OT: B&W Set Contrast First or BP and WP?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan Smithee
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A

Alan Smithee

Sorry I know it's slightly off topic but ... when working black & white
photos in Photoshop does one set contrast first or black/while points first?
Seems to me when I set my black and white points first my highlights get
blown if/when I start upping the contrast. I'm interested in hearing how
others work through this. Thx.
 
Setting white and black points first is okay. However, using 'contrast'
is a bad idea as it will push out both highlights and shadows losing
details at either end. You should try using curves to accomplish
contrast changes.
 
When you use curves do you set two points and create a standard H&D "S" type
of curve?
 
Alan Smithee said:
When you use curves do you set two points and create a standard H&D
"S" type
of curve?
Click to expand...

Yes that's one way of doing it, you can also set a kind of pivot point
at 128,128 and then either lower a low brightness or raise a high
brightness point (this will keep overall brightness about the same).

A more precise way is by CTRL-clicking in the image, which will add
the control points to the already opened Curves dialog. This will
allow you to more accurately influence the brighnesses that are
important for the image at hand, and less the other brightnesses fall
where they will. Since this may change overall brightness if you only
chose a dark and a light point, you'll typically have to add a medium
brightness control point to adust overall brighness.

That will ensure that both blackpoint and white point remain
unchanged.

Bart
 
Bart said:
Yes that's one way of doing it, you can also set a kind of pivot point
at 128,128 and then either lower a low brightness or raise a high
brightness point (this will keep overall brightness about the same).

A more precise way is by CTRL-clicking in the image, which will add
the control points to the already opened Curves dialog. This will
allow you to more accurately influence the brighnesses that are
important for the image at hand, and less the other brightnesses fall
where they will. Since this may change overall brightness if you only
chose a dark and a light point, you'll typically have to add a medium
brightness control point to adust overall brighness.

That will ensure that both blackpoint and white point remain
unchanged.

Bart
Click to expand...

Thanks Bart. Do you do everything from the curves menu? Or do you mix and
match. I like using the ALT+ key while sliding my WP and BP markers in
"Levels" so I can see where the WP or BP start forming. What is your usual
workflow?
 
SNIP
Thanks Bart. Do you do everything from the curves menu? Or
do you mix and match. I like using the ALT+ key while sliding
my WP and BP markers in "Levels" so I can see where the
WP or BP start forming. What is your usual workflow?
Click to expand...

I do most corrections on adjustment layers while in 16-bit/channel
mode. Past braindead PS behavior (prior to CS), caused problems when
compositing multiple levels/curves adjustments. PS CS seems to have
corrected that, so you could (as I do it) combine a Levels adjustment
layer for Black/White point clipping (with visual feedback when
pressing ALT) with a Curves adjustment layer for tonality adjustment.
Whether one applies additional color corrections in either layer is a
choice that's mostly based on the needed adjustments, Curves of course
allowing more complex tweaking.
The drawback is of course that with 2 additional layers the filesize
more than triples, but that's the trade-off for being allowed to
backtrack/tweak the settings (including masks) before a final Layer
Flattening.

For hard lighting contrast, or subtle highlight adjustments, the
Shadow/Highlight adjustment tool is hard to beat, but it is not an
adjustment layer tool so you cannot go back (unless applied to a copy
of the original layer, or by using snapshots).

Bart
 
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