What type of image for B&W

[ericmark]

Since the black and white section has been started I thought I would have a go. Selecting a subject with would have been traditionally black and white I thought give it a go.
1) I found it hard to set levels in Black and White and I ended up setting in colour first.
2) Where does one do the converting. I selected the RAW plug-in with Photoshop CS4 as seemed the sooner converted the better but I also used the selective tool to lighten the pistons and valve gear area and I am sure with some more skill the selecting of colour sliders in the conversion could do better job.
3) So set levels finally in Photoshop and Un-sharp mask but then what do I save it as? Jpeg is a colour format so although saved here as Jpeg I am sure that is wrong.

I will guess I should use GIF but not at all sure. My attempt seemed to lock up Photoshop and as I write this the file is still trying to be processed so what file format should be used for Black and White?

[JAS_Photo]

Seems like you are making this more difficult then it should be ericmark. Here is a tutorial for photoshop.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tec...lack-white.htm

Personally I use LightRoom to do my B&W conversions. I have downloaded a few presets and start from there but LR gives you lots of options including duotoning.

[ericmark]

Thank you for link. The guidance as to which colours to increase or decrease is very good. However seems a little dated as with my Photoshop CS4 I get the following screen to convert with.

Moving the 8 sliders does produce a huge difference in the final outcome. Since there are so many greens in picture a arrow shape of the sliders with green at head of arrow seems to produce the best effect but then the big question arises.
What to save as?
With this image since it includes the colour sliders of course Jpeg is reasonable. However for the actual image seems very little point using a format designed for colour. If only monochrome information is saved the file must be a lot smaller and if used with a web page keeping the file size down must mean it will load faster. We have the following options.

Some of these are not really any good as they are specially to a certain program but Tiff, Gif, Jpeg, Bmp, are all relatively universally used however all seem to need more room to store than Jpeg in spite of the colour being removed. So theory and practice seem to be different and Jpeg does seem best format. And comparing colour to monochrome 11M to 7M so file does seem to be smaller as a result of removing colour. Jpeg also to me is good because of the meta data it contains and being able to refer to what the camera settings were at time of taking must be an advantage.

[JAS_Photo]

That photo you are using in your example is a real nice capture, ericmark.

[ericmark]

Thank you it did take some getting to. The old slate quarry railway runs on opposite side of glacier valley to main road and it seemed every point of access had either bridges or trees with stopped one getting a good view. I tried a few narrow lanes to get closer, and was getting in good practice at reversing. Passing places could be 1/2 mile apart.

When I found that station and signal box I was surprised. Even room to park and turn around.

However lovely sunny day. Not so good for getting the valve gear as it tends to be in heavy shadow. I did take in RAW so good base image but not really a subject where one can use HDR.

Using too much adjustment brush or fill light tends to give a whitish haze so with so much on here about black and white I considered the idea of using black and white and the post exposure filters which are available when converting from RAW.

Not sure if I have got the right balance of colour filters but did seem to help.
Hind sight maybe I should have added a little hue and saturation and given it a sepia effect.

I have noted if no hue and saturation are added then the Black and White option in Photoshop main is greyed out. However if hue and saturation is added then you can also use the black and white option in photoshop.
This seems to answer my question as if one does add hue and saturation then really it is no longer Black and White it is Monochrome but not Black and White so you do need to save as a colour image so Jpeg does seem to be best option.

Although it does seem a lot of messing about I have to admit it is now far easier than last time I tried it in my dads loft, trying to make out the image and using a lot of guess work. I remember doing a lovely enlargement of the wing tip of Concorde, but really I wanted nose, and with such a faint image projected on the floor I had selected wrong area.
I seem to have phases last one was HDR now seems I am on Black and White.

Seems odd but I voted against this section.

[Mad Aussie]

I use PS CS4 for my conversions ... but not the RAW editor. I use the Black & White tool under image/adjustments/