COOL BLACK AND WHITE
Since first making the move from film to digital photography, achieving satisfactory black and white has been an obsession that never ceases to call for scrutiny, revision and experimentation. In short, I'm never satisfied. It is rare that a digital black and white photograph, which must be converted from color at some point, achieves the same results one might have expected from quality black and white film, especially when printed.
In recent conversation, a colleague mentioned that he was going to "cool" a picture some before converting it to black and white. Having long advocated that a good color photograph is necessary to produce a good black and white photograph, the thought that one might achieve better results with a cooler image was intriguing. So, when shooting a familiar subject recently, I decided to experiment and see just how much difference cooling an image might make to the final outcome.
From the outset, a couple of caveats and explanations are necessary.
First, one must appreciate that, as with many aspects of photography, exactly what makes a black and white image "good" is a totally subjective matter. I look at the quality and smoothness of the gradient, the depth and density of the most black and most white portions of the image, and the translation of similarly colored detail. Opinions inevitably vary.
Second, the true test of a black and white image is in the printing. Calibration of individual monitors inherently alter what one sees in an online image, making any low resolution examination somewhat unreliable. If, in looking at the images below, one does not see black and white, one may need to examine the monitor settings.
Then, by way of definition, one should know that when speaking of "cool" and "warm" we are referring to the relative light temperature on which the camera's white balance is set. Most commonly running in a range from 2500 (cold) to 5500 (hot) degrees, the measurement refers to the temperature of the light in which the image was taken. As a reference, standard household bulbs have an average temperature range of 3300 to 3500 degrees, which gives an image a warm amber tint. By contrast, the temperature of sunlight at noon in the northern hemisphere generally exceeds 12,000 degrees, even in winter, delivering a very bright, white tone to an image. Most higher end digital cameras allow photographers to adjust the white balance before taking the photograph, and then processing software such as Adobe Photoshop provides for further adjustment if necessary when importing an image.
Now, onto the image of discussion. Knowing that the images needed to be converted to black and white, the camera's white balance was set to a cool 2800 degrees. Importing the RAW image with only mild contrast adjustment yielded the following base image:
Note the blue hues inherent in a "cool" image. Under more normal circumstances, one would make severe adjustment to bring the color to a more natural and accurate state. However, since we are converting the image to black and white for this experiment, we left the image as is.
Making the conversion using Adobe Photoshop CS4, we applied a black and white adjustment layer to the image using the following settings:
The image is largely acceptable. The whites are not too intense, though somewhat higher along the cheek area than is my personal preference. The blacks are bunched together a bit, which makes discerning detail a little more difficult for this image, but still within the realm of one's personal taste.
Now, for the comparison. Going back to the original RAW image, we adjusted the overall temperature of the image to a nice 3400 degrees, resulting in color more true to the original setting. If we were processing this as a color image, we would have made additional enhancements for the sake of balance, vibrancy and saturation. However, doing so would tremendously alter the conversion. So, to keep the comparison as pure as possible, we left all the settings the same as were used for the cooler image.
Notice the absence of blue and a more more comfortable, eye-pleasing amber in its place. Leaving all the settings for the black and white layer, as well as contrast and level adjustment exactly the same as with the cooler image, the resulting conversion looked like this:
Should one have difficulty seeing much difference in the two images as presented here, the histogram comparisons tell the bulk of the story. In the warmer image, the blacks are not as intense and are spread across a wider range than with the cool image. However, the whites are considerably more intense and come very close, though not quite, to over exposure.
At a personal level, we found the severity of the white levels unacceptable in the second image. There is simply too much definition lost and the risk of blowout on printing, depending on the printer's own calibration, is too high. However, one must ask the question whether, if importing the warmer image first, the black and white conversion settings would have been the same. Almost certainly, we would have chosen different settings had we converted the warmer image first. So, going back to the same warmer RAW image, we re-converted the picture using the following settings on the black and white adjustment layer:
Right away, one notices that the new image brings back some of the darker intensity to the blacks, but without losing all the breadth of the previous image. At the same time, this conversion pulls the whites well away from the danger zone, facilitating a much better print than would the previous image.
Of the three images, my personal preference would be for the last, revised warmer image. For my tastes, the cooler image failed to provide a broad enough gradient, causing too much detail to be lost in the darker regions. While different conversion settings would spread the gradient out to some degree, doing so would also introduce an unacceptable grade of noise to the image.
That's not to say I'm totally pleased with the third conversion, either. In finality, I will probably merge the second and third images using layer masks to bring out detail in the mid-range of the gradient while maintaining appropriate white levels at the high end. But then, that's a totally different subject all together.
And, as always, your results may vary.
In recent conversation, a colleague mentioned that he was going to "cool" a picture some before converting it to black and white. Having long advocated that a good color photograph is necessary to produce a good black and white photograph, the thought that one might achieve better results with a cooler image was intriguing. So, when shooting a familiar subject recently, I decided to experiment and see just how much difference cooling an image might make to the final outcome.
From the outset, a couple of caveats and explanations are necessary.
First, one must appreciate that, as with many aspects of photography, exactly what makes a black and white image "good" is a totally subjective matter. I look at the quality and smoothness of the gradient, the depth and density of the most black and most white portions of the image, and the translation of similarly colored detail. Opinions inevitably vary.
Second, the true test of a black and white image is in the printing. Calibration of individual monitors inherently alter what one sees in an online image, making any low resolution examination somewhat unreliable. If, in looking at the images below, one does not see black and white, one may need to examine the monitor settings.
Then, by way of definition, one should know that when speaking of "cool" and "warm" we are referring to the relative light temperature on which the camera's white balance is set. Most commonly running in a range from 2500 (cold) to 5500 (hot) degrees, the measurement refers to the temperature of the light in which the image was taken. As a reference, standard household bulbs have an average temperature range of 3300 to 3500 degrees, which gives an image a warm amber tint. By contrast, the temperature of sunlight at noon in the northern hemisphere generally exceeds 12,000 degrees, even in winter, delivering a very bright, white tone to an image. Most higher end digital cameras allow photographers to adjust the white balance before taking the photograph, and then processing software such as Adobe Photoshop provides for further adjustment if necessary when importing an image.
Now, onto the image of discussion. Knowing that the images needed to be converted to black and white, the camera's white balance was set to a cool 2800 degrees. Importing the RAW image with only mild contrast adjustment yielded the following base image:
Note the blue hues inherent in a "cool" image. Under more normal circumstances, one would make severe adjustment to bring the color to a more natural and accurate state. However, since we are converting the image to black and white for this experiment, we left the image as is.
Making the conversion using Adobe Photoshop CS4, we applied a black and white adjustment layer to the image using the following settings:
Red: 70Additionally, adjustment layers were made for minor level and contrast adjustment, but none that dramatically effected the final histogram. The results provided the following image:
Yellow: 120
Green: 30
Cyan: 50
Blue: 2
Magenta: 46
The image is largely acceptable. The whites are not too intense, though somewhat higher along the cheek area than is my personal preference. The blacks are bunched together a bit, which makes discerning detail a little more difficult for this image, but still within the realm of one's personal taste.
Now, for the comparison. Going back to the original RAW image, we adjusted the overall temperature of the image to a nice 3400 degrees, resulting in color more true to the original setting. If we were processing this as a color image, we would have made additional enhancements for the sake of balance, vibrancy and saturation. However, doing so would tremendously alter the conversion. So, to keep the comparison as pure as possible, we left all the settings the same as were used for the cooler image.
Notice the absence of blue and a more more comfortable, eye-pleasing amber in its place. Leaving all the settings for the black and white layer, as well as contrast and level adjustment exactly the same as with the cooler image, the resulting conversion looked like this:
Should one have difficulty seeing much difference in the two images as presented here, the histogram comparisons tell the bulk of the story. In the warmer image, the blacks are not as intense and are spread across a wider range than with the cool image. However, the whites are considerably more intense and come very close, though not quite, to over exposure.
At a personal level, we found the severity of the white levels unacceptable in the second image. There is simply too much definition lost and the risk of blowout on printing, depending on the printer's own calibration, is too high. However, one must ask the question whether, if importing the warmer image first, the black and white conversion settings would have been the same. Almost certainly, we would have chosen different settings had we converted the warmer image first. So, going back to the same warmer RAW image, we re-converted the picture using the following settings on the black and white adjustment layer:
Red: 30This required making less severe adjustments to the levels and contrast, resulting in the following image:
Yellow: 85
Green: 120
Cyan: 50
Blue: 0
Magenta: -61
Right away, one notices that the new image brings back some of the darker intensity to the blacks, but without losing all the breadth of the previous image. At the same time, this conversion pulls the whites well away from the danger zone, facilitating a much better print than would the previous image.
Of the three images, my personal preference would be for the last, revised warmer image. For my tastes, the cooler image failed to provide a broad enough gradient, causing too much detail to be lost in the darker regions. While different conversion settings would spread the gradient out to some degree, doing so would also introduce an unacceptable grade of noise to the image.
That's not to say I'm totally pleased with the third conversion, either. In finality, I will probably merge the second and third images using layer masks to bring out detail in the mid-range of the gradient while maintaining appropriate white levels at the high end. But then, that's a totally different subject all together.
And, as always, your results may vary.
posted by Charles at
6:26 AM
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