for their Black and White work from the digital media.

***

If it is the basics that one seeks, then this will assist to give you an idea of what ‘Contrasts Filters’ will do:


Note that image above shows the Typical EOS Filters, as they can be applied IN CAMERA for B&W File Capture, but those sample pictures represent the results that you would get by applying the same coloured filtration to the Colour Image File in Post Production, before conversion to B&W.

Note also, that the In Camera Filters are rudimentary in regard to the amount of slider control that there is in Post Production.

Then after the basics are understood, as mentioned, trial and error experimentation ‘to your own taste’ will give you excellent results, for your tastes.

BUT - going this route, note that there might be other options which are available, but remain un-noticed by you.

***

To address the Subject of how to get good B&W from Digital Files more broadly, John’s comments about experience and experimentation really resonated with me and I also concur with his advice to experiment and find your own tastes.

However, I shall make an assumption that you are not experienced in Shooting B&W Film and Wet Darkroom Work: and this goes directly to the point about how each individual's “experience” will specifically predicate how each of us will then “experiment”.

My personal journey gave me incredible realizations. It might assist you:

1. I was trained (qualified) as a B&W Darkroom Technician. To attain that qualification, (at that time and at the institution where I studied), I had to first attain my Dip. Photog., so that meant for anyone to work as a qualified Darkroom Technician we first had to (at least in the theory of it) be qualified as a Photographer.

Which meant, (as a Photographer) I was trained and also experienced in all aspects of B&W Contrast Filters; Film Profiles; the selection of Film for various uses; and (for Portraiture) correct/appropriate Wardrobe Selection for B&W Photography.

As a Darkroom Technician, I was trained and experienced in all aspects of Pulling and Pushing Film and Dodging and Burning Prints.

These are the seven elements which were the primary tools that I used for all my B&W work – viz:
a) The Lighting (often different choices for B&W than for Colour)
b) Contrast Filters
c) Film Profiles
d) Film Selection for particular uses
e) Wardrobe Selection
f) Pushing & Pulling Film
g) Dodging & Burning Prints


2. In 2004, I was employed to plan and cut-over a large W&P Studio from Film to Digital Media. This took about 12 months to achieve and about 24 months to fine tune. (Obviously) part of the cut-over was to develop an efficient and effective Digital Workflow. B&W Images have maintained popularity in the W&P Genre both by Photographers and also Clients since the beginning, so we needed to continue to produce excellent B&W pictures for our Clients.

When defining and designing the Digital Workflow my default approach was to experiment by applying the knowledge and the techniques that I knew. I experimented with transposing the use of Contrasts Filters in the Post Production of the Digital Files when those files were converted to B&W. That worked, but we all (“all” meaning several other Photographers at the Studio and I) could immediately tell the difference between a Print from a digital conversion and a B&W wet print printed from a Negative. So were very, VERY dissatisfied.

During this time I also applied another ‘what I used to do’ to ‘the new digital world’ and that was to employ a specialist Post Production Photo Finisher. Although today that might seem odd, because I guess 99% of Photographers do their own PP, it was not an odd idea then, because, from the first Wedding that I covered as Student, the Boss had prescribed the Film Stocks that we were to use and the ASA at which to rate each Film: and then those Exposed Rolls went to a specific Lab and were processed and printed by one of two, specific, Darkroom Techs - that was the way it was done: certainly some 'weekend photographers' might have used a local consumer lab, but, the stats then, would be reversed from today's stats - then 99% would send their film and negs. to a lab for processing and printing.

In 2004 it was quite difficult for me to get an ‘experienced’ Digital Photo-finisher, many applied and most were ‘weekend’ Wedding Photographers, who themselves had mainly only experience in digital media and moreover they didn’t get the fact that their ‘interpretation’ was not part of their job description.

However, I found a woman, a student studying an allied course to Photography, (something like ‘Digital Imaging’ as I recall). She understood from the get go that we needed was, in simple terms, for me to show her a print from a B&W negative and she had to make the same print from a digital file, which I had shot of the same Scene/Subject.

That proved to be bloody difficult.

But with time and patience, as she researched and learned methods of PP and I learned some of the nuances of digital PHOTOGRAPHY and I learned that the answer was NOT a simple transposition from the techniques that I previously used with Film – we moved forward.


3. The result of my experiences as described in #1 and #2, above, leads me to have a firm belief that a broad brush understanding of: a) Lighting FOR B&W; b) Contrast Filters; c) Film Profiles; d) Film Selection for particular uses; e) Wardrobe Selection; f) Pushing & Pulling Film; g) Dodging & Burning Prints - as we used for Film is a great starting point for achieving excellence in Digital B&W Imaging.

These can all be transposed to working with Digital Media, thus and with emphasis as indicated:
A) LIGHTING > LIGHTING: choice often is different for B&W (LIGHTING is excruciatingly mandatory for everything)
b) Contrast Filters > physical Filter on Lens or (usually)‘Filters’ in PP (extremely useful for understanding B&W digital)
c) Film Profiles > Sensor Types and ISO Selection (pedantic for digital media)
d) Film Selection for particular uses > Sensor Types and ISO Selection (pedantic for digital media)
e) Wardrobe Selection > Wardrobe Selection (mandatory for excellence in B&W Portraiture, when using either media)
f) Pushing & Pulling Film > Exposing for THE ‘Grey-tone’ / Amount of ETTR (painful but mandatory for excellence in digital)
g) Dodging & Burning Prints > Dodging / Burning in PP and ALL OTHER PP OPTIONS (mandatory for excellence in digital)

But ALSO - to achieve excellence, one needs to understand that the two media (Film and Digital) ARE different and it is necessary to start afresh and learn techniques as to how make excellent B&W images, and that means if one is using Digital that ‘excellence’ or AMOUNT OF ‘nuance’ that will be available to you in your Post Production, begins with what happens in the camera and how the camera is set up.

i.e. the main considerations being:
> the choice of ISO
> the choice of exposure for the ‘Photographic Grey Tone’
> the amount of ETTR applied (exposure to the right)

Please note, we are discussing increments of ⅓ Stop and for many this would be an insane assignment and neither worthwhile for their purposes nor for their pleasure: but it was worthwhile for my purposes and also for my pleasure.

THEN – one needs to become excellent in the Post Production of those raw files and especially conversant in all the techniques of digital B&W Conversion.

***

Obviously, as a starting point: one needs to have a trained eye to 'see' and to recognize excellent and technically good B&W work - and to that end, I think you would be well served to take any opportunity study excellent B&W Gallery Prints at Photography Exhibitions and Art Galleries and the like.

***

If you wish to explore a range of options and outcomes which are possible and you wish to engage in a deep understanding of the nuances of B&W from the Digital Media, then that will require more than just an understanding of the basics and applying a facsimile of contrasts filters in Post Production.

WW

All Images ©AJ Group Pty Ltd Aust 1996~2015, WMW 1965~1996

[KimC]

Bill, thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us. There is just so much to learn...sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming. It's thanks to forums like this, and people like you, Manfred, Mike, John, Donald, and many others that our knowledge/understanding starts to grow/change/deepen.