Digital black-ad-white

[Ian Watson]

In the Weekly Blog, Colin commented that a black-and-white photograph looked as though it had been taken on film.

https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=11123.msg204737#msg204737

That reminded me of a couple of articles by Mike Johnston.

https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2019/12/common-problems-with-digital-black-and-white.html

https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2022/05/bw-over-the-years.html

He ascribes some of his problems with digital black-and-white to modern styles that have become established. The one that strikes me is the depressed mid-tones. It seems to be an artifact of just converting a colour image to black-and-white. His second article above offers a quick adjustment to curves that improves things.

So let us have a quick look and perhaps discuss.

[Ian Watson]

The first photograph is the starting point in colour.

For the second, I simply clicked the button in Lightroom Classic to turn it black-and-white.

For the third, I grabbed the mid-point of the tone curve and moved it up and to the left, as suggested by Mr Johnston.

[Bent Hjarbo]

Interesting, thanks for bringing it up.

[pluton]

My take:
The luxurious beauty of a full tonal range B&W silver paper print is a lovely thing.  They are/were one of the great photo "looks" that I've ever seen.  That is my default goal with black and white...a full range of tones.  Unfortunately, many young photographers have never seen a good black and white print, OR...are not interested in that particular aesthetic.
My experience with the Adobe Black And White button is that it applies a moderate, but very noticeable, degree of crushed midtones by default.  So much so, that I apply my own User Develop Presets when I flip the image to B&W, so that I avoid that forced 'chalk and soot' mono look. Chalk and soot MAY be appropriate or preferred for a given image by any artist.  That's up to them.
I have in recent months seen many photographers posting their work on Meta's Threads social media app/site.  I expect that the user base of Threads skews younger than me---I expect that.  Many of the [presumably younger, less experienced]photogs there are showing heavy chalk and soot images.  When I see these images, I often mutter, under my breath, "High School Photography", because when I was in high school photography (1970-1973), many of the teenage photographers were told, or had picked up in the photo magazines of the day ...particularly in the Ilford paper adverts... that it is was always good to have "rich blacks" in their images because "that's what the great fine art photographers do".
Chalk and soot...[some of] the kids love it!
Ian, your images illustrate these ideas pretty clearly. 

[Thomas Stellwag]

the black of the foreground differs best in no 3, but the building and the trees, I prefer in no 2, so it might be a way not to take midtones but use the contrast curve for only darker tones

[ColinM]

Thank you Ian.

I'm old enough to have used b&w film and printed on b&w paper in the 1970s
But i have almost zero experience of converting current colour digital files to b&w versions that compare with what i remember.

I'll try to link to Franks image.



One thing that stands out for me is the deepness & richness of the blacks.
By comparison, the files you've posted Ian don't seem to have these.

For my taste, lots of variation in the midtones makes for a flatter, less dramatic and contrasty image.
But that's just my taste

[Ian Watson]

Thank you all for commenting and furthering my education. Mr Johnston's quick fix was meant as an illustration and starting point. Certainly, more precise work with some masking and further adjustments can be beneficial.

Colin, I see what you mean but I don't see why we can't have deep blacks and good contrast without an overly heavy feel to the tones.

I added some contrast to my third version of the longboats.

[Ian Watson]

How about this photograph from Bakewell, Derbyshire? The first is just pressing the B&W button. The second has the mid-tones lifted a little.