Emulating Black- and White Film In Photoshop

Emulating Black-and-White Film In Photoshop

During our last two photography meetings, numerous people have expressed an interest in black-and-white photography. I’m not going to go into the specifics here about black-and-white film here as there are numerous sources on the internet that will tell you what each film type (i.e. AgfaPan, Ilford Delta, etc…) were used for and what type of grain they had (see below for links). I’ll concentrate more on the Photoshop options you have for creating quality black-and-white images. If there is enough demand, I will setup a full digital tutorial for a meeting in the future.

Should I Shoot In Colour or in Black-and-White?

This is very simple. ALWAYS SHOOT IN COLOUR. More information is stored in the image and you will be able to filter it MUCH better. Some cameras have the option to shoot in black-and-white; don’t! They are simply desaturating the image and throwing away all sorts of useful information. As for when to convert an image to black-and-white, I’ll leave that to those who have more extensive experience than I.

Desaturation Method:

This method simply takes all the colour out of the image and create a very flat looking photo. Usually, this isn’t a good black-and-white representation; however I see it all the time from wedding photographers when they want soft images.

Using the Channel Mixer:

This is a great method in my opinion as it gives you a lot more control over different colour channels. Usually this method is supplemented with tweaking of the image’s curves or levels. P.J. Morley has an excellent tutorial here as well that also gives channel values to emulate popular film!

Using Lab Color Mode:

Another good method, but your control is limited to two color channels rather than three. Personally, I only delve into Lab Color mode to properly sharpen an image or to enhance colors (i.e. convert image to Fuji Velvia film type).

I recommend following these great tutorials to get started at:

http://www.bythom.com/bandw.htm
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/digital-black-and-white/
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-black-white.htm

Filters

Made famous by Ansel Adams, in my opinion, filters are almost a must for good black-and-white photography. Gone are the days for the need of an actual physical filter on your lens (unless you are still shooting film) as this can emulated by photoshop.

Noise

Don’t be afraid to add noise into the photo as well. This can be done through 3^rd party software or via Photoshop’s “Add Noise” function in the Filter menu. Be careful to what you are adding noise to though as landscapes traditionally should be as noise free as possible.

Other Links:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/node/34
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/digital_black_white.html
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Black--white-film *excellent for a description on the general purpose of each film type