Converting Colour to Black and White, the Cool Way.
In the Beginning, God (in this case, Adobe) created Photoshop. And on the seventh day, He edited his photographs in Photoshop and was pleased; for they were good. And on that day, He bade his subjects go out into the world and teach.
“Lead my people home!”
And that’s when Ren decided she knew everything… and so the story continues.
This is a demonstration of how I create most of my black and white images. I’m presuming you know about layers and adjustment layers however if you don’t, either look up a tutorial ot two – there’s heaps online – or just head on up into your Layer menu in Photoshop and start playing. It’s easy. Don’t be afraid. Go now. I’ll wait…
While we’re waiting, I’ll say many, many thanks to Tam for the use of her lovely face and apologise unreservedly for any offense or boredom that may be caused. Please note, there are umptymillion ways of getting a single result in Photoshop for just about anything you want to do. This is just one method of creating black and white images – there are heaps that I’ve discovered but this is my favourite so far.
Coastal Woodlands... and not a vignette to be seen.
Vignettes, those wonderful dark edges in photos and artwork alike are the bane of my existance. Why? Because they are overused and they are used in the wrong flippin’ way.
Vignetting should never be used simply “because [you] can”. It should be used to increase the appeal of an image – providing that the image actually calls for for that sort of treatment. Unfortunately many photographers, including my very talented friends, are getting swept up in the evil power of vignettes.
THEY ARE VIGNETTING EVERYTHING.
Always, always, ALWAYS use vignetting sparingly. Think before you use it; “Will this make my image look better?”
Please note that a craptastic photo will always be a craptastic photo. You cannot make a silk purse out of a pigs ear and no amount of digital fucking-with (oops, I sworeded) will make a craptastic photo any better. Believe me, I have tried and tried. Many of my photographs have vignettes but these were all taken long before I learned precisely where vignettes should be applied.
Vignettes force focus to the centre of the image. If the main subject of your photograph is not towards the centre of the image, then for Gods sake, do not use a vignette.
This is something I have picked up from my studies at graphic design school. Product placement isn’t as naff as it sounds. The layout of an advertisement is done in many different ways to provoke many different reactions but all are done in such a way that the viewers eye are led through the image with no bumps or roadblocks to the important information contained therein.
The same also applies to photographs. If you’ve placed your subject to one side of the frame, if all the details are very close to the side of the frame, then you should not be using a vignette. The same goes with images which are absolutely saturated with colour. Do not vignette these. The impact is already there in the colour and hopefully in the image itself. Why add a vignette that will just make it murky at the edges? And why mess with people’s natural discovery of the image itself by forcing them to look into the middle of the photograph when the eye may well lead them there anyway, thus making them appreciate the picture even more for it’s entirety rather than just the bit in the middle? Seriously, if you’re going to add a vignette to an extremely colourful image, set the vignette layer to OVERLAY or SOFT LIGHT rather than leaving it on NORMAL or MULTIPLY blend modes in Photoshop. What this will do is darken the edges by saturating the colour without adding a murky black which kills the colour altogether.
And I have to add this… if your images are white or very light around the edges, for the love of all that is good and right with the world, don’t murky it up with a grey-black vignette. That’s just all sorts of wrong.
Of course, rules are meant to be broken, you can add vignettes to anything but seriously folks, think before you apply. Criticise your work – stand back from it, disassociate yourself from sentimental feeling and evaluate what you have done with it or what you want to do with is. Visualise, apply and, if it sucks, DELETE.
About the photos in this post:
These were taken in July 2009 in the front yard of a house situated just off the beach in Portsea. The light was so beautiful – it had just been pouring with rain and there was a break in the clouds that lasted just a couple of minutes, I just had to try and catch it.
