B&W mystery: OK, this is driving me crazy. Using FastStone Image Viewer, I converted several images (JPEGs) to B&W. I then copied (not moved) the images to a different folder. I used...

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

OK, this is driving me crazy.
Using FastStone Image Viewer, I converted several images (JPEGs) to B&W. I then copied (not moved) the images to a different folder.
I used the Copy Image command (Ctrl-C) in FastStone Image Viewer to do the copies.
When viewed in the new folder, the images are B&W but when I try to post any of them to Facebook or
UHH they show up as color when I go to the folder to select them.
Any other FastStone users out there? Anyone seen anything like this before?

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

rwilson1942 wrote:

OK, this is driving me crazy. br Using FastStone I... (show quote)

Before anyone suggest it, I have contacted FastStone and am awaiting a response.
I just thought I would see if any UHH folds had seen the same phenomenon.

TomC. Loc: Bel Air, MD

rwilson1942 wrote:

OK, this is driving me crazy. br Using FastStone I... (show quote)

I have no idea. But one thing I would try is re-naming the B&W file something other than what it is right now and then try that.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Pull up any image, go to colors (upper left ) in the drop down box choose adjust colors, use the hue slider to make the image B&W. Save as,. THat will save the B&W image. Make a copy of the color image befors changing to B&W. If the original image is a JPEG or a Raw image doesn't matter. copies will be JPEG

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

boberic wrote:

Pull up any image, go to colors (upper left ) in the drop down box choose adjust colors, use the hue slider to make the image B&W. Save as,. THat will save the B&W image. Make a copy of the color image befors changing to B&W. If the original image is a JPEG or a Raw image doesn't matter. copies will be JPEG

I didn't ask how to make a B&W image, I ask why they don't stay B&W when I try to post one to a web site.

User ID

rwilson1942 wrote:

I didn't ask how to make a B&W image,
I ask why they don't stay B&W when I
try to post one to a web site.

Cuz you didn't REALLY convert them.
You just ordered a proprietary viewer
to show you how they would look if
you actually converted them.

The sites to which you post them are
not that proprietary viewer so you see
the file as it really is, IOW not actually
converted from RGB to grayscale.

You reject boberic's advice ... which
does contain something you seem to
be unaware of. Since it might be a bit
patronizing of me to point out what
that is, I'll trust that you can find it.

User ID

User ID wrote:

Cuz you didn't REALLY convert them. br You just o... (show quote)

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

rwilson1942 wrote:

OK, this is driving me crazy. br Using FastStone I... (show quote)

It's because you didn't save the black and white image.

I was able to duplicate your situation. I made a black and white of an image, then copied it to another folder (not saving it) and viewed it. It is still color. It also shows up as color in the grid view. But the small preview and the full screen version is black and white.

Save the image as a copy after you've made the changes and I think you'll solve the mystery.

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

Gene51 wrote:

It's because you didn't save the black and white image.

I was able to duplicate your situation. I made a black and white of an image, then copied it to another folder (not saving it) and viewed it. It is still color. It also shows up as color in the grid view. But the small preview and the full screen version is black and white.

Save the image as a copy after you've made the changes and I think you'll solve the mystery.

Thanks, But, as I said in the original post, I did copy the image to another folder and it still showed as B&W in Faststone.
I is only when I access the image, in the new folder, from Lightroom or UHH or some other site that the image in the new folder shows as color.
I'm using the 'Colors>Grayscale' command to convert to B&W not the 'Colors>Adjust Colors' and then reducing saturation to -100 as Boberic suggested (He said Hue but I'm pretty sure he meant saturation).
I'll try doing the B&W using saturation to see if that makes any difference.
Still hoping to hear from FastStone.

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

User ID wrote:

Cuz you didn't REALLY convert them. br You just o... (show quote)

Please do point out what I missed in boberic's post since I can't seem to find anything there that I am unaware of.
I don't make a copy of the color image before converting to B&W but I tried that and it didn't seem to make any difference.

I think you have it, for whatever reason, FastStone is not saving a converted B&W image no matter what approach I take to converting it.
Even when it says it is saving, which doesn't happen until I move off of that image and it ask 'do you want to save...' it is saving a color image when viewed outside of FastStone.
This is strange, since other changes I make in FastStone (most often reducing the size of images to 50% of original size) do save correctly.
It's a pain to have to go into Lightroom and do a B&W conversion there, but I guess that is what I will have todo.

Thanks to all for you help.

Bill_de Loc: US

rwilson1942 wrote:

Please do point out what I missed in boberic's post since I can't seem to find anything there that I am unaware of.

"Save as,"

It looks like you didn't save a copy of the B&W before copying it to another folder.

Gene pointed this out in more detail.

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fetzler Loc: North West PA

Perhaps this might be an issue. If you use raw developing software you may have two files one containing the adjustments and the original RAW file. If you use another RAW developing software, the new software will not see adjustments. Once you convert to tif or jpeg the adjustments are baked in so BW would be seen by all programs. I am not sure what would file with a psd file read by another program. I think in this case all corrections would be passed to the new program.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

rwilson1942 wrote:

OK, this is driving me crazy. br Using FastStone I... (show quote)

Maybe you forgot to save the changes when converting to B&W.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

rwilson1942 wrote:

Thanks, But, as I said in the original post, I did... (show quote)

It will if you hadn't saved the image. I used the same Colors->Grayscale that you did, but in one instance I just copied the image in Faststone to a different folder and was able to duplicate what you described, then I saved the image as a copy - not the same as copying an unsaved image with changes - and it was black and white.

In the first screenshot, the preview is showing the results of Ctrl-G (grayscale shortcut), and the highlighted image on the grid view that I applied the grayscale command to. The other image is the original, which I am leaving alone. But you can see that even in Faststone, the preview does not look like the image that the grayscale command was applied to, until I save it in Faststone (second image).

So, the questions are, does your grid view show a black and white image? Did you copy the image to another folder in Faststone, or did you do it outside? Did you save a copy of the grayscale image BEFORE you moved it? Are you looking at the preview or the grid view when you say the image is gray in Faststone?

(Download)

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Save AS...
Export...

It never ceases to amaze me how many ways people don't get it.

You can't change a raw file. It's not an image, just sensor data that hasn't been processed. So if you process a raw file to B&W and save it or export it as a JPEG, that's what you get. But you still have your raw file.

You can save over a JPEG, but probably shouldn't, more than once or twice. So Save As, Export, or Convert File. Keep the original without altering it. (Lightroom and some other parametric editors keep unaltered originals, anyway.)