Monochrome - The Methods

Monochrome - The Methods

"One of the problems of having so much horsepower to hand for the conversion process is the confusion it can cause…"

Introduction

The conversion to monochrome from our world of colour is a key element in this feature. The photographer has two choices at the outset: to shoot in colour or to shoot in monochrome. If they shoot in colour they then have to decide whether to transform to mono in Photoshop or to use a 'black ink' method and allow the printer driver to make the conversion. A feature of today's mono scene is the demise of the 'quad' ink sets. For quad inks, the coloured ink sets are replaced by subtly coloured 'black' and 'grey' inks. The output is then controlled via a RIP or Photoshop curves to blend the tones to neutrality of a preferred light tone. The technique is still used by skilled enthusiasts to make fine art monochrome prints of exceptional quality. However, from a commercial point of view, the arrival of the Epson UltraChrome K3 ink set all but killed this market. It has done so by outperforming quads in terms of ease of use and quality, particularly in having lower metamerism. The struggle to keep nozzles from blocking is an ever-present issue with non-Epson inks, something the busy professional has hardly got time for. The systems are still listed on the websites of both Permajet and Marrutt. The QuadTone RIP remains available from www.quadtonerip.com and works for both Mac and PC. It is a superbly coded product although you do have to invest in learning to use it well.

Outside of quad ink, the software surrounding monochrome creation has moved on since we last reviewed the topic as a whole. Photoshop has adopted the methodology originally proposed by their own Russell Brown and built it in to the RAW file handler, ACR. The HSL/Grayscale and SplitToning tabs offer a great deal of control.

The Image>Adjust>Black and White control is also greatly strengthened, again based on an ability to configure the monochrome values against the colour values in the original scene. The drop-down menu provides 12 pre-set adjustments to cover the complementary monochrome filters (eg red, oranges or yellows) along with infrared.

One of the problems of having so much horsepower to hand for the conversion process is the confusion it can cause as you try out dozens of options and an infinity of settings variations. Help is at hand from various kind people who have posted their efforts on the web.

Typical is the offering from DIYPhotography.net, created by Ladislav Soukep. The 5MB download is a Photoshop file and script. To use it you open the downloaded image, double click the big 'X' of the file, then place your own test file over this and scale it in the box. You then flatten the file, click the 'save' button and the script kicks into action to create a multichoice sheet showing variations. This provides an easy way of visualising the outcome and can shorten the path to adjusting your image. In 'reading' such results, old hands will be familiar with the use of complementary filters; youngsters, or the forgetful, should read the call-out box in this issue.

Commercial Solutions

Many commercial plug-in and software companies have sought to add utility of monochrome conversions with bespoke solutions of their own. Nik Software's SilverFXPro is typical, but one of the better offerings. We reviewed the product in October 2008 but we asked Tom Lee to provide some images and comments of his longer-term real-life use of the product.

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