Black and White Sample

This isn't because I plot to go back to black and white so I'll have more time to make more comics each week after this part of sister; this has to do with me wanting to get published eventually. Someday the comic may have a large enough following to warrant a color edition, but for now anyone who publishes it will want to go B&W. Now normally my color comics are often annoyingly dark when greyscale, but I've designed a technique to solve that using the high resolution originals. I convert to grey scale and set both brightness and contrast to 12, then I select all 15x15x15 color tones (15 red, 15 green, 15 blue, aka what black beomes after the brightness contrast adjustment) and clear with black as the background color so there's true black once more. Sounds weird and most of you who don't work with graphics are probably just scratching your heads, but here is an example of a comic that was originally done in color edited with those simple steps. I'm hoping this will help EGS get published once the time comes as just a standard grey scale conversion is annoyingly dark for print.

This is what it looks like if I just do greyscale

looks OK! one of the frames still looks a tad dark, tho... but that's propably my brightness setting.

Hmm. The difference isn't really noticable unless you open them both at the same time, and switch between them...but the second is a definite improvement. :)

i wouldn't say it's annoyingly dark...but i suppose the artist is the worst critic (ok, maybe publishers are worse)

but the modified grey scale looks great!

the second? um... well, anyway, I think both look good on screen, it's the on paper printed at high resolution that I'm concerned with and have tested personally.

Oops, meant the first. Sorry, opened them in the opposite order.

Can't tell the difference myself but then again I'm not very observant of little details. Looks good for b&w though.

The new technique looks great, and a side by side comparison shows a huge difference (probably more if I wasn't wearing sunglasses). I also like the way the title works for you.

looks good. nothing to complain about.

I think the second looks better too. The first looks a little washed out in places....particularly around Ellen's eyes....

the artist is the worst critic

I'M the worst critic. I can rip on anything!

From reading manga I know how much worse things can look in B/W when they were intended for color. On cheap paper you have more detail, but you don't have anything like the contrast that you do on a computer screen.

The first one is a definite improvement over the second one, but it may still look muddy on pulp. Try further boosting the red and green channels, or even dropping the blue channel entirely before going to greyscale. Another thought would be overlaying the uncolored version on top of the colored version to lighten all the shades and emphasize the lines. This would be easy if you still have the uncolored scans, but if you don't, it would certainly be more trouble then it is worth.

I'm curious that you are defining black as R-15 G-15 B-15. I can tell you aren't working in 12 bit color, but these are 12-bit readouts. Normal 24 bit RGB in photoshop defines black as R-0 G-0 B-0, and white as R-255 G-255 B-255. What program are you doing this in?

black becomes 15-15-15 because it becomes brighter after I adjust brightness/contrast

hmmm... ok, dropped the blue scale entirely. Don't notice much different on screen, but I'll try printing and see if there's a difference. You sound like you have experience in this area, he who seeks panties.

You could say that. :)

I prefer the "Levels" window to brightness/contrast. It lets you set black, mid-gray and white levels independently, and gives you a graph that shows you where your page is in terms of brightness. I find it a much more logical way to think of brightness. (And you can do the color channels separately from there.)

well, I for one have noticed that B+W can look like shite when colored in. i lose most of my good mechs that way.
i see that it can work both ways...

Is there a simple way to achieve this same effect in MS Paint? I had to find what I felt were like correct tones of gray to color in my Casablanca/Detective Tess. It's kind of a tedious method though.

well, you could go find a black and white computer!
-just kidding.
(and now for the off topic part. ignore this if you don't care:
I. am sooo bored. that my nose just started bleeding.
my boredom has become a psychic force. WOW. someone please get online soon!)

The dark background apnes are still a little harder to see, but they were the images of Ellen in that dark suit. Overall, I think it's fine!

The flesh tones seem off in the 1st one compared to the 2nd...especially on Ellen....The 2nd seems more like the original...

Well, I for one would be happier with black and white, quite old skool....

plus it reminds me of clerks! :bunny:

clerks?....actually....tell me in PM.....

Black and White is great with movies....but think about it....how would Nanase with all her color aspects right translate to black and white? Maybe you can tell by the degree of gray? I dunno....

here's one from my warped mind

Originally posted by jimmyinwhite
here's one from my warped mind

clerks is the first kevin smith flick, filmed in B&W...

i think cause it was cheaper that way

MUCH cheaper that way. spent a third as much on film and less on lighting that way. actually, the soundtrack rights cost more than the film itself.

Originally posted by The Fly
Well, I for one would be happier with black and white, quite old skool....

plus it reminds me of clerks! :bunny: welcome back fly. i hope to see your black & white 'cut & paste'.