The thrill of romance wanes when we fail to appreciate uniqueness and recognize differences. When we downplay distinctive traits, the spark of romance gradually mellows and we settle for the bland and predictable. Instead of identifying and appreciating those small differences, amplifying distinctions that stimulate the senses, we settle for what is merely tolerable, and we end up with boring.

I’m not talking about human relationships here, I’m talking about black and white conversions from color images. When color is transposed into monochrome, billions of colors are reduced to a couple-hundred monochromatic steps. It doesn’t take a genius to see that with this transition something can easily be lost in the translation. But if we handle it correctly, we can exchange color for detail, drama, and power.

Look closely at the images below. While the color picture is colorful but the monochrome image presents an additional level of drama.

For the sake of this post, I’ll refer to B/W as Monochrome. There are only 256 tones between black and white in this photo, but this reduced number is actually a benefit. Detail is the result of internal contrast control, NOT sharpening. When you control the contrast, you control the detail. Distinguishing individual tones in the shadows and the highlights creates detail.

Notice that as an RGB image, you have a minimum of 16.8 million colors/tones. Making a distinction between all those colors is a real challenge. The very nature of overlapping red, green, and blue channels reduces the visual distinction. While the “dynamic range” is much larger in color than in B/W, the “dynamic distinction” is much harder to achieve.

The intent and purpose for this Black and White series of posts is to showcase the power of contrast and edginess possible with monochromatic images; an exchange of subtile color for detail and drama. You’ll learn that sometimes color can actually diminish detail instead of enhancing it. Because color is inherently lacking in dynamic contrast, the transitions between tones is much more gradual. This may work well for subtle beauty, but if the colors present little contrast, the photo will present little visual detail.

Photoshop Black and White Conversions. There are a number of ways to convert color pictures to monochrome in Adobe Photoshop as well as a number of RAW software products. Photoshop offers a number of ways to transpose colors to tones of gray, commonly known as Grayscale. In this post I’ll present four powerful processes available in Photoshop. In the next post, I’ll dive into the RAW Interpreter methods.

Black and White Panel. All six primary and secondary color channels can be lightened and darkened by the sliders in this panel. Only the luminance of each color can be adjusted here but the Preview checkbox allows you to reference the original color image while you adjust each color’s effect on the grayscale. Increasing or decreasing of each color channel affects the corresponding gray tones. The Hue slider at the bottom has a profound effect on the overall monochrome image though the Saturation control has very little effect. All of the sliders have influence over the interpretation of the grayscale conversion.

Channel Mixer Panel. This panel provides interesting (Red, Green, Blue, Orange, Yellow, and Infrared-filtered interpretations of the color image. While both the Black and White and the Channel Mixer panels render the file as a grayscale image, each produces very interesting results. Once the color influence has been established, further tonal controls can be made in the Shadows/Highlights dialog.

HDR Toning. HDR Toning provides many controls over the image’s color and shape. While primarily a color tonality tool, once other adjustments are made, simply dial back all the Saturation (bottom-most slider) and you have a unique monochromatic image.

Shadows/Highlights Panel. Shadows/Highlights dialog from the Image/Adjustment menu. Shadows: the top three sliders allow you to lighten and shape the Shadows (the darkest parts of the image). Highlights: the next three sliders let you affect the internal contrast within the Highlights (the lightest parts of the image).

Adjustments: Since this image is now grayscale, the Color slider will have no effect, though the Midtone slider will have a major effect on the overall contrast. Don’t change either the Black Clip or the White Clip since we will address both the Black point and White point next.

Any one (or even combinations of all) of these workshop areas can be employed. If additional contrast and middle tone adjustments are needed, the trusty Levels dialog can provide the finishing touches.

Levels Panel. The Levels panel is where we set the darkest and lightest tones in the image.

I’ll cover additional methods of producing very rich black and white prints from digital image files in subsequent posts. Stay tuned. That’s the way I sees it. Let me know what you think.

If you’d like to understand even more of what makes color work, how light behaves, and how easy it is to shape the light in your photographic images, go to http://gottaknowvideos.com and get Bright About Light!

The post Rekindling the Romance of Black and White, Part Two: Photoshop appeared first on The Way Eye Sees It.

Saturation is a founding member of color’s sacred trinity of color elements; hue, saturation, and brightness. Hue is the color of color, or what differentiates red from blue, or green, or orange. Brightness (or luminance) deals with light; how bright or dull a color appears, largely a matter of light and dark. Saturation is the measure of how intense or diluted the color is; the difference between pungent and pastel.

Everybody likes nice rich pictures, they are the eye-candy of life. But there is an important balance that must be struck between that brilliant color and the image’s overall tonality. Tonality is the form of an image; the skeletal structure that gives purpose and definition to the color. Think of tonality as the Christmas tree structure that supports the lights and ornaments. That structure retains the shape or definition of the image.

Even though we all love saturated color, great care should be taken when boosting saturation in our digital images because there is a thin line between optimal saturation and tonal range damage.

Saturation has a photographic definition and a household definition. I believe we need to understand both in order to accurately balance saturation with its counterpart, tonality.

Photographic saturation is basically color intensity, expressed as the degree to which it differs from black and white. Get the picture? It’s what differentiates a grayscale image from a color image. A color image without saturation is just luminance (tonal structure).

Now consider the more common “household” definition of saturation: the state when no more of something can be added. Combining these two definitions actually provides a very practical guideline to the use of saturation in digital imaging. It’s called “too much of even a good thing is still too much!” In a practical sense, there is a balance point in which too much saturation actually robs the image balance and definition. If your image lacks highlight detail, consider backing off the saturation level.

Don’t Lose Your Balance.

Try this simple exercise to understand the the function of saturation. Open up an image in Photoshop and pull up the Hue/Saturation dialog box. Now slide the Saturation triangle all the way to the left. See what you have left? A grayscale (what we use to call black and white) image… all form and no color. Now slide that Saturation triangle all the way to the right side of the scale. After you pull your eyeballs out of the back of your head you’ll notice that the image’s form has now been pretty much destroyed… overboard color and distorted form.

We all enjoy very colorful things. Current television programming confirms this. Note: I grew up in Miami and can’t remember ever seeing a perpetual state of late afternoon lighting like I see on the Miami crime shows. God gave us an imagination that is very rich and colorful. And frankly, sometimes really dull digital images need a little boost in color. But take great care in the exercise of your imagination as it can push your pictures beyond “believable.”

Here’s a tip on how to how to maintain the “best” of a good thing. Go back to the Hue/Saturation adjustment dialog and carefully slide the Saturation triangle to the right but stop short of losing any tonal definition. You must strike a balance. If you enjoy more saturation, try backing off the luminance (brightness) channel to achieve the same result. Just like other issues in photography, more saturation in an image isn’t necessarily better, it’s just… more!

Think about it!

Please leave a comment.  If you find this worthwhile, please share it with your friends and sign up for more. This ain’t rocket science, but it is information that is many times overlooked. Take some time to get back to the basics and your photographic results will give evidence that you did.

That’s the way I sees it. If you have an argument with this position, take it to a higher court! In the mean time, sign up (above right) to get personal notices of future posts. You can’t beat the price.

I enjoy speaking to schools, photo clubs and organizations every month presenting programs on digital photography, post production, and color science. If you’d like me to speak to your group, drop me a line.

If you’d like to understand even more of what makes color work, how light behaves, and how easy it is to shape the light in your photographic images, go to http://gottaknowvideos.com and get Bright About Light!

The post The Image Saturation Balancing Act appeared first on The Way Eye Sees It.

and they always will. It’s an unavoidable reality.

The reason for this has little to do with color management, inks, paper surfaces, device profiles, or any other adjustment-related issue. The simple fact is that your monitor’s white is illuminated by a projected light source and the white of your paper print is illuminated by reflected light. This tone range difference takes its most egregious toll on the darker parts of the image; the three-quarter tones. The very tones that get slighted by your camera’s image sensor are also the most vulnerable in print.

As I often claim, detail is a product (result) of contrast. Contrast is the measured difference between two tones. On the printed page, this statement has to be further clarified… detail is determined by the perceived difference between two tones. Here’s the visible proof behind the statement.

Consider the visual extremes (light vs. dark) of both of these media vehicles- paper and the computer display for the moment. In the case of pictures in print, the white of the printed substrate (usually paper) is determined by the whiteness of the paper and the strength of the light reflecting from the unprinted part of the paper. The darkest color (usually a multi-color, composite black) of the print is determined by the density (or light-absorbing) opacity of the colorant (usually ink).

The computer display plays the contrast game by a completely different set of rules. While the black of the monitor does have its opacity limitations, the white illuminate of the display is limited only by the brightness of the (typically) LED (light emitting diode) elements; which in turn are affected by the brightness or gain dialed in by you, the user. Brightness directly affects contrast. With more light comes more potential contrast, and where there is contrast, there is detail.

Which system do you suppose displays the most contrast? Duh!

As a color separator in the litho trade, I faced this same type of problem when reproducing images from photographic prints versus photographic transparencies. It was always easier to capture detail from a transparency than from a print. In technical terms, a printed page typically measures a reflective contrast of 1.7 points of density, while a transparency can display upwards of 3.8 points of density, depending on the strength of the backlit light source. More dynamic range produces more steps (bits in digital lingo) in the tonal scale and thus more detail. With digital images, the spread is even higher. When prints are compared to LED displays, the contrast ratio is huge on the display but remain the same for print.

You simply cannot pour enough light onto a page to bring the reflected brightness to the level of a projected display, just like you cannot dial down the brightness of the display to match the normal contrast of a printed picture. It’s apples and peanuts anyway you “look” at it. The two methods of viewing a picture are simply, fundamentally, and totally different.

THIS is why you can see detail in the darker portions of a displayed image that you just cannot see in the printed version of the picture. The contrast ratio visible in print is simply not in the same league as your backlit computer display. It is woefully insufficient.

So, what can be done to close this light range gap? Can you do anything to improve the detail in the darker portions of the image? Absolutely. But you must 1) recognize that this issue exists, and 2) you must learn how to effectively compensate the tonal range for the difference. You can make a significant difference in your printed images by taking the same actions that we litho folks have done for decades… you have to learn to shape the internal contrast of the images before they go to print, and that includes your inkjet.

Remember that camera image sensors record light linearly, one photon at a time, but your eyes/brain perceive light quite differently. Camera images record light with a serious bias toward the lighter side of the tone scale (an area we call quarter tones), while recording very little data in the darker portion of the tone range (the three-quarter tones). The result in print is almost always a lack of detail in the darkest parts of the image. When this lack of data is combined with the print’s lower contrast ratio, shadow detail takes the hit.

Here’s the secret to maintaining detail in the darker (3/4) portions of your image. Slide the Shadows slider to the right. How much to adjust the image will vary with each image. Low key images will require more adjustment than full range images. Learning to adjust your images to print all available detail is critical for serious photographers. Pay attention to separating tones in the darker parts of the image where detail can be buried when printed.

Think about it!

Please leave a comment.  If you find this worthwhile, please share it with your friends and sign up for more. This ain’t rocket science, but it is information that is many times overlooked (and sometimes overstated). Take some time to get back to the basics and your photographic results will give evidence that you did.

That’s the way I sees it. If you have an argument with this position, take it to a higher court! In the mean time, sign up (above right) to get personal notices of future posts. You can’t beat the price.

I enjoy speaking to schools, photo clubs and organizations every month presenting programs on digital photography, post production, and color science. If you’d like me to speak to your group, drop me a line.

If you’d like to understand even more of what makes color work, how light behaves, and how easy it is to shape the light in your photographic images, go to http://gottaknowvideos.com and get Bright About Light!

The post Images Look Darker in Print Than They Do on Your Monitor appeared first on The Way Eye Sees It.

Saturation is a founding member of color’s sacred trinity of color elements; hue, saturation, and brightness. Hue is the color of color, or what differentiates red from blue, or green, or orange. Brightness (or luminance) deals with light; how bright or dull a color appears, largely a matter of light and dark. Saturation is the measure of how intense or diluted the color is; the difference between pungent and pastel.

Everybody likes nice rich pictures, they are the eye-candy of life. But there is an important balance that must be struck between that brilliant color and the image’s overall tonality. Tonality is the form of an image; the skeletal structure that gives purpose and definition to the color. Think of tonality as the Christmas tree structure that supports the lights and ornaments. That structure retains the shape or definition of the image.

Even though we all love saturated color, great care should be taken when boosting saturation in our digital images because there is a thin line between optimal saturation and tonal range damage.

Saturation has a photographic definition and a household definition. I believe we need to understand both in order to accurately balance saturation with its counterpart, tonality.

Photographic saturation is basically color intensity, expressed as the degree to which it differs from black and white. Get the picture? It’s what differentiates a grayscale image from a color image. A color image without saturation is just luminance (tonal structure).

Now consider the more common “household” definition of saturation: the state when no more of something can be added. Combining these two definitions actually provides a very practical guideline to the use of saturation in digital imaging. It’s called “too much of even a good thing is still too much!” In a practical sense, there is a balance point in which too much saturation actually robs the image balance and definition. If your image lacks highlight detail, consider backing off the saturation level.

Don’t Lose Your Balance.

Try this simple exercise to understand the the function of saturation. Open up an image in Photoshop and pull up the Hue/Saturation dialog box. Now slide the Saturation triangle all the way to the left. See what you have left? A grayscale (what we use to call black and white) image… all form and no color. Now slide that Saturation triangle all the way to the right side of the scale. After you pull your eyeballs out of the back of your head you’ll notice that the image’s form has now been pretty much destroyed… overboard color and distorted form.

We all enjoy very colorful things. Current television programming confirms this. Note: I grew up in Miami and can’t remember ever seeing a perpetual state of late afternoon lighting like I see on the Miami crime shows. God gave us an imagination that is very rich and colorful. And frankly, sometimes really dull digital images need a little boost in color. But take great care in the exercise of your imagination as it can push your pictures beyond “believable.”

Here’s a tip on how to how to maintain the “best” of a good thing. Go back to the Hue/Saturation adjustment dialog and carefully slide the Saturation triangle to the right but stop short of losing any tonal definition. You must strike a balance. If you enjoy more saturation, try backing off the luminance (brightness) channel to achieve the same result. Just like other issues in photography, more saturation in an image isn’t necessarily better, it’s just… more!

Think about it!

Please leave a comment.  If you find this worthwhile, please share it with your friends and sign up for more. This ain’t rocket science, but it is information that is many times overlooked. Take some time to get back to the basics and your photographic results will give evidence that you did.

That’s the way I sees it. If you have an argument with this position, take it to a higher court! In the mean time, sign up (above right) to get personal notices of future posts. You can’t beat the price.

I enjoy speaking to schools, photo clubs and organizations every month presenting programs on digital photography, post production, and color science. If you’d like me to speak to your group, drop me a line.

If you’d like to understand even more of what makes color work, how light behaves, and how easy it is to shape the light in your photographic images, go to http://gottaknowvideos.com and get Bright About Light!

The post The Image Saturation Balancing Act appeared first on The Way Eye Sees It.