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The Magic of Black and White
Part II - Craft
Part two of Andrew S. Gibson’s, The Magic of Black and White series is about the craft of converting the captured image into black and white in the digital darkroom. Where Part One – Vision, looked at the process of seeing and capturing in monochrome, Part Two – Craft, looks at the tools needed to turn a colour digital negative into a spectacular-looking black and white image using the software of the digital darkroom, specifically Adobe Photoshop.
The Magic of Black and White, Part Two – Craft is a 51 page downloadable PDF. We’ve forced the layout into a landscape format to make viewing on the iPad even better. Using a good PDF reader like GoodReader, these PDF eBooks retain the rich layouts we’ve always created, as well as allowing non-iPad users the same great experience they’ve always had.
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This book offers a great balance between vision and technical info, and is a perfect follow-up to the first B&W book. It includes detailed instructions for post-process toning, with wonderful examples. Just noticed there is a third in this series, and will be purchasing it next!
In book two Andrew moves from the topic of vision to the topic of craft. This book is the how, where the first is the why. I enjoyed this book very much as it opened my eyes to some of the different techniques for creating stunning black and white photos.
Book two opens with a recap of the importance of vision from book one. The author shares how he created a darkroom when he started taking photos and some of the techniques used to do what photoshop can do with the lights on! In the intro andrew says something that I love, he says:
I work on my photos individually in Photoshop. I don’t use programs like Lightroom or Aperture to batch process. I prefer to select my best photos for conversion to black and white and to work on them individually, giving them the care and attention required to bring out the best in them.
I back this up by trying to minimize the number of photos I take in the field. If I look through the viewfinder and don’t like what I see I don’t take the photo. I’d prefer to return when the light is better or look for a better subject, rather than take photos that don’t excite me.
This is awesome! We as designers, hobbyists, photographers, etc. constantly hear we are to use apature, or lightroom to process pictures. now I do and will continue to use lightroom to process pictures, but I love how Andrew is approaching the world of digital photography like it is that of film. The line, “if I look through the viewfinder and don’t like what I see I don’t take the photo,” is something I strive for but don’t have the experience to know exactly what I am seeing in the viewfinder. Good advice though in our digital age, be sure you are taking photographs and not snapshots.
The rest of this book teaches us all the “how-to” of some of the black and white conversion and toning techniques Andrew uses to create his art. He takes us from the original color photo through the steps to achieve the polished final piece.
This book ends with Andrews conclusion and reflection on an Ansel Adams quote “ the negative is the equivalent of the composers score, and the print the performance.” What a powerful quote to the distinction between taking the photo in camera and the processing of the photo in to art in photoshop.
I love this book. It covers the most important steps for postprocessing B&W images.
If anybody asks me for a good book on B&W converting. this bokk is my first recommendation.
I just finished reading this and am very happy with the purchase. I learned to shoot with black and white and had been having issues with the digital technology. The instructions put forth in this ebook seem easy to follow and I am anxious to give them ago tomorrow, for now, I must sleep and dream of all the fun I’m going to have. Thank you!
A good follow-up to the first volume with a how-to approach previously not found in the the Craft&Vision ebooks. It seems like a natural extension to complete the black and white discussion from Part One. I liked the split-toning method, but if you already use a Silver Efex, you will not find much useful information here. Aimed at the beginners and photographers taking the first steps in the black and white world. Most useful for Photoshop users, since the proposed methods are aimed at PS.
This is a book I can refer to many times. I appreciate the author detailing the process in photoshop for the tones he uses on his images. This books is a much better value than actions that may or may not do the same thing, and when you do it yourself, you have more control. I think understanding the process in photoshop the way Andrew Gibson explains it is of more value to the photographer who wants to grow.
If you already know why you want an image black and white, this is the book you need. It tells you precisely how to go about the process, and the process works great. I’ve used this knowledge to create some cool monochrome images, and to improve my color images. I’d say, for this price, it’s very hard to beat.
Both of these books are fantastic. I keep copies of the PDF’s with me all of time and find myself referring to them regularly. Well written, evocative and informative. Whatever you think you know about creating Black & White art, think again. These books will take you and your creativity to a new level.
The Magic of Black and White, volumes I and II are a fantastic series which I would highly recommend. These two books together should be on the must read list of anyone seriously interested in black and white photography and printing.
I recently read through this e-book and immediately had to start putting to practice some of the techniques mentioned. I even tried it on a few images that I thought would be better in color and liked the results.
This e-book kinda walks you step by step through the process, and that’s how I like to learn. I follow a few times and after that I’m ready to tweak to my own tastes.
This was my first C&V book and certainly won’t be my last. It was mostly an impulse buy — the book was on sale, it was a subject I knew just enough about to get myself in trouble, so I figured I’d give it a whirl. I’m so glad I did. The book does an excellent job of balancing creative considerations vs. nuts-and-bolts how to achieve a particular look. A great, informative read and absolutely perfect companion for my laptop.
A great follow up to the original. With so many ways to post process a black and white image this book does a great job of explaining a few of the most impressive methods. It doesn’t cover every way to process a B&W image, but the methods it does teach are top notch with great results.
From my website:
“I downloaded an advance copy of a fantastic ebook the other day – The Magic of Black & White – Part II, Craft, by Andrew S. Gibson, which launches officially tomorrow. In it, he gives step by step direction for converting color images to black and white and then adding split toning to further enhance the image. His directions are for both Photoshop CS and Photoshop Elements. I tried it in Lightroom and it works as well, but some of the techniques are specific to Photoshop (or probably something else similar). For the two images here, I converted to black and white in Lightroom, tried the split toning, but wasn’t thrilled with the results, so exported to Photoshop, followed his instructions and tried it again – much happier.
The author of the ebook has some beautiful images, which he uses to illustrate the different examples he provides. There are 51 pages of discussion, instruction and example and it is well worth the price of $5 for this download. … I have to say that I even learned a few new tricks, which I will definitely be putting to use. This ebook, as well as some other really fantastic ebooks are available at David duChemin’s Craft and Vision.”