MY MONOCHROME WORKFLOW

The derelict Mira Lanza factory in Rome
Sigma DP2 Merrill - Fixed Sigma 30mm (45mm eq.) prime w/polarizer
1/100" f8 ISO 100
Converted into monochrome with Silver Efex Pro 2

Commenting my last post, PhotoGraphia reader Mark asked me if I could share some of my monochrome workflow. Here is a concise how-to which I hope you will find useful:

• In your camera's menu, set sharpness to the lower value: white-border artifacts tend to become obvious in mono conversions.
• Again in your camera's menu, set picture mode to the most "natural" or "standard" or "neutral" color value: oversaturated or overcontrasted files make lousy b&w conversions.
• While shooting, use your live histogram in order to avoid highlights clipping; if in doubt, underexpose a little bit.
• Remember that sensors, like film, feed on light: more light always means better results.
• Rely on jpg if you are a good photographer and are very familiar with your camera's behavior. Otherwise shoot raw.
• At home, open your file in your photo-editing application and tweak levels in order to get a full-range histogram, from far left to far right (a brightness-calibrated monitor is de rigueur).
• Launch Nik Silver Efex Pro plug-in and select the red or yellow color filter to begin with. You can also tweak filter's hue and/or intensity according to your needs.
• Second step: generously push the luminosity/midtones slider to the left. This will exceedingly darken your image: it's all right.
• Now try and recover highlights by alternatively pushing the dynamic-brightness or the white-enhancer cursor to the right (the former could cause halos around objects surrounded by a plain dark sky, while the latter could give too much contrast). This is when your photograph almost takes its final looks.
• Never use "structure" sliders on the whole image: this will spoil your job with fake-sharpness borders and artifacts. At most, sharpen your image locally (see next step).
• Use Nik's control-point technology to brighten/darken/contrast/uncontrast/sharpen/soften limited areas of your image: you can activate as many of them as you wish, and -believe me- the whole job is a breeze.
• If your composition needs a little visual help, maybe you would add some vignetting to it. You better postpone this enhancement and use your photo-editing application: Silver Efex does a lousy vignetting job.
• And now the final step. Go to the toning options and select a hue value of 30° with a 20% of "silver tone". This is the way I always warm up my black&white tone a little bit, in order to be sure that the CMYK printing conversion will remain on the warm side (I hate random blueish tones in my printed photographs). Of course cold-tone lovers can pick their tone values accordingly.
• Back to the photo-editing application, check the histogram: sometimes the highlight slider needs a little adjustment.
• The final touch, if needed, is a smooth curve tweaking, in order to get exactly the brightness and density your photograph deserves.
• Proudly post/print your photograph and be happy.

Chimneys of the Aragonese Castel in Ischia Island
Sigma DP2 Merrill - Fixed Sigma 30mm (45mm eq.) prime w/polarizer
1/100" f8 ISO 100
Converted into monochrome with Silver Efex Pro 2

Comments

[Rick]

Thank you for sharing your workflow- I've long admired your work. I've not found digital b&w giving me anything close to film, so this will be helpful.

Trust you saw article on The Online Photographer :)

[Gianni Galassi]

Rick,
as a matter of fact I did. This is the second time my work is acknowledged by Mike Johnston. I'm so proud.
Thank you again for your appreciation. I'd like to see your next b&w photographs.

[Hussain Ally]

Great help

[rita vita finzi]

Thank you! I would love to get a good black and white photograph, but I can`t - your detailed information will be precious! Beautiful shots - amazing light.

[Gianni Galassi]

Thank you Hussain.

And Rita, you are welcome, my friend.
Your appreciation always flatters me.
You didn't link your name under your comment. Let me do it for you:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ritavitafinzi/

[Jim]

A little late on this one but I'm very far behind on my reading. Thank you so much for this. I hope you will do more posts that share your knowledge.

I do have two questions: You say "push the luminosity/midtones slider to the left" These term aren't in the USA version. I assume your terms are the same as the midtones slider under the Brightness tab in the USA version. Am I correct?

Second, when you say: "recover highlights by alternatively pushing the dynamic-brightness or the white-enhancer cursor to the right", in the USA version I think this is the Amplify Whites and Soft Contrast controls under the Contrast tab. Can you confirm I am translating correctly?

These seem to work but going left with dynamic contrast also seems to help in some images. I'd like to be sure I'm not missing something.

Regards/Jim

[Gianni Galassi]

Jim,
thank you for your insightful reading of my post.
Being an Italian user, most of the time I end up with installing applications and plug-ins in their Italian version (even when I don't want to). Therefore I have to apologize for the incorrectness of my English translation of the software functions I'm speaking about in this blog.
Anyway:
first, you are correct when you refer to the Midtones slider under the Brightness tab;
second, I should have written "recover highlights by alternatively pushing the Dynamic Brightness slider under the Brightness tab or the Amplify Whites tab under the Contrast tab."
By talking about "dynamic contrast" at the end of your comment, I think you mean the same Dynamic Brightness slider I refer to in the above paragraph, right?

[Dean Forbes]

Hello from Dean Forbes in Seattle. A friend of mine sent me your B&W workflow blog post and it has changed the way I use SEP completely. I tried your techniques and I like them a lot!

I'm curious how you discovered the step of moving the midtone brightness slider to the left and recovering overall brightness using the dynamic brightness slider? It's genius!

I used to automatically add contrast and structure to all of my B&W conversions in SEP. No longer. How do you assess whether to add contrast and structure?

Thanks!

[Jim]

Thank you for that clarification!

I actually was misinterpreting your explanation. When you referred to the dynamic brightness slider, I mistakenly thought you meant the soft contrast slider.

Now everything is clear. I truly appreciate your time helping me and everyone who reads your blog. And you never need to apologize for your English, it's far better than many native speakers.

[Gianni Galassi]

Thank you Dean.
I'm so happy your friend helped in sharing my b&w experience.
Generally speaking, I only add (or subtract, sometimes) contrast and structure manually and locally, according to the image's key points to be emphasized (or irrelevant areas to be subdued).
How did I discover those steps? I experiment as often as I can. Furthermore, my film-era darkroom experience taught me a lot about monochrome photography.

[Gianni Galassi]

Jim,
thank you for your rewarding words of appreciation.