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Jeremo !iKGMr61IHM
Anyone wanna point me to good B&W conversion techniques? I've been messing with channel mixer alot and the duo tone function is just plain awesome. But i wish i could do decent B&Ws without needing to add slight colour tones.

And as per usual, feel free to rip the shit out of me.
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Camera-Specific Properties:Camera SoftwareAdobe Photoshop CS2 WindowsImage-Specific Properties:Image OrientationTop, Left-HandHorizontal Resolution300 dpiVertical Resolution300 dpiImage Created2008:01:20 13:19:28Color Space InformationUncalibratedImage Width1200Image Height1500
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
What I do is decompose to R, G, and B, then sort of futz with the opacity of them until I get a mix that I like.

Then, lately, I've been sepiatoning everything, 'cause I think it looks neat. Hopefully I'll get over that "Yay! New toy!" thing eventually.
>> Butterfly !xlgRMYva6s
The bass's neck being cut off before the frame is really irritating, otherwise its a good exposure in difficult lighting. Nice job not overexposing the bassist.
>> Sicko !L3HRY/miC.
>>115606

This, decompose let's you see what parts of each R, G and B layers you like, then you can pick how much you want of each.

It's a bit like channel mixer with previews for each colour layer.
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
>>115771
Also has the very nice advantage that noise is not uniform across channels, so in a worst-case situation, you can drop the channels that are noisy and keep the one that isn't. It's a technique I use a lot to rescue ISO1600 pictures that would otherwise be too noisy to live.
>> Anonymous
Not so much a conversion technique, but something I do sometimes to improve/accentuate the bokeh on monochrome images is this:

1. New layer.
2. Set to soft light, fill with 50% neutral color. (For some reason, doing this makes any dodging or burning look better. I don't know the reason behind it; I heard it from somebody else once, tried it, and stuck with it.)
3. Go to the burn tool, set it to highlights.
4. Burn over all the OOF areas.
5. Adjust opacity as desired.

>>115794
Which channels is it usually? Or does it vary by camera, situation, whatever?
>> angrylittleboy !wrJcGUHncE
what i usually do is mode > lab color > lightness, discard the other channels then just dodge/burn.
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
>>115873
Varies by situation, somewhat. With caucasian people, red is usually the clearest (because skin is mostly red tones, so when you meter for a person's face, it tends towards red. Also, taking just the red channel clears up a lot of skin blemishes and freckles and such). I've found that blue tends to be noisy more often than the other two, too.
>> Anonymous
>>115886

Isn't the green channel the clearest because the most sites in your sensor arrangement are dedicated to the green channel?
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
>>115888
Theoretically, and if you're shooting something like an 18% gray card. In practice, not always. If the scene is 50% red, 40% blue, and 10% green, the green channel is still going to look like ass.
>> Anonymous
>>115891

Got it. Thanks. That's a good tip