how do get strong b/w

kuxion · 20th July 2005

I m very curious how some photographers shoot strong b/w like these?
is there any special post processing techniques, apparently my b/w always seems grey and lack the depth.. i notice i m only able to get pure b/w when i was using film before i upgrade to digital

check out his site
http://www.wprasek.com/photos/showim...e&sub=&img=024

Firefox · 20th July 2005

Have you considered colour filters??

kuxion · 20th July 2005

what type of filters.. i tried correcting the channels with photoshop but still doesnt look good..should i shoot b/w in raw?

Firefox · 20th July 2005

hrmmm.... You know... Coloured filters like Red, yellow, orange filters?

Alternatively, what you can do is to shoot in colour, then use photoshop's channel mixer to convert to greyscale...

kuxion · 21st July 2005

yup tried both.. still not black enough... hmm.. wat could be the reason..have u seen the pic.. do u find it extremely b/w .

ckiang · 21st July 2005

1. Open Levels and adjust end sliders to correspond with the start/end of the histogram.
2. Play with the different channels in Channel Mixer (monochrome mode) for best effect.
3. Tweak the contrast further using Curves.
4. Optionally duplicate the layer and set the layer option to "Soft Light".

This should give you something like this:-

Regards
CK

kuxion · 21st July 2005

ok. thnks for the tips.

VincentLin · 21st July 2005

One thing I realised about the link kuxion gave...

The church spire looks a bit fake. I'm not much of an expert, but I feel the contrast is too high. It looks like the spire was just layered on top of the sky. The contrast is not consistent between the spire and the sky itself.

IMHO.

20th July 2005	#1
kuxion New Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 49	how do get strong b/w I m very curious how some photographers shoot strong b/w like these? is there any special post processing techniques, apparently my b/w always seems grey and lack the depth.. i notice i m only able to get pure b/w when i was using film before i upgrade to digital check out his site http://www.wprasek.com/photos/showim...e&sub=&img=024

20th July 2005	#2
Firefox Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bedok Posts: 716	Have you considered colour filters??

21st July 2005	#5
kuxion New Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 49	yup tried both.. still not black enough... hmm.. wat could be the reason..have u seen the pic.. do u find it extremely b/w .

21st July 2005	#6
ckiang Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 6,597	1. Open Levels and adjust end sliders to correspond with the start/end of the histogram. 2. Play with the different channels in Channel Mixer (monochrome mode) for best effect. 3. Tweak the contrast further using Curves. 4. Optionally duplicate the layer and set the layer option to "Soft Light". This should give you something like this:- Regards CK

21st July 2005	#8
VincentLin Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 385	One thing I realised about the link kuxion gave... The church spire looks a bit fake. I'm not much of an expert, but I feel the contrast is too high. It looks like the spire was just layered on top of the sky. The contrast is not consistent between the spire and the sky itself. IMHO.