Great video Scott. Just wanted to say that I watched this video for a second time, months later, after using the b&w filter quite a bit and I learned even more! I have it saved so I can watch it again in a few months. Thanks again.
Something I like to do in Develop to setup a photo to receive the B&W Filter is reduce contrast (get the histogram well into the center) and boost Saturation to the point of being gaudy. I find this gives me the most "information" to work with in the B&W Filter. The boosted Saturation makes the color sliders in the filter more responsive and the reduced contrast gives more room to work within the filter. Big changes in color temp can also help get whatever look you're going for. For instance, the "blue" in the floor boards could be accentuated by cooling the color temp. There is so much interaction between the B&W filter and many of the other filters, it can be quite fun exploring all the combinations.
Thanks Scott, question, last night I was a doing a B&W image and I don't fully understand the eyedropper tool. I noticed you where sliding it back and forth. I thought I was to click on certain tonal value ?? Can you provide more detail ?
Yes, the eyedropper samples a tone in the image (where you click) and auto-selects the appropriate channel (red, orange, yellow, etc.). However, a single click won't do it. Click and hold, then move the cursor left/right to see which color channel is changed. I typically wiggle the eyedropper a little to see which slider is affected, then return to the effects panel and adjust the slider directly.
Hi Scott, nice review. I don't use ON1 a lot for BW. Most of the time, I am using Lightroom with presets and profiles to be non destructive or NIK3 sylver efex pro for deep BW (now non destructive inside Lightroom)or I am using photoshop with three layers : hue/sat to boost colors, bw as you describe for colors response and gradient map for tones. what is the status of gradient map now in ON1 PR2021 which is a great tool for deep BW and color grading ? zone system 0..10 tool would be very nice inside ON1 BW filter to check how we cover tonal ranges.
Hi Marc ... there's no zone tool per se in ON1. The luminosity masks work well, using the Levels and Window sliders in the masking area to work visually and target particular tonal ranges. It operates the same as it did in the 2020 version.
I was curious, I'm currently testing DXO Silver Efex Pro as a trial. ON1PR BW seems to have most of the same tools other than their canned presets and control points. I really would rather not invest in another software since I have ON1 already. I wondered if you or anyone who reads this comment has also tried Silver Efex Pro and has an opinion on how ON1 BW Filter compares with SEP?
Hi Philip ... don't know of a direct SEP "versus" ON1 video (I'm personally not too much of a fan of "versus" videos ... we're not boxing :) ... thinking out loud ... the control points in SEP were (are) quite cool. With ON1, I'd look at using B&W to do the base conversion. Then, use Locals with the center/edges mask, potentially on top of a lumen mask, and adjust the highs/lows/mids/etc to target adjustments. Let me ponder more, maybe I can slap together a video.
As convenient as it is to have those other filters duplicated into the B&W filter, I predict this could become a little annoying when revisiting a photo a few years later and having to go dig out the source of that crazy high iso noise look.
Hi Mads, the blessing and the curse of software as it matures .... also can’t remove the controls, because we wouldn’t want a photo years down the line to suddenly look different. So yeah... sometimes it’s a “hard target search” to figure out where a change is coming from (as much as I love and use the blending modes, I often forget to check them when dissecting a look on an older photo)
Got to say, when I'm revisiting a photo I go right back to the RAW file - my workflow changes, software gets new abilities, algorithms change, my taste matures (questionable) , etc so I never bother to 'tweak' an image, just start again - as is always the case, others mileage may vary.
I’d say I’m similar. My tweaks happen within a few days, maybe as long as a couple of weeks, from when I first start an image. After that, I’ll do the same as you and start with a fresh version.
Thanks, but a more effective instructional method would be to show at the start the extreme variety that can be obtained, and then show how to get those distinct effects. Instead of that, Scott spends six minutes telling us what the sliders are named (which we can see for ourselves) and saying that "You can play with all the sliders to your heart's content" (which everybody already knows). The net effect of this lesson is that there's an effect called Black & White, and if you slide any of the sliders just a little bit, the picture won't change much. But I still don't know what the range of possibility is or how to attain the one I want (apart from fooling around ignorantly).
Great video Scott. Just wanted to say that I watched this video for a second time, months later, after using the b&w filter quite a bit and I learned even more! I have it saved so I can watch it again in a few months. Thanks again.
Glad it helped! Thanks as always for watching.
Something I like to do in Develop to setup a photo to receive the B&W Filter is reduce contrast (get the histogram well into the center) and boost Saturation to the point of being gaudy. I find this gives me the most "information" to work with in the B&W Filter. The boosted Saturation makes the color sliders in the filter more responsive and the reduced contrast gives more room to work within the filter. Big changes in color temp can also help get whatever look you're going for. For instance, the "blue" in the floor boards could be accentuated by cooling the color temp. There is so much interaction between the B&W filter and many of the other filters, it can be quite fun exploring all the combinations.
Interesting approach! Thanks for sharing that.
Thanks Scott followed with an image made such a difference thanks again
Glad it helped!
Thanks Scott, question, last night I was a doing a B&W image and I don't fully understand the eyedropper tool. I noticed you where sliding it back and forth. I thought I was to click on certain tonal value ?? Can you provide more detail ?
Yes, the eyedropper samples a tone in the image (where you click) and auto-selects the appropriate channel (red, orange, yellow, etc.). However, a single click won't do it. Click and hold, then move the cursor left/right to see which color channel is changed. I typically wiggle the eyedropper a little to see which slider is affected, then return to the effects panel and adjust the slider directly.
Thank you for the review. Very informative.
Glad it was helpful!
Hi Scott, nice review. I don't use ON1 a lot for BW. Most of the time, I am using Lightroom with presets and profiles to be non destructive or NIK3 sylver efex pro for deep BW (now non destructive inside Lightroom)or I am using photoshop with three layers : hue/sat to boost colors, bw as you describe for colors response and gradient map for tones.
what is the status of gradient map now in ON1 PR2021 which is a great tool for deep BW and color grading ? zone system 0..10 tool would be very nice inside ON1 BW filter to check how we cover tonal ranges.
Hi Marc ... there's no zone tool per se in ON1. The luminosity masks work well, using the Levels and Window sliders in the masking area to work visually and target particular tonal ranges. It operates the same as it did in the 2020 version.
I was curious, I'm currently testing DXO Silver Efex Pro as a trial. ON1PR BW seems to have most of the same tools other than their canned presets and control points. I really would rather not invest in another software since I have ON1 already. I wondered if you or anyone who reads this comment has also tried Silver Efex Pro and has an opinion on how ON1 BW Filter compares with SEP?
Hi Philip ... don't know of a direct SEP "versus" ON1 video (I'm personally not too much of a fan of "versus" videos ... we're not boxing :) ... thinking out loud ... the control points in SEP were (are) quite cool. With ON1, I'd look at using B&W to do the base conversion. Then, use Locals with the center/edges mask, potentially on top of a lumen mask, and adjust the highs/lows/mids/etc to target adjustments. Let me ponder more, maybe I can slap together a video.
Inspiring. Let me at it! Cheers from DownUnder.
Have fun!!
As convenient as it is to have those other filters duplicated into the B&W filter, I predict this could become a little annoying when revisiting a photo a few years later and having to go dig out the source of that crazy high iso noise look.
Hi Mads, the blessing and the curse of software as it matures .... also can’t remove the controls, because we wouldn’t want a photo years down the line to suddenly look different. So yeah... sometimes it’s a “hard target search” to figure out where a change is coming from (as much as I love and use the blending modes, I often forget to check them when dissecting a look on an older photo)
@@ScottDavenport thanks scot. If revisiting, no need to retouch any photo, find the original and make a virtual copy from scratch.
Got to say, when I'm revisiting a photo I go right back to the RAW file - my workflow changes, software gets new abilities, algorithms change, my taste matures (questionable) , etc so I never bother to 'tweak' an image, just start again - as is always the case, others mileage may vary.
I’d say I’m similar. My tweaks happen within a few days, maybe as long as a couple of weeks, from when I first start an image. After that, I’ll do the same as you and start with a fresh version.
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Thanks, but a more effective instructional method would be to show at the start the extreme variety that can be obtained, and then show how to get those distinct effects. Instead of that, Scott spends six minutes telling us what the sliders are named (which we can see for ourselves) and saying that "You can play with all the sliders to your heart's content" (which everybody already knows). The net effect of this lesson is that there's an effect called Black & White, and if you slide any of the sliders just a little bit, the picture won't change much. But I still don't know what the range of possibility is or how to attain the one I want (apart from fooling around ignorantly).
The point of the video was to explain the sliders. Sorry this didn't hit the mark for you, Andy.