whwiden

Thank you. With more post processing work you can get rid of those halos but it can be tedious. Usually I find the appear when you darkening sky by adjusting the blue slider. It is a problem for landscape conversions me

whwiden

I should note that in many landscapes you naturally get variation in the blue tones of the sky both horizontal and vertical, as seen in your color photo. To my taste, they often look poor, or even unnatural, in a black and white conversion. A portion of the sky loses some definition that is perceptable in the color shot. If the shot was taken with a circular polarizer, particularly with a wide angle lens, this variation in the sky might be accentuated. It can be hard to use a graduated filter to good effect when the sky meets the land in an uneven way and not a straight line to reduce the variation in the sky. If you can avoid the problems of the circular polarizer, it often can darken a sky and make the shot a better candidate for conversion. This might be done using a 50mm lens and stiching rather than starting with a 15mm, 20mm or 24mm lens as the polarizer is less likely to cause a problem with a normal lens.

whwiden

One way to get rid of halos is to set up a number of layers. The bottom layer is the original color photo. The top layer is the conversion to B&W which you like for the foreground, but which has the halos in the sky. Duplicate the bottom color layer, put it between the two and desaturate it. Use an eraser tool to erase the top layer with the halo which will show through as color if you set your editor to look through the intermediate layer. Then you view the intermediate layer. You will see a definite line in the sky where the gray scale does not match. Use a brightness tool to change the brightness of the grayscale to match the color of the sky in the top layer. You can then merge the layers when you are done to create the single file which you want to use. When you create the layers, you may need to add something called an "alpha" channel to let you erase and look through layers. If the gray scale of the sky you like varies, you may need to use several intermediate layers to get the look that you want.

Though many adjustments can be made, if you plan for a conversion up front, it still helps to get the file that you start with as close as you can to keep computer adjustments to a minimum.

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

Kozan Loc: Trenton Tennessee

You need to adjust the individual colors separately. R, G, B and their opposites Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. That way you can adjust the lightness or darkness of each color. For instance, the green grass can be lightened just by using the Green slider.

You do not want to use the saturation slider. That adjusts all colors at the same time. Don't use it.

Every piece of software is different. I use Affinity Photo now and when you do a B & W conversion, a panel pops up allowing you to use the color sliders.

Good luck. And Google is your friend.

Kozan

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Thank you so much for this excellent idea. So glad I started this thread.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Thank you, Kozan. Great insight.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I made some adjustments, but have decided to do some more reading/experimenting before going forward, likely with a more conducive image. I truly appreciate everyone's time for helping with this. Thank you much!!

(Download)

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

First thing I did was to correct the horizon and make the road look level (See Countryside C). Then it was converted to black in white in Photoshop and the contrast was altered using Levels and, doing some selective burning and dodging. Problem is the clouds. Blown out, and very hard to reconstruct to look natural. I ran the Blur/Darken brush over them but the results are not quite what I would like. Fun trying!

(Download)


(Download)

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

It might be interesting to shoot a few pics with your camera set to B&W.

rborud Loc: Minnesota

brucewells here is a B&W execution with a lot of hand brush work which I tend to use when I make a change to B&W. RBorud

(Download)

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Some great experimentation going on here. UHH at its best - Very educational and enlightening.

Andy

srt101fan

WestTnGuy

I am completely amazed at the amount of good advice given on this topic! Like Bruce, I think this is the next on my list as far as post processing. I think I will try to get some ready for the West TN Fair in late summer. They have a pretty good show there. Very interesting thread

And Bruce, when you get this figured out, come on down to West TN and teach me!!!!

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I truly appreciate your efforts, but the road was not level across the bridge. It had a slight cant to it. But, yes, it is fun. I certainly enjoy working with the image.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Based on what I've read, it is best to shoot in color then convert in post processing. Even though the end result is B&W, the color data in the image gives much more latitude for adjustment in post.