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   from our letters department:
Color Slides to B&W Prints

Mary is a Graphic Designer in Oklahoma City, OK who writes in to Photoshop Tips & Tricks with this question

" I have just discovered your website and I am interested in changing color slides and negatives to black and white. I want a final print that looks like the traditional dark room. Is there information on this subject in your achives? "
a
__ Mary, thanks for writing. Yes, there was a full article in DT&G some time ago about the whole process, but it's not posted as a web page. I'll dig it out, update it, and put it at the top of the Photoshop Tips and Tricks area during this month. Let me remind you that Photoshop911.com will be opening soon, and the tutorial I speak of will be fully available in that site.

In a nutshell, the best way to accomplish this is to scan the slides (or have them professionally scanned if you do not have a film scanner) and then open them in Photoshop as CYMK.

Film to digital is almost always contrasty. So, be careful. You'll need a step wedge, so, first open a new, Grayscale, Photoshop file about a half inch tall, and as wide as your photograph. Fill the entire file with a gradient from pure white to pure black. Now convert that gradient using ... Image > Adjust > Posterize and then set the dialog to 10 shades. The resulting file should give you a pretty reliable step wedge.

Now, open the photo you intend to convert, and use Image > Canvas Size to increase the bottom of the image to accommodate the step wedge. Paste the step wedge into the file, and position it in the newly created space. This wedge will be on its own layer.

Now, add a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer making sure that the Monochrome box is checked. (You create that by using the "Create new fill or adjustment layer" pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette.)

Now watch the magic. As you adjust the sliders watch your step wedge. If you wanted to, you could generate a second step wedge layer, and position it in view, but above the adjustment layer so you can compare what happens as you adjust the sliders. The goal is to obtain a result that still contains a pure black, a pure white, and at least ten steps of gray between. Many professionals use a twenty step wedge for more precise fine tuning.

I recommend you PRINT or image a selection of the settings you feel are the best. Print them along with their step wedges. Also print the raw, original step wedge, and compare the gray values and where they moved as you modified the settings. With those prints you can compare the best results with the file settings you used.

This kind of exercise is always very valuable -- first, because it gives you the tangible understanding of what the software and hardware is capable of. Secondly, it arms you with the know-how to change those results predictably -- and to handle each new photo as it comes along.

Let me note: this is not a new idea or technique. This process has been used for years to calibrate graphic arts lab cameras to produce film halftones, and continuous tone prints. If you contact Agfa or Kodak, you can obtain a REAL grayscale step wedge to test your scanner, and then use in the preparations of all digital prints. I have one next to my scanner as we speak.

Best wishes and thanks for writing.

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