Preferred Method in B&W Conversion

[vinwin]

People used to use the Channel Mixer to convert a color photo to B&W. With the new Black and White Tools on CS3, one will have the choice to choose between the two. Which is your preferred B&W tools and why?

 

[agape01]

People used to use the Channel Mixer to convert a color photo to B&W. With the new Black and White Tools on CS3, one will have the choice to choose between the two. Which is your preferred B&W tools and why?

You would want one that gives you the most amount of control.

 

[night86mare]

i only have cs2.. channel mixer it is.. much more control than gradient mapping or the worst of the worst - desaturation

 

[flipfreak]

depends on what my picture is really. sometimes i do the dirty method and desat when the b&w portion is not an impt part of the pic. otherwise for portraits, i usually play around with a few methods to get the best effect.

 

[vinwin]

Surprise to see no one have voted the new B&W tool. For Channel Mixer users, what's the strength of Channer Mixer over the B&W tool?

 

[theveed]

Hmm, LR's B&W conversion is very flexible and powerful... I do all my B&W conversions there then shift to PS for dodge/burn only...

 

[scrappy]

Channel mixer for me, maximum control as everyone has said. I must admit though that I haven't tried out the new BW tools, just have read about it in Scott Kelby's books, but to me it didn't look as good. Also, my BW conversion usually goes through other steps like USM and high pass filter and brightness/contrast to increase contrast etc.

 

[osocan]

I havent used that many tools on a long term basis. My preferred method is channel mixer.

 

[yehosaphat]

Channel mixer with minor tweaks on saturation.

 

[andrewtansj]

black & white tool is cool....http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0017 just found out after reading this thread...

 

[Love_sky]

Channel Mixer on CS 2

 

[hanqiang1011]

depends on what my picture is really. sometimes i do the dirty method and desat when the b&w portion is not an impt part of the pic. otherwise for portraits, i usually play around with a few methods to get the best effect.

Me do - Desatuation, Level control or Channel Mixer, Level control

 

[nabilmust]

Hmm, LR's B&W conversion is very flexible and powerful... I do all my B&W conversions there then shift to PS for dodge/burn only...

A quick question, because I'm new to conversion: where exactly is the channel mixer in LR?

 

[creampuff]

A quick question, because I'm new to conversion: where exactly is the channel mixer in LR?

There is no channel mixer in Lightroom.
In Lightroom, there are several ways to convert one or more colour images to black & white. The easiest way is to convert to Grayscale which can be done from any of LR's modules except the Web module.

You can also convert to B&W from the Quick Develop pane and for most control, you can also convert from the Basic or HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)/Color/Grayscale panes. The Greyscale Mix is quite similar to Photoshop CS3's B&W tool, which is reason enough to upgrade from CS2. Basically LR & CS3's targeted adjustment tool allows for adjustment of how each colour data is converted to B&W, which is far more precise than channel mixer.

Photoshop CS3 and LR's B&W conversion is far ahead of the traditional channel mixer. LR does it's B&W conversion using the LAB color space at 16 bits per pixel compared to the conventional RGB at 8 bits per pixel. Banding and subtle gradations come out smoother.