Some Black & White Effects

While if possible I prefer B&W film for B&W images, there are times when a digital image looks to me like it would be better presented in B&W.  There are several options for doing such conversions in the default tools in Photoshop.  There are also many Photoshop plugins that can help with the conversion along with offering some other elements like toning. Today I am showing some images that were made with a couple of these plugins.  This is not a tutorial on using the plugins.  Just some images and basic info so you can get some idea of what they can do.

The image I started with.














The first one is a free plugin called Virtual Photographer. Virtual Photographer works with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.  If you don't have these programs than you can use it in a free editing program, Virtual Studio, that is made to work with Virtual Photographer.

The Virtual Photographer preset "Aluminum".














Virtual Photographer has a large number of presets in which you can make adjustments for things like exposure and film grain. It is a fun program to play around with.  There also are a large number of effects that can be used for color images.  Unlike a lot of the free plugins Virtual Photographer has a good interface with an excellent preview image area.  Virtual Photographer only works with 8 bit images. There are a few more images from Virtual Photographer in the Some Black & White Effects Gallery.

The second plugin is Topaz Black & White Effects.  The Topaz plugins used to be fairly inexpensive when I first started using them. However in checking for this post they seem to have experienced some inflation.  Even at that they are still are more reasonable than many Photoshop plugins.  Topaz Black & White Effects comes with a lot of presets which I used in the images here to give some idea of the things it can do.  Unlike Virtual Photographer this plugin has a very large number of adjustments that you can make to your image. I usually find it helpful to find a preset that is close to what I want and then make adjustments.

This is Topaz's idea of a classic b&w image.

With a Sepia/Gold tone.














Topaz does offer a 30 day fully functional free trial.  Also in the past they frequently had special offers so that you seldom had to pay full price.  Another thing is that it seems that once you buy one of their products you keep getting free updates.  At least I haven't had to pay for a new version yet. 
There are more Topaz images in the Some Black & White Effects Gallery.

Anvil effect from Virtual Photographer.

Imitating Film Cameras in Photoshop

I can well understand how the idea of using Photoshop to try to make a digital image look like one from a film camera could be a horror to many. However I have to admit that on occasion I like to play around with such effects. Still I do believe that these effects, like with most imitations, while they may be interesting and entertaining they aren't a replacement for the real thing. 

The newest version of Topaz Adjust has some film effects. There are some presets or you can make your own settings.

This is another one done with Topaz Adjust.  Topaz makes several plugins that are useful for digital photos.  And they are generally more affordable than other plugins for Photoshop.

This is one of the many sets of effects in the Filter Forge plugin.  It is called Memeroid and is supposed to imitate a Polaroid photo.

Another Memeroid.  While not of the same proportions as this type of Polaroid I think it adds some interest to the image.  The Filter Forge plugin is sorta expensive, however it does let you make your own filters.  And you can download a large number of useful filters made by Filter Forge users. 

This is a filter from Filter Forge called Analogue.  Some of the effects in Filter Forge can take a while to render.  I had a cup of coffee and went outside and took some pictures while this one was processing. Normally my computer handles Photoshop stuff quickly.  Some Filter Forge effects are the exception.

I think this effect fits the character of the buildings.  This one is from Topaz Adjust.

Here is one from Filter Forge call Toycam 82.  The buildings on this page are in Danville IL.  An interesting town to take pictures in although they have a tendency to tear down their most interesting buildings.

Lastly, one from Alien Skin Exposure.  This is supposed to be an imitation of one of my favorite 70's slide films, GAF 500.  When looking at a much larger version I thought it did a pretty good job. At this size I am not sure if the looks so good. Generally I don't find the Photoshop versions of films to be very satisfying.



So here you have some of the results of my playing around with these filters. If you are like me and enjoy this kind of look than you may find that these effects can liven up some otherwise dull digital photos.  Still as someone who has experienced both I think you can more easily get more satisfying and interesting results using real film cameras.  

Useful Photoshop Plugin and More Found Film

At least a couple of my goals with this blog are to give some information that is useful or at least interesting. For useful this morning I am thinking of Nik's Viveza plugin for Photoshop.  Viveza lets me with a click add control points to an image that will adjust things like contrast, brightness, saturation, and so on. In the example below I wanted to get the cat ornament to stand out more from the background.

The one on the left is the before picture.  In the picture on the right I used control points to darken some of the background while leaving the ornament alone.  I also was able to make some adjustments to the ornament without effecting the background.  In the past the main option for making non-global changes like this would be by using selections. And that can be a difficult process.  With Viveza such changes are pretty quick and easy.

I'm not sure if this is the most impressive example of Viveza's capabilities, however it was something I did today that bought Viveza to mind.  I would rate Viveza as one of the most useful plugins for Photoshop.  If you have not heard of it it is worth checking out.

In another development I uploaded a few more images from the negatives that I wrote about finding earlier.

Looks like a visit from a son in the military.
Found Negatives Gallery