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Black and White HDR
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Jan 14, 2021 20:31:02   #
c.creighton82 Loc: Outer Banks NC
 
Hi my name is Chris. I began my adventure in photography in 1984 using a cold head enlarger and lots of tri x and I’m crazy about Cartier Bresson and superealism.
I do enjoy color that has a dye transfer look but my real interest is still in Black and White. I also shoot black and white video.
Looking to explore the proper way to approach Black and White HDR.
Does anyone have any tips from experience?

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Jan 14, 2021 20:38:26   #
Ourspolair
 
Welcome to the "Hog". No experience with B&W HDR, but would suggest that you try 3-exposure bracketing at 2-stop intervals and see how that transpires as a starting point. That is how I generally do HDR in colour.

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Jan 14, 2021 20:59:48   #
rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA
 
c.creighton82 wrote:
Hi my name is Chris. I began my adventure in photography in 1984 using a cold head enlarger and lots of tri x and I’m crazy about Cartier Bresson and superealism.
I do enjoy color that has a dye transfer look but my real interest is still in Black and White. I also shoot black and white video.
Looking to explore the proper way to approach Black and White HDR.
Does anyone have any tips from experience?


Sure. Take your color images, do an HDS merge without adding any effects, modifications, etc. I am a Lightroom fanatic, so take the merged image and hit "V" to see what it would look like in greyscale.

I have a set of very good Lightroom presets for greyscale conversion, which depending on the subject, give me an excellent start point. Then comes a few hours or several days of radial and graduated filters, adjustment brush, Luminar AI, etc etc etc until I get what I want.

I know several 'Togs who do RAW/JPEG shooting and use built-in "scenes" to see a greyscale image before taking the shot. I've never found this helpful since I see it differently than the canned greyscale conversion.

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Jan 14, 2021 22:18:47   #
Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.
 
c.creighton82 wrote:
Hi my name is Chris. I began my adventure in photography in 1984 using a cold head enlarger and lots of tri x and I’m crazy about Cartier Bresson and superealism.
I do enjoy color that has a dye transfer look but my real interest is still in Black and White. I also shoot black and white video.
Looking to explore the proper way to approach Black and White HDR.
Does anyone have any tips from experience?


Welcome to UHH

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Jan 14, 2021 22:35:05   #
c.creighton82 Loc: Outer Banks NC
 
Thanks Ourspolair I work on that.

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Jan 14, 2021 22:38:27   #
c.creighton82 Loc: Outer Banks NC
 
Yes thanks your technique makes sense to me.

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Jan 14, 2021 22:40:02   #
c.creighton82 Loc: Outer Banks NC
 
Love it. Thank you.

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Jan 15, 2021 06:54:26   #
kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy
 
c.creighton82 wrote:
Hi my name is Chris. I began my adventure in photography in 1984 using a cold head enlarger and lots of tri x and I’m crazy about Cartier Bresson and superealism.
I do enjoy color that has a dye transfer look but my real interest is still in Black and White. I also shoot black and white video.
Looking to explore the proper way to approach Black and White HDR.
Does anyone have any tips from experience?


B&W HDR is exactly the same as color HDR: shoot enough frames so that the most underexposed blows out no highlights, and the most overexposed has the darkest shadows as dark midtones. I suggest that they be in 2 EV steps at maximum. If you want to try deghosting moving objects shoot them in 1 EV steps. A tripod is good but not necessary. Shoot bracketing shutter speeds, definitely not changing aperture, and better to keep ISO constant too. I always shoot 9 brackets 1 EV apart and delete what is outside the necessary range for security.

My favorite tonemapper by far, with the greatest range of looks is Photomatix Pro, but because it is so versatile it has a learning curve. It does have good presets as starting points. Aurora is good straight out of the box but only has one tonemapper so it is much more limited. I have a bunch of different HDR programs and find myself using the images done in Photomatix 80% of the tine, Aurora 15% of the time and other programs 5% of the time.

I shoot in color and if I want monochrome convert in Nik Silver Efex, which allows for a very large range of film effects and looks and tints and color filtering to convert to monochrome.

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Jan 15, 2021 07:01:32   #
traderjohn Loc: New York City
 
c.creighton82 wrote:
Hi my name is Chris. I began my adventure in photography in 1984 using a cold head enlarger and lots of tri x and I’m crazy about Cartier Bresson and superealism.
I do enjoy color that has a dye transfer look but my real interest is still in Black and White. I also shoot black and white video.
Looking to explore the proper way to approach Black and White HDR.
Does anyone have any tips from experience?


Check out YouTube and also try Google. There should be a wealth of information.

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Jan 15, 2021 07:13:13   #
RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA
 
c.creighton82 wrote:
Hi my name is Chris. I began my adventure in photography in 1984 using a cold head enlarger and lots of tri x and I’m crazy about Cartier Bresson and superealism.
I do enjoy color that has a dye transfer look but my real interest is still in Black and White. I also shoot black and white video.
Looking to explore the proper way to approach Black and White HDR.
Does anyone have any tips from experience?

I highly recommend Ilford XP2 and XP-2 Super.

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Jan 15, 2021 07:35:40   #
ELNikkor
 
Welcome to the forum!

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Jan 15, 2021 07:59:20   #
R.G. Loc: Scotland
 
In general terms you'll find that B&W needs more contrast than colour and you'll be using the Tone adjustment sliders more with B&W. You may also want to be more generous with sharpening, although as with colour you'll want to keep the sharpening away from the noise.

When you say "HDR" you don't specify whether you're talking about bracketing or single exposure processing. Even if you find one-click presets or whatever, I'd recommend that you learn how to process B&W yourself. It's not rocket science, and on top of that, B&W is all about where you place the contrast and how you use the available (limited) contrast - which is something that one-click solutions won't give you. But you may learn from looking at what the one-click options do, provided you know how to reproduce the effects yourself.

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Jan 15, 2021 09:21:31   #
Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb
 
Yes, I have been shooting HDR (80% of the time) for about 10 years and do black and white in it as well.
I will shoot three shots + and - 2 and I use Photomatix to bulk blend them. I will then work them in color and will convert the color pictures to B&W at that point. I find the HDR can give you some great B&W, but you will see and learn that shading is most important and a good color picture is not always a great B&W shot. It's fun and interesting.

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Jan 15, 2021 09:26:15   #
lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA
 
c.creighton82 wrote:
Hi my name is Chris. I began my adventure in photography in 1984 using a cold head enlarger and lots of tri x and I’m crazy about Cartier Bresson and superealism.
I do enjoy color that has a dye transfer look but my real interest is still in Black and White. I also shoot black and white video.
Looking to explore the proper way to approach Black and White HDR.
Does anyone have any tips from experience?


If you have the $$$ consider Leica B&W (Monochrome) Digital camera. You probably would not need HDR with that and no remnants. Such a camera would give you a more natural film like image. Personally I am happy with B&W conversions from color digital. If I want real b&w I still have 35mm and 4x5" cameras. I try to avoid lighting conditions where HDR might be needed.

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Jan 15, 2021 10:29:18   #
Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas
 
Welcome to the Hog, Chris, enjoy.

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