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5 Steps Of Digital BW Photos Processing
In the beginning we should mention about such a thing as contrast. If
you are a newbie in photography it's recommended to start with learning
the histogram. On most of the black and white photos you may see the
lack of contrast, which comes out of the photographer's fear to loose
information. But unlike color shots, monochrome and b&w photos are
even more advantageous, since play of light and shadows, as well as
black and white spots make your picture more expressive and spectacular.
1. Contrast Changing
The simplest means of changing contrast on a picture are familiar to everyone, who studies Photoshop for more than a week. We're talking about levels and curves, which are more flexible.
Just as a reminder:
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A flat curve decreases contrast, whitening dark tones and darkening black ones.
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A more steep curve increases contrast, lowering the amount of middle gray tones.
 I. In some cases you may get some really nice results through Unsharp Mask filter with high value of Radius and relatively small Amount.
II. The same effect can be reached by making a copy of the Layer, previously switching to the Overlay mode and using Highpass filter. Then, upon necessity, decrease opacity of that Layer copy.
For that shot we made a copy of the Layer with the Soft Light Overlay
mode. The Layers are added together and Unsharp Mask filter with the
high amount of radius is applied.
2. Light Drawing
For those photographers, who are ready to spend some time to receive
nice b/w shots and are not afraid of being accused of "reality
manipulation", there's such a tool as Light or Brightness drawing.
I. The easiest way is to use Dodge in the Highlight mode (and Burn in the Shadows mode), using 2-5% Opacity. Of course, don't forget about working on the Background copy.
II. The most complicated (but flexible) variant:
1. Create two Background copies: one in Color Burn mode, another one - in Color Dodge.
2. Add masks, filled with black color, to these Layers. For that just press Alt when adding your mask.
3. When you paint by white Brush (opacity 5-10%) on the mask of the 1st Layer (Color Burn), you can darken any parts of your image, except light areas.
4. When you paint on the mask of the 2nd Layer, you can lighten your image, not touching the dark areas.
 
The advantage of this method is that when you change the Brush color to the dark one, you can still decrease the contrast.
III. Another method is less flexible, but it requires only one layer:
1. Use only one Layer, filled with neutral gray color (128/128/128 in the RGB mode). Press the new Layer icon for that, keeping the Alt button. Switch to the Overlay mode. Set the Fill with Neutral Color option (50% Gray).
2. Use black brush to darken the areas and white brush for lightening. You may switch between colors (from black to white) with X, and select the b&w colors by pressing D.
3. Film Grain Imitation
While working with the b&w photos you may come to an idea of the
film shots imitation, which comes to making a similarity of the film
grain. The simplest way to imitate film grain is the Add Noise filter. But, unfortunately, it only adds noise which has little in common with the real film grain.
Unlike the noise, which is overlain on the digital image, the film
grain makes an integral part of the image, i.e. a photo is made of
grain.
Plugins
The best filter or a plugin would be the one, dividing your image on
many small parts and accidentally changing its brightness depending on
the film sensitivity, which you've taken for simulation. All of the
existing plugins are based on the image blurring and adding the noise
of different value, which quite often gives natural result. Among the
top-quality plugins we can name the following:
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Imagenomic Real Grain
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Power Retouche Film Grain
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Alien Skin Exposure
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Digital Film Tools 55 mm (Film Lab)
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Grain Surgery
 
I. If you don't want to use plugins:
1. Create a new Layer filled in with gray color with the Overlay mode. (see 2.III)
2. Add noise Filter—Noise—Add Noise and set the option Monochromatic.
3. Add a little of Gaussian Blur
effect to this Layer. Maybe then it should be necessary to blur the
picture itself, because if it's too sharp, so the big blurred grain
will be awkward.
II. Processing with Layers properties:
1. Create the Background copy and add Noise.
2. Open the Layer properties with a double click on the Layer.
3. Pressing Alt, separate the white and black carriages for the Underlying Layer. It will decrease the influence of artificial noise in the dark or light parts of the image.
III. More realistic method:
1. Scan the film photo of any not very bright surface.
2. Lay it over your digital photo as a layer with Overlay or Soft Light mode.
But if you are the huge fan of b&w film photography with grain, so
you should guess, which variant is the most realistic. Yes, you should film!
To be continued...
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