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converting color images to b/w or greyscale

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2009 9:20 pm
by nyporschechik
i would like to produce better quality b/w images for print. (I am involved in printing a car club newsletter.) I have by default just converted a (300 dpi) color image in photoshop (CS3) to greyscale then adjust the levels to enhance the b/w features. in some cases the result is a washed out image once i get it back from the printer... i friend of mine who is a professional photographer (shooting color in Raw) uses Lightbox and has given my stunning images which print beautifully. Is there another technique i can use to improve the quality of my images?

Re: converting color images to b/w or greyscale

PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2009 11:30 pm
by prinothcat
I have read somewhere that if you do a color separation and use the green channel as the basis of your edits and grayscale conversion you get a better result. I have not tries this myself, and have no idea where I read about it. The subject is discussed here in a couple of places that you ought to be able to search up. There is als at least one after market program called Silvertone or something similar that does the work for you. Again I have no experience with it, but have seen results and they do loo much better than anything I could produce myself in shop.

Re: converting color images to b/w or greyscale

PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2009 6:08 pm
by cgull
Greetings;
Its been a while (as in 3 years) since I converted images with photoshop, so I will give you what I know from memory. I always got satisfactory results doing it with layers and the RGB filters, and adjusting the levels. Never, ever --[got good results from converting to gray scale. Your red, green, levels, work the same as applying a red, green, or yellow filter over your lense! They increase contrast. So, if you leave the colors in, you have a greater playing field of contrasts.
j

Re: converting color images to b/w or greyscale

PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2009 8:17 pm
by rollosphotos
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Re: converting color images to b/w or greyscale

PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2009 11:22 pm
by nyporschechik
thank you all for the suggestions.. i will give them a try and let you know how i make out..