THE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES: THE ART OF B&W CONVERSIONS IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Before B-W conversion
from the EARTH WATER SKY series
©Michael O'Brien
click here to see the series

After B-W conversion
from the EARTH WATER SKY series
©Michael O'Brien
click here to see the series

CONVERTING a color RAW file into a black and white file is much like an alchemical process. It can be as laborious or simple as you want it to be. Countless books have been written on the subject yet practicing with a few simple tools will suffice to produce strong B&W photographs. I will be covering this approach in my workshop.

At the moment, my preferred software for CONVERSIONS is Lightroom, Photoshop, and Silver Efex. I can spend anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours developing an image in the POST PROCESSING stage; it depends on the image and what needs to be done to reach my final vision for that image.
This can be an important step in the CREATIVE PROCESS and helps us develop our ability to see the potential that resides in a scene and in a RAW file made of that scene.
 Below is an example of what Silver Efex can do with an image; left is the unprocessed RAW file in color - right is the finished image after processing in Silver Efex. We'll be teaching these techniques in our upcoming October workshop - 'Black and White Digital Photography' - details to come.