High ISO Digital Monochromic [BW] Imaging

[den]

In a recent Message Board thread [http://www.dl-c.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=142] a ‘film like’ digital imaging approach was requested where ‘film like’ was apparently desired to have the grainy appearance of high speed black/white film rather than the crispness-smoothness of large format, slower speed film…

Here is one possible approach that may achieve what the OP was requesting. The suggestions here are not intended to 'mimic' a particular flim type.

Step 1: Let the camera do the work of providing the grain. Select an ISO of 400 or higher. Shoot both RAW + JPEG [highest quality jpeg setting]. Select in-camera image parameters to be neutral [contrast 0; saturation 0; and sharpening 0]. Metering/Exposure: ‘Expose to the Right’. For event photography… perhaps use a slightly-defuse Flash or the ambient stage spot lighting.

Illustrated is a 1:1 image area crop of a resulting Canon 350D jpeg color image file taken at ISO1600 and AutoWB…

HighISO_ori_1-1.jpg (43.93 KiB) Viewed 8045 times

Step2: Use the camera JPEG image as the base starting image as it will tend to mimic desired dynamic range characteristics. If needed, recover objectionable clipped highlights from the RAW image file and its color conversion with perhaps ‘one to one’ cloning into the JPEG image… then Crop for composition.

Step3: Adjust the resulting Step2 image to preference brightness, contrast, and color… perhaps even to the point of being over-processed.

Step4: Convert the resulting Step3 image to 8-bit or 16-bit monochrome, perhaps with PWP5’s Monochrome transform in Channel Mixer mode with R = 60, G = 30, and B = 20. Reduce Exposure if needed to eliminate clipped highlights.

Step5: Tone Map the resulting Step4 image to preferences… highlight, shadow, and mid-tone range optimizations with specific visual element(s) preferred adjustments.

Step6: ‘Creative’ sharpen and blur, the resulting Step5 image… may include ‘Local Contrast Enhancement’ and perhaps even blurring background for de-emphasis. Also for BW, I tend to perform a HighPass Blur: Amt = 20, Threshold=100, and Radius=50 [radius seems most suitable for an approximate 3500x2333 pixel dimensioned image, for other sizes, scale] limited to the 10% to 90% tone range with a Mask Tool – Brightness Curve [smooth or broken line] = [0,0], [10,0], [30,100], [70,100], [90,0], [100,0].

Step7: ‘Output’ sharpen.

Illustrated is a 1:1 image area crop of the resulting Steps2->7 and a resized to 400pixel dimensions, the Full Sized [1897x1265 pixels] processed image…

HighISO_BW_1-1.jpg (43.93 KiB) Viewed 8045 times

HighISO_FS.jpg (42.59 KiB) Viewed 8049 times

TonyG… Is this perhaps what you had in mind for your [vintage?... retro?] ‘film look’?

[tonygamble]

"TonyG… Is this perhaps what you had in mind for your [vintage?... retro?] ‘film look’?"

To be honest, I'm not sure, Den. I find it hard to interpret those small images.

However, what I would find a problem with in your workflow is that you work from a specially taken image - with RAW and a high ISO jpg.

I'd like to find a solution that works with any 'good' image file.

In the adjoining thread there is reference to grain being in clumps. That rules out using a texture in its unmanipulated state. It also may be one of the key differences from digital noise. Am I not right in thinking that you see digital noise in a blue sky, but in a shot that has grain it is seen more in the graduations of the darker clouds?

Tony

[den]

Tony... others

If of further interest, 800x533 images have been posted here: http://www.ncplus.net/~birchbay/09/IMAG ... _09_85.htm, showing the BW image version [top] and the original camera jpeg download image [bottom]. Place your mouse over the 'top' image, wait a bit for the 'bottom' image to download, and then mouse on->off->on, etc. to flip between the images for comparison.

I have tried to find a satisfactory PS tutorial that would colorize/texturize previously taken photos for a retro/vintage effect... ...to translate into PWP but so far what I have seen is what it is... a mimicry of the real thing...

I can't help but feel that the best approach is as suggested. Let the camera do the distribution of luma/chroma noise at an high iso setting and convert the resulting image file to BW preferences...

...and perhaps console ourselves that in 40 years or so, that these high noise digital images will be considered "vintage" and worthy simulation.

[tomczak]

Den, have you tried filtering with a texture through a reversed brightness mask? The textures can be made quite irregular but still 'lumpy' with large panel size and combination of other sliders. To me the right texture added via brightness mask can look like real film grain, but I can't experiment with it for a while.

[jsachs]

You might want to experiment with Transformation/Special Effects/Halftone with a custom mezzotint screen.

[den]

Jonathan... thanks I will investigate.

MaciejT... yes but perhaps I am not using a good texture. I have tried the Composite transform in different modes (Blend, SoftLight, LowPass, HighPass) where the Input image is the image to be 'noised' and the Input mask is an Inverse 'active' MaskTool-BrightnessCurve (sometimes with an added s-curve and changed black/white points). The Overlay image is the texture and sometimes used as its own mask. Alignment is "2 point (shift/rotate/scale)" so that the texture scaling can be easily changed... but I have yet hit upon a combination of Amounts or Operation that does seem to be 'contrived' or is too subtle to have been worth the effort... although SoftLight will produce interesting results. A tile of the 'texture' is below and it is Tiled to be approximate 1.5x the width/height of the Input image dimensions and then used as the Overlay image...

grain-tm400_FR_200x200px-1.jpg (45.29 KiB) Viewed 7894 times

[tonygamble]

I'm watching guys.

I am not sure that a texture overlay is going to work as it is too regular - in that it effects light, mid and dark tones similarly.

I'm trying to source a nice grainy image to put up as an example. I used to have some great jazz clubs shots in a book, but can't find any images on line.

Sorry, I'm not adding much at the mo.

Tony

[tonygamble]

There's a nice example here. The shot of the Train in the Snow that comes up as a full sized shot.

http://www.agencevu.com/photographers/p ... r.php?id=1

See what I mean about the irregularity of the grain sizes.

I guess what helps is the extreme contrast of the shot and the heavy overprinting of the sky.

Tony

[tomczak]

"I am not sure that a texture overlay is going to work as it is too regular - in that it effects light, mid and dark tones similarly."

Tony, but if you sandwich it through the reversed brightness mask, it should add more grain as the tones get darker? I haven't tested it enough to say if it really works, but from what I've tried, I could make a texture that was lumpy but not regular (it's the choice of sliders that Den already mentioned; I'm not sure what's optimal, but at least in one case it really looked like a grain - I know that the panel size must be 1024^2, otherwise it too regular).

[tomczak]

With Texture, the Power between -1 and 0 seems to be a good starting point for modifying with Frequency sliders.