articles/Monochrome/monochromeconversions-page1

Monochrome Conversions - Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro - part 1 of 1 2 3

by Mike McNamee Published 01/10/2008

There are many ways of skinning the monochrome cat, indeed we wrote 16 pages on the topic in May 2006 and have periodically covered the topic in bits and pieces since that time. Much of what we wrote in 2006 is equally applicable today. A key step forward in 2006 was the introduction of Epson UltraChrome K3 inks which dramatically reduced metamerism.

This is the disturbing effect that causes two colours which match in one type of light not to do so in another type of light. In monochrome thisinwps manifests itself as the print typically looking magenta in tungsten light, turning to a green bias in daylight. The improvement of the K3 ink set over its predecessor was almost 100% and it did significant damage to the 'all-black' multiink systems (which are still popular though, especially amongst the enthusiasts). HP joined the party with an ink set that performed well in monochrome shortly afterwards.

This is the default conversion in CS3 which is accessed by clicking the 'Convert to grayscale' check box in the RAW file converter.

Along with improvements in ink technologies, Adobe have also beefed up their monochrome conversion facilities in both Photoshop and Lightroom. Using either the RAW file converter set to greyscale mode or using the specialist Black and White filter from the dropdown menu, most of the sophisticated controls that people developed actions and routines for have now been built in to the interface. In old money they are glorified 'channel mixers'.

However, the old Channel Mixer allows for blending in only the primary RGB colours, the new versions allows you to blend the secondary colour (CMY) along with the tertiary orange, aqua and purple. This facility is as much as many users will ever need, and, significantly, can be utilised in Photoshop actions to automate your workflow.

• Monochrome Conversions - Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro page 1
  
• Monochrome Conversions - Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro page 2
  
• Monochrome Conversions - Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro page 3
  

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