Black and White Interrupted

Erik writes,

I've read the posts on basic conversion to B & W with channel mixer or Grayscale.  My question is how to achieve the sepia or chromed look of Richard Avedon's portraits.  A recent example of this style is a portrait by Eugene Richards on page 23 of the August 1-8, 2005 issue of New York magazine.  Is this possible with digital, or only in the realm of film?

Anything is possible Erik. Including the digital reproduction of a photographic effect such as the one you speak of on page 23. Since I don't have the magazine in front of me, I will show you where to find the paths to heightened black and white awareness. You must select which path to take. (When did this become photoshopZen? It's Saturday. I'm having fun...) We're talking Duotones.

Convert your RGB file to Grayscale mode.
Choose Image > Mode > Grayscale
The file is converted to a black and white.
Choose Image > Mode > Duotone
The Duotone Options dialog box appears.
Click the Type: dropdown menu to select whether to represent your image with one ink (monotone), 2 inks (duotone), 3 inks (tritone) or 4 four inks (quadtone). We'll start by making a simple duotone using some of the pre-sets Adobe has provided.
Select Duotone.
By default your Duotone will consist of two inks, black and white.
Click the Load button to load one of the pre-sets that have been provided.
The Load dialog box appears.
Double-click the Duotones folder to open it.
Double-click the Grey-Black Duotones folder to open it.
Double-click any of the .ado files to load any one of the two ink sets.
Using Duotones you can experiment with cooler and warmer ink sets which will yield richer prints with more depth and character.
Experiment.

I picked up an Avedon black and white reproduction print at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the early 90's. Random House was promoting his newest book which included pix of Marilyn Monroe and Stephanie Seymour among others. I got a spooky Monroe image before the clean up crew destroyed it at the end of the show. It was rumored to have been made at Avedon's studio under his watchful eyes.

Comments

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I can't believe how much of this I just wasn't aware of. Thank you for bringing more information to this topic for me. I'm truly grateful and really impressed.