Stunning B&W images - how does he do it?

[tarheel]

I've always been a huge fan of black-and-white photography, and knowing this a friend of mine recently sent me a link to this album of photos:

http://www.pbase.com/luminous/life_3


I think these images are absolutely stunning, and I've been trying to figure out how he achieves the bold/pop effect he does with his images. It would appear to be some sort of high-pass filter setting, but I can't quite seem to get it right. I've attached a couple of pictures with which I've tried to mimic his results. What I've done for these is create b&w's from color images using hue/saturation layers, and then added a high-pass filter layer with a radius of about 15-20 pixels, using hard-light for the layer. I like the way these turned out, but they still aren't quite there yet. Any of the Photoshop gurus here have any additional suggestions?


Regards,
Chris

[NZDoug]

Tri-X????? :)

[ianmcc]

Woah yer right that stuff rocks... The minute I saw your results and your method I wanted to try it. I think your on the righ t track but try Channel mixer to convert to B&W and get a more full toned image. Then applu several High Pass layers, and tweak the different opacities and method. I used three on this one all different types of light, hard vivid, etc.

this is a cool effect! reminds me of the back in the day I'd dev Tri-x in rodinal, to get that high accutance!

[Tom Nolle]

My check says that the contrast on those images is very high. Could that be a factor?

Tom

[JPS]

I had a look at ALL his galleries, and what strucked me is that he essentially shoot between 50 and 55 mm. ! On some pics, he used a 18 mm. (maybe he's only got the 18-70 bundled with the D70 ?)
All the pics have been heavilly PS'ed, but this guy found HIS TRICK, -knows well how to use it- and apply it to more than 95% of his photos !
He also shoot 99.9 % portraits and really got the knack for that !!!
Stunning hundreds of pictures !!! :righton: :righton: :righton:
:cheers:

[KeithM]

Chris - I think what you describe is like a local contrast technique... ??

Have a look at another luminous landscape page (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast-enhancement.shtml) and the linked pages...

Another method I use is to duplicate the background layer, blur it with a large radius, set blend mode to Overlay with about 10% opacity.

Worth playing with the numbers to see what you get...

Keith.

[jknights]

The portraits in the example pbase gallery are certainly very striking and the photographer has a wonderful set of shots.

I can only agree that they look Tri-X like, and then printed on Ilford Grade4.
I took a look back over some of my early film work and these type of results were the 'normal' output using the above conditions.
However I have not experimented with digital to get these results.

All I can say is that the photographer has certainly mastered his situation and is producing wonderful output.!! (I'm green with envy but it doesn't show in B&W) :rockon:

[tarheel]

I'm still working on the settings trying to figure out how to match his effect. Keith - I tried your suggestion on top of the technique I mentioned in my original post, and I like the effect. It seems to punch up the contrast nicely. I'll keep on trying - having fun playing with Photoshop.

Regards,
Chris

[-fruity-]

Did you friend reveal some infos?

I'm burning to know :)

Gave it a try with LayerB&W/Sepia/Sharpening-of-death

cheers.

[crabby]

Chris,

Here's my version, which I was suprised to learn is very similar to Keith M's link. Only I use a lesser amount and a greater radius. Similar results can be had with the Highlight/Shadow filter but I've been doing it this way for a long time. Old habits die hard.

[darkroomdevil]

here is my try

-control-alt-~ to select highlights
-control-j to move highlights to new layer
-change new layer to softlight blend mode

move to background layer again
-control-alt-~
-control-I to invert selection so that shadows are selected
-control-j
-Change this new layer to softlight

Curves adjustment layer to taste

Don't know if it is how he does it, could just be curves ... but this is my tricky take on it ;)

Roger