I'm finding that adjusting colour hues in B&W can give me a better colour shot

[JBW]

[Urbanflyer]

Yes--Color value underlies all color photography and working with value can really add snap to your photos! This one is a beauty!

[Donald]

Good. Another step along the learning curve.

The other, sort of, related thing, is that making sure you've got the correct colours always helps get you a better B & W conversion. That's why, even though I know I'm shooting for B & W, I carry a WhiBal card and always take a shot of it at the start so that I can correct colour balance if needs be so that I know I have the correct starting point for B & W conversion. You can then, of course, so all sorts of things to the colour if you know what that will give you when you convert.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shot Brian

[Geoff F]

The old trick for improving B&W conversion, Brian, was to start with the background colour layer then add a Hue/Saturation Layer before the B&W Conversion Layer.

You could keep going to the Hue/Saturation Layer and give the hues a sideways tweak to enhance the mono conversion appearance. Sometimes you could be quite severe in the amount of variation. Some people also added a Curves Layer in the stack before the B&W Layer. A little bit of extreme Unsharp Mask around about Radius 30 Amount 30 and Threshold no more than 2 can also add a little bit of zip at the end of the process, but only if required. Known as Local Contrast Enhancement.

Most of the modern monochrome conversion software allows you to independently tweak the main colours as part of the process which is more precise. Although it is a good idea to have a good look and think about the colour image before starting to do these tweaks so you can have some idea of the strengths and weakness of the original image before you begin the conversion process.

Using a greyscale image under a colour image can also enhance the contrast and depth of colour but this needs to be used with care.

[Manfred M]

Good. Another step along the learning curve.

The other, sort of, related thing, is that making sure you've got the correct colours always helps get you a better B & W conversion. That's why, even though I know I'm shooting for B & W, I carry a WhiBal card and always take a shot of it at the start so that I can correct colour balance if needs be so that I know I have the correct starting point for B & W conversion. You can then, of course, so all sorts of things to the colour if you know what that will give you when you convert.

This is just about the opposite of what I do, Donald as colour temperature never was never a consideration when shooting B&W film. In fact, one of the primary reasons I will go with B&W is to fix a mixed light situation that cannot be cannot be colour corrected.

In fact the old days we had a drawer full of filters running from red to yellow to orange to green to add different accents to the shot. The reds would darken the sky dramatically and bring out the clouds, yellows and oranges did that to a lesser extent. The greens were used to enhance skin tones (or lighten foliage).

When I do a B&W conversion I will use the individual colour channels to do what I used to use filters for, except I can effectively vary them to the scene. That way I can accentuate the tonality of the image and this is one of the first steps that I carry out when I decide to go B&W.