Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hello All

I have just been trying to reprocess an old shot taken before my raw period so it is jpeg only.

It is a night shot of Lincoln Cathedral and I do not like the flood light colour of the stone work also it is slightly blown out.

Decided to try it in B & W.

Now, is it best to convert to B & W before any adjustments?  for instance I get the impression that the Tone Sharpening is working on the colour version, I suppose that is logical as the base file is still in colour, should I sharpen in neutral Grey, and yes I have tried that.    (In Qultimate I used the Sel.Color to convert to B & W)

What procedure do you experts follow?

Files as below:-

Original

(http://jeffmilan.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v12/p946691634-2.jpg)

QUltimated

(http://jeffmilan.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v11/p582391489-3.jpg)

Eliments7'd

(http://jeffmilan.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v14/p693300116-3.jpg)

I like the Elements version, we cannot have that, Q must be able to do better :)

I am not in a hurry for advice, I will be away from computer until tomorrow afternoon. 

Jeff

   

I am not into B&W, but I would make one comment about Qimage:  Use the predefined B&W filter and that will automatically set the numbers in SEL COLOR for you.
The other comment is from listening to a friend who does B&W. He usually says that the choice of paper is very important when making B&W, and he tried everything and settled for Epson Prem. Glossy for the best B&W result.

Good luck and I hope someone out there can help/
Fred

In Sel Colour (Editor screen), there are other B&W options with Red, Green or Blue separation. It's worth trying those to see the effect. I find that contrast changes are usually required too, using a curve.
Terry.