Lessons and reflections on the exercise 2: Colour into tones

Lessons and reflections on the exercise 2: Colour into tones

1. The images created through this exercise were similar and I was impressed with the quality of both prints. The direct black and white conversion worked well although I managed to increase the appearance of the fog in the second image.
2. What this exercise really shows is that a lot of experimenting is required to understand and make the best of the black and white conversion.
3. There are many different ways of converting colour images to back and white, but the easiest and the fastest do not necessarily deliver the best quality. Also, the end result often depends on personal preferences and creative interpretation – to achieve the best possible outcome is always worth considering other available options.
4. In Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, there are facilities to change a colour image (RGB) to black in white (Grayscale) by using Grayscale button/ command. The outcome, as M Evening explains, would follow a particular formula of blending the three main colour channels: 60% Green with 30% Red and 10% Blue. In my experience, the outcome is usually reasonably good but this might not always be the best solution.
5. Another way of converting a colour image to black and white would involve using a Lab mode conversion. I tried using this conversion in the past and always found it a bit combersome.
6. Both Photoshop and Lightroom now offer the ability to make individual adjustments to each of the three colour channels and blend them together in many different ways using individual interpretations.
7. Additionally, Photoshop has an Adjustment layers facility that could be used to apply any black and white changes to the image. This gives facility to quickly discard the changes if necessary.
8. With this exercise, I also experimented with the available black and white adjustment presents. These presets offer a quick way of checking how the image would look in different modes. They also help to understand how different colours react to adjustments and what effect this has on the whooe image. For example, I found that Blue filter makes vegetation almost black, whilst the Green and Red filters enhance the green without blowing out the detail. Infrared filter lightens any green areas of an image and might even make them white. Red filter also darkens the sky and the clouds.
9. The effect of the filters offered in the software packages is identical to the real photographic filters used in black and white film photography. My experience of black and white photography makes it easier to understand and apply these filters to dogotal images.