Digital Camera World » black and white photography

Photoshop Presets: the best way to make a black and white preset

jmeyer — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:00:08 +0000

You know the saying about not putting the cart before the horse? Rather than deliberately making a range of Photoshop presets, a more organic approach is probably best. The more presets you have, the more time goes into trying out different Photoshop effects one after another. Below we’ll show you a simple way of doing this.

If you’re at all serious about your photography, an Instagram-style workflow won’t help you learn or develop your own creative senses.
In fact, you already have as many presets as you need.

Photoshop’s Black and White Adjustment Layer has a Preset drop-down menu, and there’s an equivalent selection in Lightroom’s Develop workspace, too. There’s enough variety for you here to choose a starting point and decide which direction the picture should take.

When you’ve edited a photo and you like the results enough that you’d like to apply it to other pictures, that’s when you should save a preset. Let your range of presets accumulate from your successes.

How to make black and white Photoshop presets

01 Black & White Adjustment Layer
From the Layers Panel, click the circular Adjustment Layer icon and choose Black & White. Apply an existing preset from the Presets drop-down menu and study the effect on the image.

02 Add tone
Your own preset can include a coloured tone. In the Black & White adjustment’s properties panel, click the swatch and choose a colour from the Color Picker dialog box. Or if you prefer, sample it from another picture.

03 Save your preset
Save your own preset in the Black & White properties panel. At its top right is a small pop-up menu – the lines with an arrow. Your preset will now be available in the panel’s Presets list.

Black and White Photography: finessing with Levels, Curves and Dodge and Burn

jmeyer — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 02:00:24 +0000

In this month’s Shoot Like A Pro series on mastering black and white photography, we’ve explained how to compose for black and white photos and how to take control of black and white conversion. In our final part in the series we look at how you can use Photoshop effects like Levels, Curves and the Dodge and Burn tools to fine tune your black and white photo editing process.

Master Photoshop Levels and Curves

While the individual colour adjustments will give you control over the final tones of your black-and-white photos,  they aren’t the only way that you can control them in your final image.

Once you have converted your images, you can also use either Levels or Curves Adjustment Layers to fine-tune the contrast and tones in your black and white photography. Curves Adjustment Layers aren’t available in Elements, so you’ll have to use Levels.

Using Curves
This adjustment allows you to make more subtle changes to your images than Levels, as you can lighten or darken specific parts of the histogram, rather than the three fixed points available in Levels.

You can click any point along the diagonal line in the adjustment window, and drag it down to darken these tones, or up to lighten them. You can also click on a point along this line to lock it in position.

Because the range of adjustments using Curves is almost unlimited, it can be difficult to use at first. You’ll find it’s much easier to start off by using the preset adjustments available in the drop-down menu within the adjustment window.

These presets offer a range of options for the most common adjustments used, such as ‘S’ curves to increase the contrast, and lightening or darkening the image.

Increase contrast
One of the most common adjustments you’ll need to make to your black-and-white images is to increase the contrast. While the preset options are useful, they often don’t give the exact effect that you need for your images. In these situations you can still use one of the preset options as a starting point, then simply drag the curve to suit your own shot.

To increase the contrast in an image, select the Medium Contrast option from the drop-down menu. This will apply a subtle ‘S’ curve. To darken the shadows, click and drag the point towards the bottom left of the curve further down. To lighten the highlights, you simply click and drag the point towards the top of the curve higher.

Selective adjustment
Localised changes in tone, density and contrast have been used almost since the birth of photography to add impact to black-and-white shots.

But unlike the days of the master printer producing prints individually, you  can now apply selective adjustments quickly and easily to your images.

The easiest way to do this on large areas of an image, such as the sky, is to use a Layer Mask on a Levels or Curves Adjustment Layer. You simply make your adjustment to suit the area, ignoring any effect on the rest of the image.

Then, using a black brush set to around 25% opacity, paint onto the Layer Mask that corresponds to the area that you want to leave unaffected by the adjustment.

Black and white photography: take control of conversion

jmeyer — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 02:00:58 +0000

In the first part of our new Shoot Like A Pro series on mastering black and white photography, we explained how to compose for black and white photos – and what subjects work best. In the second post in the series we start to look at best practice post-shoot. We’ll look at how to take control of black and white conversion, and the subtleties of doing it both in Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS.

The biggest problem with in-camera black and white is that contrasting colours can end up with a similar tonal value in your images.

There are a number of ways to change the way that individual colours are converted into black and white, including in-camera filter effects, but the best way to learn is by using the black-and-white adjustment tools in either Elements or Photoshop CS.

These adjustments allow you to use sliders to control how individual colours are converted into black-and-white tones. Darkening or lightening the tones of these colours can transform your final result compared to a more basic conversion.

To use these tools you’ll need to use a colour original, so you should either turn off the black-and-white picture mode on your camera, or simply shoot in raw format and then process the raw file without using the black-and-white effect.

Shooting for success
This conversion technique relies on contrasting colours in your original image, so we chose to shoot a simple pink flower against a blue background. The basic set-up was positioned on a table close to a window, but not in direct sunlight.

This diffuse lighting was deliberately chosen to provide a soft light without there being too many shadows on the flower or the background.

With your image open in Elements, you simply need to go to Enhance>Convert to Black and White.

This will open up a new window that contains a whole range of preset styles to choose from, along with the manual controls for adjusting the red, green and blue intensity, and a contrast control.

On the next page we’ll take a look at some of the Preset options available in Photoshop Elements.

PAGE 1: Shooting images you can easily convert to black and white
PAGE 2: Black and white conversion in Photoshop Elements
PAGE 3: Black and white conversion in Photoshop CS

Black and white landscape photography: how to make moody minimalist effects

jmeyer — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:45:44 +0000

Square cropped, black-and-white, long-exposure pictures of the sea are all the rage these days. To master this black and white landscape photography effect, you’ll need to learn a few core techniques, but they’re pretty easy to get to grips with.

Naturally, you’ll need some water with moving waves to get the mist-like effect during a long exposure. You’ll need a graphic focal point too – a semi-submerged rock, pier or distant static ship will work a treat.

Long exposures are vital for blurring moving water, but not everyone wants to hang around until dusk when there’s little light, so in this walkthrough we’ll show you how to use a Neutral Density (ND) filter to reduce the amount of light passing through the lens.

This means that even on a bright sunny day you’ll still be able to shoot long exposures of several seconds or more. For the best results, you’ll also need to use a sturdy tripod and take steps to reduce camera shake during the exposure.

We’ll show you how to convert your shot in the digital darkroom, removing the colour using a non-destructive and re-editable Black and White Adjustment Layer, and use the Crop tool to make the image square. Both of these treatments help enhance the tranquil Zen-like quality. Read on to see how it’s done…

How to make a minimalist black and white landscape

01 Keep it steady
To slow down your exposure and capture the motion of the waves, use a Neutral Density (ND) filter to block out some of the bright light. Avoid camera movement by using a tripod, cable release and your SLR’s Mirror Lock-up feature. Focus and compose your scene before attaching the ND filter.

02 Pre-visualise your shot
To get a better idea of how the final image will look while shooting, try setting your camera to display the preview image in monochrome – by setting the Picture Style to Black and White. If you shoot in raw the colour data will still be available once you’ve downloaded your image.

03 Convert to mono
There are several ways to convert your images to black and white using Photoshop CS or Elements. Here, we’ve used a Black and White Adjustment Layer. This gives you control over how your conversion looks, and allows you to re-edit the effect later. To finish, use the Crop tool to make a square crop.

Black and white photography made easy: tips for pro-quality results from start to finish

crutter — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 02:00:50 +0000

Since the earliest days of taking pictures, producing stunning black and white photography has required a combination of shooting and darkroom skills. For the best results, you need to hone your photo composition to be able to visualise the world in black and white. But you also must know how to manipulate an image for maximum impact.

Despite the many changes in how we shoot and manipulate images having moved on from film photography, many of the basic skills are still the same. The real difference is the time it takes. The shooting and developing process that once took days can now be mastered in a few hours.

So in the new installment of our ongoing Shoot Like A Pro series we’ve come up with a set of tasks to help you master the art of black and white photography. From simple shooting to controlling contrast and tones, these tasks will take between 30 minutes and a couple of hours.

Follow these tasks, and by the end you’ll be shoot professional-quality black and white photography in no time at all!

This week we’ll be starting at the shooting stage of making black and white photography.You can save time and effort by getting your results right in-camera, so the first task will be visualising and composing a world without colour.

How to pre-visualise and compose for black and white photography

We are so used to seeing the world in colour that it can be difficult to get to grips with how everything will look when converted to black and white photography.

So, if you are struggling to see in mono, try setting your camera’s picture mode to black and white, then simply get out and take some photos.

Using this picture mode will give you the ability to instantly review your images in black and white to see if they work or not, and how the different colours convert into monochrome tones.

For even quicker feedback you can also view the scene in black and white by switching to Live View mode. If you don’t like what you see, you can just find a different subject and try again.

PAGE 1: How to compose for black and white photography
PAGE 2: Good subjects for black and white photography
PAGE 3: Try using in-camera filters for your black and white photography
PAGE 4: Shooting images you can easily convert to black and white
PAGE 5: Black and white conversion in Photoshop Elements
PAGE 6: Black and white conversion in Photoshop CS
PAGE 7: Master Photoshop Levels and Curves
PAGE 8: Using the Levels sliders
PAGE 9: Master the Dodge and Burn tools
PAGE 10: Toning techniques for black and white photography

Nifty shades of grey: control your tones in a black and white conversion

jmeyer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:30:17 +0000

There are lots of ways to make a black and white conversion, but the number of choices depends on the software you’re using.

Photoshop Elements offers fewer options than Photoshop CS. With Photoshop CS, you get extra settings during the raw conversion, as well as two Adjustment Layer choices: Black and White and Channel Mixer.

The beauty of these extra options is that they enable you to control the shade of grey that each colour in your image becomes. Typically, you can use these tools to make blue skies appear darker and to ensure that faces become the precise shade of grey that you desire.

All is not lost, however: Elements users can get this degree of control using a cunning trick with a pair of Hue/Saturation Layers. Here’s how to do it…

01 Add a new layer
Open your start image in Photoshop Elements’ Full Edit mode. Ensure the Layers palette is visible by clicking Window>Layers. Click on the half-moon Create Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers palette and choose Hue/Saturation from the drop-down menu. Don’t move any of the sliders on the window at this point, click OK if necessary.

02 Second Adjustment Layer
Now create a second Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. This will be used to turn the colour shot to black and white, while the first will be used to change the brightness of particular tones in the image. Click the half-moon icon once more, choose Hue/Saturation from the drop-down menu and click OK if using Elements 7 or earlier.

03 Change the Blending Mode
In the Layers palette, ensure that the Hue/Saturation 2 layer is highlighted. Click on the word ‘Normal’ at the top left of the palette, which brings down a menu of all the available Blending Modes. Choose the Colour option from the list. This simple change will mean that you can use both the Lightness and Saturation sliders in steps 5 to 8.

04 Convert to black and white
In the Layers palette, double-click the left-hand icon on the Hue/Saturation 2 layer. This brings up the Hue/Saturation controls. Leave the Edit mode set to Master, but move the Saturation slider to the far left, a setting of -100. This turns your main visible image of the pier from colour into black and white. Next, we’ll tweak this image.

05 Shades of grey
We now need to adjust the black-and-white conversion so that the shades of grey are the desired density. Double-click on the left-hand icon on the Hue/Saturation 1 layer. We’ll start off by working on the sky area. Click on the Edit mode (where it says Master) and choose Blues from the drop-down menu.

06 Lighten the yellow sand
Click on the Edit options again (where it currently says Blues) and now choose Yellows from the drop-down menu. This will enable you to adjust the tone of the beach area in the foreground of our seaside image. Move the Lightness slider to +35 to turn the sand into a lighter shade of grey.

07 Boost contrast in Levels
As is usual with mono conversions, the image lacks contrast. In the Layers palette, click on the Hue/Saturation 2 layer, so that the top layer is selected. Click on the half-moon Create Adjustment Layer icon and choose Levels. Move the Black input slider to 19, the central Grey input slider to 0.92, and the White input slider to 241 (click OK).

08 Darken the sky blues
The range of blues affected is preset, but we can tweak the exact selection using the Eyedropper tools. Pick the Eyedropper with the + symbol next to it and then click on two or three points in the sky in the image (this adds to the colour range affected). Move the Saturation slider to +54 and the Lightness slider to -62 to darken the sky.

09 Mask the red writing
The process of altering the grey shade that each colour becomes can be used to hide unwanted details. Here, the dodgems banner is distracting. Pick Reds from the Edit drop-down menu. Move Saturation to -12 and lightness to +75. The wording blends into the background, so is less noticeable. (Click OK, if using Elements 7 or earlier.)

10 Add a blue rinse
As a final touch, you can add a toned effect to the image. Click on the half-moon Create Adjustment Layer icon again. Choose Hue/Saturation. Click to check the Colourise option. Choose the colour tint by moving the Hue slider – we set a value of 238 to add a blue tone. Use the Saturation slider to adjust the intensity of the tint; we chose a setting of 14. Click OK if necessary when you’re done.

6 tips to improve your Mars landscape photos

jmeyer — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:24:25 +0000

All Photos: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The landing of NASA’s newest rover, Curiosity, on the Mars landscape marks another small step for the American space agency, but it represents one giant leap for photographers everywhere.

Landscape photographers, in particular, have reason to cheer, for certainly Mars’ landscape offers a new set of challenges from the now rather repetitive roster of slow-motion seascapes and fields of autumn mist that populate online photo galleries.

Mars has long the final frontier for the tapped-out landscape photographer. Anyone who has visited some of Earth’s best photo locations fantasized about the day when technology (and ISO ranges) would let us photograph the deserts of our deserted neighbour in the Milky Way.

So it was with great anticipation we followed the journey of Curiosity. And surely we at Digital Camera World can’t be alone in raising a concerned eyebrow at the quality of what we’ve seen?

Let’s face it: landscape photography isn’t rocket science. Which is all the more shocking when viewing some Mars landscape photos beamed back from Curiosity.

How quickly the euphoria of this great triumph of engineering wore off when seeing such consistently poor composition, exposures and use of white balance!

Were no landscape photographers consulted when calibrating Curiosity’s camera to shoot photos of the Martian landscape?

We’ll check our Junk Mail folder here at Digital Camera World, but we don’t think we had an email from NASA. If we had been asked, we’ve compiled 6 easy tips you can use for making sure all your Mars landscape photos are keepers.

Click here to get started

Photo of the day: 4 August

samanthacliffe — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 07:00:24 +0000

Hamworthy by Rob Cherry

This long-exposure seascape is satisfyingly moody. Your eye is drawn neatly to the centre of the image, which is further aided by the vignetting. The grey clouds overhead give this scene an almost ominous feel.

You might also like:

Ocean blur: Take long exposure pictures of the sea you can be proud of
Black and white photography: What you need to know for perfect mono pictures
Gallery: Seascape and night photography from Jack Fusco
Essential tips for great coast photos
25 great examples of serene seascapes

The 55 best photographers of all time. In the history of the world. Ever. Definitely.

jmeyer — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:12:10 +0000

The best photographers of all time? Surely there can be no definitive list! We’re not afraid of courting controversy here at Digital Camera World. OK, maybe we are a little bit, which is why we thought it was time to be bold for once! Over the years we’ve interviewed a number of famous photographers and been inspired by each of them, but one thing we often hear from readers, social media followers and others is… “who are the best photographers of all time?”

It’s a good question! We put on our thinking caps and took a stab it.

Following lots of coffee and some heated tuts, we agreed on a list of the 55 best photographers of all time.

In the history of the world. Ever. Definitely.

Is this list definitive? Of course it is! But we’d also like to hear from you too. If we’ve missed someone or you question our choices, let us know in the comments. Or on our Facebook wall. Or anywhere else we hang about.

So without further ado…

The 55 Best Photographers of All Time: 55 through 51

55 Art Wolfe (born 1951)
Popular nature photographer and television presenter whose vividly-coloured images of wildlife, landscapes and indigenous cultures celebrate the beauty and diversity of the natural world.

54 Garry Winogrand (1928-1984)
One of the great street photographers of the 1960s and 70s, Winogrand’s pictures of everyday urban life are complex, sometimes humorous and often profound.

53 Edward Weston (1886-1958)
One of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century, Weston shot meticulously detailed large-format pictures of landscape, nude and still-life subjects.

Image copyright Jorge Barrios

52 Mario Testino (born 1954)
One of the world’s most famous photographers in the world, Testino is particularly celebrated for his glamorous and flattering fashion photography of women and his advertising campaigns for Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana.

Image copyright United States Library of Congress

51 Alfred Stieglitz (1864 -1946)
Groundbreaking photographer, tireless promoter of others’ work and a hugely important figure in the development and acceptance of photography as a serious art form.

Split toning in Photoshop: get a two-tone effect without all the chemicals

jmeyer — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:19:42 +0000

In the traditional darkroom, split tone effects are applied to images using a combination of chemicals to tint different tonal areas, such as the shadows or the highlights. This effect can be recreated in the digital darkroom by using this very simple method for split toning in Photoshop. It’s a great way to add a creative edge to black-and-white photos!

Unlike conventional tints, such as sepia, split toning targets specific areas of tone, such as the highlights or shadows, and tints them with different colours.

This means that you can produce an eye-catching two-tone effect that gives your images an artistic twist. Here, we’ll show you how to use the powerful tools in your Adobe Camera Raw editor for split toning in Photoshop in just 6 easy steps.

Remember that not all images will work well with this split toning effect – some are much more suited to it than others. We found that this striking shot of modern architecture came out a treat, so read on to find out how we did it.

Split toning in Photoshop CS3 or higher

Step 1 Convert to greyscale
We open the image in Photoshop’s Adobe Camera Raw editor. Next, we click on the HSL/Greyscale tab and check the Convert to Greyscale box. To tweak the mono tones, we use the various colour sliders; for this image, we set the Blue slider to -20 to darken the shot’s blue sky.

Step 2 Split the tones
Now, we click on the Split Toning tab and set the Highlights Hue slider to around +70 and Saturation to +35, followed by the Shadows Hue slider to +230 and Saturation to 50. This will create a split-tone effect with a yellowish tint in the highlights and a blueish tint in the shadow areas. We set Balance to +35.

Step 3 Tweak the effect
To adjust the effect, we click on the Basic tab and use the sliders there to tweak the tones and contrast of the shot. We opt for Blacks at +17, Brightness at +25, Contrast at +50 and Clarity at +40. These settings will boost the shot’s overall tones, contrast and sharpness.

Step 4 Add a vignette
With the shot’s colours calibrated, it’s time to add a vignette, which will darken the four corners of the scene and help to draw the viewer’s eye into the image. To do this, click on the Lens Corrections tab and drag the Lens Vignetting Amount slider back so that its value is around -50.

Step 5 Add some blur
All done, we click on Open Image. We create a duplicate layer, then go to Filter>Blur>GaussianBlur and set Radius to 80 pixels. Changing the layer Blending Mode to Soft Light and reducing the layer Opacity to 30% boosts the contrast and gives the shot a subtle diffused look.

Step 6 Dodge and Burn
To finish off, we create a Curves Adjustment Layer to fine-tune the tones and a Colour Balance Adjustment Layer to tweak the colours. Finally, we click on the bottom layer in the layer stack and then select the Dodge and Burn tools from the Tools palette to darken and lighten areas of the scene selectively.