My very first B&W process & scan

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

It is not difficult, Peter.

(I hope I use the correct Photoshop terms.)

1) Click on "Select" in the menu bar.
2) Choose the "Color Range..." option.
3) Click right into the sky (or on the colour you want to select).
4) With the "Fuzziness" slide you can choose how much of the colour you select. There is a preview.
5) With "Select - Feather..." you can activate soft edges, so that there won't be sharp borders between the selected and unselected areas. The Radius depends on what you are dealing with. Just test it.
6) Now you selected the sky, but since you do not want to change the sky but the rest, just click on "Select - Inverse". That's it.

Now you can adjust levels or the curves without chaning the sky.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Thanks for your tips Carsten. I've tried it but I seem to keep making a mess of the sky around trees (bare branches). Maybe this picture isn't suitable, but one thing's for certain, I have an awful lot to learn. I'm usually quite good at software but I've had a lot of difficulty with PS - the Help file is, well, pretty unhelpful!

I'm using version 7.0, which was given to me where I worked after they upgraded several years ago. I can't afford latest versions. Do you know anywhere I can buy and download a later version cheaply, hopefully with a better Help file? Or do you know of any good tutorials on the web?

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Thank you Erez! I didn't see your message until today, it's really kind of you Smile

I didn't intentionally try to make the pictures look dated, but it's a small country town over 1,000 years old originally, so I guess the age kind of oozes out of the walls. The oldest building in the pictures is probably the church but the black and white building in front of it is, as Carsten said, of Tudor times - about 400-500 years old. The George & Dragon pub is Georgian, probably around 250 years, and the market house with the clock and shelters is probably a little later, around 1800 or possibly earlier.

You've given me the inspiration I've been looking for! I think I'm going to concentrate my future pics on the landscapes and old buildings around where I live. We have an outdoor museum near here where very old local buildings have been reconstructed and preserved. One of them is an Iron Age house, about 2,500 years old!! More to follow.....

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

I often wonder why today we have to sacrifice everything in the name of financial efficiency. Everything that we build today (from houses to park benches to cars, even the factories!) is uglier than what we used to build. As a result, our world is getting uglier and uglier. And every time an old thing falls down, we can be sure that they will replace it with something uglier.
Places like the one Peter photographed are going to become more and more lonely islands in the sea of ugliness.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Thanks for the link, Peter. Looks very interesting!

Orio, I'd like to agree.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04