Colour to Black and White.

[Isac]

#1

#2 - Only using the B&W adjustment layer in PS.

[HansE]

Interesting. Thought I would compare it with my fast way of B&W creation.

[HansE]

You have obviously manipulated the actual colours which have given it a infrared look. I have just used lab mode and worked on the lightness channel.

[Isac]

Hi Hans. I didn't change any colours prior to adding the B&W adjustment layer. Did you use LEVELS or CURVES for the Lightness Channel adjustment?
I have found that the newer B&W adjustment layer is much more powerful than it used to be in earlier versions because you can control the colours more accurately. I find you can give the image some real pop rather than have it look like it's just been converted to greyscale. I push the colours upwards of what I want to pop and reduce the colours if I want to darken them as I did with the blue sky to highlight clouds and give some real contrast to the main subject. Here's the settings I used.

[HansE]

that is what created the darker sky and lighter tree in your B&W image giving the infrared illusion.

[Isac]

I really think it gives some real punch to the image, but it's only my opinion. There's a guy on our Perth Photography Facebook group and he does it that way with some cool results, so he's my inspiration. To me just converting to B&W leaves them a bit flat. I have that particular setting as a custom BLW file in my B&W presets if you want it. It saves adjusting for every image and then you can tweak it where needed.

[HansE]

Thanks Isac . I would probably not remember where I put it by the time I was going to use it. Thank you for the offer.

[wigz]

Very effective Isac, I would probably have gone for a lighter sky but I doubt it would have had as much impact.

[Isac]

Thank you Alan. The dark sky is deliberately done to put focus on the main subject. I then push up the hues of the underlying colours of the main subject to highlight them - in this case, the yellows. To me, on some images, the sky is just not that important and using it as a dark backdrop really makes the main subject pop. It's just one artistic way of putting the focus on your main element I guess.

[K1W1]

As a pseudo IR conversion I think it is quite good but as a black and white I prefer Hans' version. As it is posted in Artistic Expressions to me what the creator wants is all that really matters.

[Ralph]

I have had a go at this and its hard to pick the right shot to transform into one of these.
I will say sorry right now as to me and more than likely only me, but I feel like the conversion has lost some detail in it.
Maybe it's more to the fact that we see it in colour more often and I am not making enough of an effort to adjust myself in looking at it.
But I like the colour one a lot.

[Isac]

Thanks Ralph, we all see things differently I guess and all look at photography from different angles. I - like many others, and obviously not all - experiment a lot with image manipulation, sometimes hardly noticeable and other times extreme. To me, it's exciting to do, firstly because there are powerful software packages which make it possible and secondly, at my age I love the idea of using those means to try something new and creative. I spend countless hours helping others with editing and creative art and it's exciting. I'm feeling a vibe here that perhaps this is not the forum for that particular genre or the place to "show my wares" so to speak. It is what it is

[Grumpy John]

I really like the conversion Isac, it adds a lot of drama to an otherwise ordinary colour image. It does, however, need a .72 deg tilt CCW to straighten the vertical