Grey scale

[Mohican]

Hi. And newbi greetings to one and all.

What is the best way to convert from colour to B&W in PhotoFiltre Studio x?
Thanks.
Mo.

[Tom]

Hi,

the simplest way is to clic on the Grayscale button, or menu Filter / Colour / Grayscale.
If you do menu Adjust / Hue-saturation and put -100% in saturation, you get the same result.

But you can get different results with this very good tutorial : (I hope the authomatic translation would be understandable)

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... p?p=137065

_

[Mohican]

Hi. Thanks for the help, looks good, only I can't seem to use the Blend mode as it's grey'd out? Any ideas?
Thanks.
Mo.

[Tom]

Which blend mode want you use ?
The grey scale doesn't be a problem, but you have to work in different mode as indexed colors.

Have a look on the pages about the layers :
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... /index.htm

[Mohican]

Hi. I was following the steps laid out by 'pikkabbu' in the link you gave me and all is fine but where pikkabbu says to change 2nd layer to colour via blend mode my blend is grey'd out so I can't use it?
Thanks.
Mo.

[Tom]

I'm thinking there is some confusion about the different terms or functions used

- 3 => you have to duplicate the background layer : evidently the global image looks yet in gray scale
but the background and the layer duplicated are booth in color. Or you have done a mistake before.
You can verify by masking the Adjust layer (uncheck "visible").

- 4 => you have to modify the blending mode of the duplicated layer : this layer must be selected in the bar layers,
clic on the layer manager tool and change the blending mode in the bottom of the tools pane like it is described in this page :
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... h8SCKw8VFQ

A couple of minutes in the documentation and you will win a lot of time.

Edit 13:33 : Yes when the Background layer or the Adjust layer are selected, the Blend mode option is grayed out
You have to select the right one in the bar layers (the thumbnails of the layers : menu View / Layer thumbnail / different of hide)

[Mohican]

HiTom. Yes, the description threw me for a while but then I realised the he ment duplicate backgrond layer again. All ok now, I've added a few corections on that site so those of us in england that do not speak French (99.9%. We have enough trouble with English!) will get the message.

I really like Photofiltre, I like the simple as in easy and uncluttered interface and I don't need 3x 700mm screens to view it on either un like some others. I was using Lightzone (Trial) which is good but a little slow and keeps crashing if you work too fast. How oftern is Photofiltre upgraded? I ask as when I alter hue/Saturation it takes a 'little' time to change? Or is my laptop not fast enough?
Thanks.
Mo.

[Tom]

.../... How oftern is Photofiltre upgraded? I ask as when I alter hue/Saturation it takes a 'little' time to change? Or is my laptop not fast enough? .../...

The image is upgraded in real time, but with a big image in 16 million of colors, it takes always some fractions of seconds to compute.

[Mohican]

Hi Tom. Re: colour to black and white. How do you do it and why?
Cheers.
Mo.

[Tom]

I don't see to what point your question refers. If you could be a little more explicit ...

[Mohican]

Hi Tom. Sorry, not very clear was it
What I meant was, how do you as in you convert from colour to greyscale. Do you use the same method as pikkabbu? This is the one you showed me when I first came on here. I just thought you might have an alternative way of doing it and seeing as you seem to be the brain behind Photoflitre I thought you would be the one to know. pikkabbu's is good but is it better than the rest?

Cheers.
Mo.

[Tom]

Fine, you suppose i have a brain behind PhotoFiltre. Thanks a lot.
No, Antonio is The brain and the software developer.

I have very few experience or capability in B&W photography and i lack judgement in this subject.
The tutoriel of Pikkabbu seems good for a large capacity to reveal the details among the gray scale.

You can find also some 8BF filters to convert in gray scale :
Virtual Photographer from Optikvervelabs : http://www.optikvervelabs.com/default.asp
B-W-Conversion from Photo-Plugins : http://www.photo-plugins.com/Plugins/Pl ... rsion.html

But i realy don't know which is the best way to do B&W.