Black and White

[Steve Roberts]

I’d use the CC Toner effect, using a mid-gray instead of brown. Then I’d apply curves to my taste, probably making the curve look a bit like an “S”.

Keep in mind that good black and white movies were designed for black and white in terms of costuming and art direction to get a good set of grays in the shot. Colour often looks flat when converted, hence the curves manipulation.

So you could use an adjustment layer with the toner and curve effects applied, then mask half of it out so half the frame ends up being afected by the B&W adjustment layer. Then you could manipulate the various RGB colours on the original footage layer, and see the effect this colour manipulation creates on the half affected by the B&W adjustment layer.

Then when you’re done, you remove the mask.

[Darby Edelen]

I recommend applying the default Color Correction > Tint effect. Feel free to play with Curves after that, but Tint should give you a perceptually correct B&W image from color footage.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Rob Webster]

I like to use the Channel Mixer, under Effect->Color Correction. Just check the monochrome box at the bottom, and then you’ll only use the first three sliders to determine the amount of red, green, and blue to use for your black and white image. The combination of the three numbers should total 100, unless you want an overall brightening or darkening. The default is that red is at 100%, but that’s usually not too flattering for skin tones and tends to wash them out. I like having the reds at 20% or less, and use lots of the green. Adding too much blue tends to produce more grain in your black and white image. If you’re tweaking and you like your basic percentages, but need to give more or less overall exposure, then the fourth slider will adjust your constant and let you bring it down or ramp it up. Overall this effect may be a little more course than adjusting curves for each color channel as other methods allow you to do, but it’s usually a quick way to get very good results, better than simply desaturating.

[Darby Edelen]

[Rob Webster] “The combination of the three numbers should total 100, unless you want an overall brightening or darkening. The default is that red is at 100%, but that’s usually not too flattering for skin tones and tends to wash them out. I like having the reds at 20% or less, and use lots of the green.”

Interesting… It’s my understanding that the Tint effect does what you’ve suggested here in maintaining green as the dominant channel (perceptually correct for human vision) where as desaturating by using the Hue/Saturation effect doesn’t give any particular channel precedence.

I like your technique because it gives the artist more control… and that’s good, but do you happen to know the ‘perceptually correct’ values for the R, G & B sliders as a starting point?

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Sam Moulton]

I agree with Rob . . .

Channel mixer is the best path to Black and White. You can simulate the filters (yellow, red) that are used in B&W photography to control contrast. If you know nothing about B&W photography I’d suggest you google Ansel Adams and look at some of his work and technique. You’ll never achieve anything that looks like good B&W photography by simply de-saturating color.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams

[Jonathan Shohet]

Thanks very much for all your input…

I remember reading somewhere that the luminance in an RGB image is determined according to the ratio of 0.29 R 0.59 G 0.12 B
Is that ratio relevant to B&W conversion through the channel mixer?

Also, I wanted to know if you guys use any grain\noise effect after the color conversion itself to achieve a more film-like feel.

Jon