The Digital-monochrome workerBy Martin Henson www.martinhensonphotography.co.uk

How to make stunning Black and White pictues from a DigitalCamera using Martin Hensons Contrast Grading method

Lets take a look at this picture.I captured it at Spurn Pointnear Hull, what do you think,any good ? (well I hear you sayI could have taken that withmy iPhone)Yes I agree with a littleknowledge you could take apicutre like this with mostDigtal Cameras, however itsnot what you capture, its allabout what you do with thepicture after its taken.

The straight conversion is OKbut it lacks contrast, thephotographic term is “flat”meaning all of the tones havethe same or singular tonalrendering , the effect as we cansee creates a picture with noseparation where all theelements tend to blendtogether, so what do we do tomake the picture come alive.

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The Digital-monochrome worker

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Let’s go back in time andthink about how a picturewas made from film, thenegative was developedand would look like this.The person who wasprinting this would seestraight away the negativewould need to be printedon a harder paper, theusual grade of paper toprint on in the wetdarkroom would be agrade 2 to 3 this negativewould need a 3.5 or grade4 paper to get thecontrast back that thenegative is lacking.

When printed on a hardergrade paper the print wouldlook more like this example.The problem with usingharder grade papers can beseen in the sky and clouds.they are burning out anddetail is lost.The darkroom printer wouldhave 2 options to pull thatdetail back.

� To burn the sky down toreveal detail� Split grade the paper

using Muttigrade Papers.

Either way would producesomething like this.

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The picture is now looking better than the straight conversion with better contrast, and tonalseparation between the dark and light tones.Apart from dodge and burn or using high contrast paper developers that was as far as theaverage darkroom worker could go, obviously the darkroom print would look better than theabove example with brighter whites and deeper blacks (D-Max)Today film and wet darkroom work is left to the real enthusiasts who have a desire to staywith the traditional ways of making a print from a negative.

What do the digital workers do to make a good strong black and white image.

When you capture a Digital picture in Raw it’s always in colour and has to be converted toblack and white in editing software such as Photoshop, there are many ways to do this,whole books are written on the subject and can be confusing to say the least, wouldn’t it benice if we could transfer the old darkroom ways into the electronic environment, there is away that I have developed and use it in all my Black and White conversions

Contrast GradingTo control tone and contrast inthe Digital file we have to alterthe Curve of the file in such away that it enables us todarken and lighten specificareas and alter contrastwithout altering adjacent areas.This can be done in Photoshopor any editing suit that allowsyou to add Masks after anyCurve adjustment, this way wecan place tone and contrastwithin the edit accurately andwhere we want it much likeusing Dodge and Burn in thewet Darkroom.Using the Contrast Gradingmethod the end result wouldbe like this, extended tonalrange, detail revealed withbetter depth and clarity.

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Until now I have been talking about Tonal Range and Contrast, another area that needs workingon when editing Digital files is Tonal Contrast or in other words Structure, again using the samemethod of Contrast Grading and applying a mask on a copied layer then painting back theStructure where needed you can give the picture a more Organic look.

How many times do you hear people say when looking at a darkroom print or film scan thatthe resultant prints looks .When you shot film and print from the negative or scan, the picture has an organic look thatcomes from the film grain (structure) as the example below.

At this small size its difficult to see the Film grain, however itis there and gives it that that's often hard to define

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Digital Capture does not have film grain; in fact at low iso they are smooth with very littleStructure. At high iso what you will see is noise which tends to lowers detail and spoils the overalllook, not to be confused with Structure or Grain.

In picture A no edited for Structure has been done, in picture B Structure has been added, youcan see this better in the 100% crop preview

A B

A closer look at 100% crop

A 100% crop B 100% crop

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We can add Tonal Range, Contrast, and Structure however the last edit would be to add Mood.

This is probably one of the hardest things to do, you have to put your own feelings into thepicture reflected in your editing.

The picture opposite has been editedin the way I have described in theprevious pages, the only thing I havenot done is added MOOD.

I want the picture to have moreimpact and a better feel of Winter,

All I have done is selectively darkenedthe Sky and Clouds this gives a betterbalance and MOOD to the picture.

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I hope you enjoyed reading my article on Contrast Grading, all the pictures on my web sitewww.martinhensonphotography.co.uk were edited using this method and is testament how goodit works. It is a way of editing that you can build on and will teach you the relationship betweentonal range and contrast in a way that you will understand. No Plugins are needed, although Ido recommend certain ones to add into the workflow but they are not essential.

I am often asked if Photoshop is the only editing software that can be used to Contrast Grade,Photoshop is without doubt the best you can buy however if you use a different type to edit,as long as you can copy Layers and add Masks they would suffice.

If you would like see a more then please go to this link at YouTube

If you would like to buy my Contrast Grading 2nd edition DVD please go to the linkbelow. Click to visit my online shop and purchase the DVD or a Download version

Contrast Grading purchase page