Synopses & Reviews
Black and white conversion techniques are like politicians making election promises: every one of them claims to be the penultimate solution to your needs. Regardless of their claims, you still need to create images that look like photographs and not like something the viewer sees as “something you did in Photoshop.”
There are numerous ways to convert an image from color to hues of gray. But which one works best–and why–are questions that may be asked but are rarely if ever answered. Vincent Versace will show you some of the best ways to convert an image to black and white without ever leaving the RGB color space. In this book, you will learn which methods give you the best results and when to choose a simple or a complex solution. Different images have different needs as they are converted to black and white, and Vincent covers them all, leaving no stone unturned in his quest to create amazing, timeless black and white images–and teach the reader how to do the same. From Oz to Kansas includes coverage of Adobe Photoshop and Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro. Vincent explores all the options in Photoshop for converting color images to black and white, and discusses the merits of each, including when one conversion technique is more appropriate than another.
Versace shares the knowledge he's gained from decades of research and real-world experience to help the reader take black and white images from "good enough" to fine art quality.
Master black and white fine art photographer, Photoshop expert, and master printer Vincent Versace delivers the book that fans and readers have long been waiting for: a comprehensive reference and set of tutorials covering the best ways to convert color images into stunning black and white photographs.
Synopsis
The ability to create a stunning black and white image remains one of photography’s greatest and most aspirational skills. Being able to "see" in black and white is an enviable capability, and a well-crafted black and white photograph remains the finest of the fine arts. Master photographer Vincent Versace has spent his career teaching the art of perception and how to translate it into extraordinary black and white images.
In From Oz to Kansas: Almost Every Black and White Conversion Technique Known to Man, Versace discusses digital black and white photography–with a nod to traditional film-based techniques. As Versace states, today the goal is "to use what was right and good about silver photography, leaving behind what was limiting, and use what is right and good about digital photography, while avoiding its pitfalls. This is what this book is all about."
The reason you must learn "almost every black and white conversion technique known to man" is because, depending on the image–and your goals for it–there are many paths you can take in order to arrive at your final destination. Working through Versace’s techniques will give you the essential knowledge you need, as well as the ability to select the appropriate conversion technique for any image, allowing you to create a black and white image that best and most accurately reflects what you felt at the moment that you pressed the shutter.
Foreword by Dr. Richard Zakia, Professor Emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology
Afterword by John Fraser, Chef and Proprietor, Dovetail Restaurant, New York
About the Author
Vincent Versace is a recipient of the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Media Arts and Entertainment, the Shellenberg fine art award, a four-time nominee to the Photoshop Hall of Fame and is the author of the best selling book Welcome to Oz, the first edition of which was chosen as Shutterbug magazine's best how to book of the year. Versace is a member of the Epson Stylus Pros, a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens, an Xrite Colorotti, Lexar Elite Photographer, and an American Photo Magazine Mentor Trek and Master Class instructor.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Black and White on All of
the Gray Areas of Black and White
Chapter 2: Variations on a Theme
Chapter 3: Defying Logic
Chapter 4: Defying Reason
Chapter 5: Somewhere Over the Grayscale
Chapter 6: The Black and White on the Zone System
Chapter 7: The Black and White on the Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
Chapter 8: The Black and White on Silver Efex Pro 2
Last Words
Afterword
Index