I became interested in photography early enough that black and white was still “the done thing” though, like many people, found the lack of any darkroom was a big problem. Colour Neg had begun to take over by the time I had professional aspirations, and I learned to shoot colour transparency in any event, as it was the best medium for the market where I made my first sales.
The arrival of digital technology changed everybody’s outlook on processing their pictures. With easy access to even the most humble personal computer, people who would never have considered getting their hands wet in dev and fix were able and willing to work in the new Light Room. For enthusiasts who previously had no darkrooms, processing and creating was now just a matter of kicking their kids off the PC of an evening :)
More after the break.
Black and White drifted away a little, in those years of colour neg and early digital, but there’s been a surge in popular interest in the medium recently, as programs in the Light Room become more capable of recreating the look and feel of monochrome from electronic data.
As somebody who feels he's still relatively new to the world of black and white, I’ve made a few conversions of likely colour originals in old versions of Photoshop and lately, Aperture 3. I’ve been fairly pleased with what Aperture 3 alone can do.
But I’ve read a great deal from pros who are using Silver Efex Pro, by Nik Software, and was persuaded a few days ago to buy their set of plug-ins for Aperture. I had a quick play (best word for these early fumblings in new software) yesterday evening with some colour originals I shot last month and ...
Blimey...!
I liked the colour original, a raw file from a D300...
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| Seaside telescope, on Sheerness seafront. |
... and I’m slightly worried that, because I can throw so much at it in Silver Efex, that’s what I’ve done here but ... Wow...!!!
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| And a newbie's conversion in Silver Efex Pro 2 |
This is the adjusted raw, converted in the Aperture plug-in, with some more highlight retention, the pre-set High Structure (Smooth), Fuji Neopan 1600 film type, with the weakest preset sepia tone and a preset border. (As I say, I might have thrown too much at this ;)
Oh dear. I think I may be spending some time here...
Hi Andy, I too came from the black & white era, my fingers often looks like I smoked 40 a day they were so brown with oxidised developer!
ReplyDeleteI've used Silver EFEX for some time and now the version 2, its the best bit of software to make good b&w! Nice picture too!
Cheers Neil