White toning photographs

[SoCalWill]

I had no idea on the possibilities with black point and the responding saturation points.

Anything that raises or lowers contrast raises or lowers saturation respectively, but you should not reduce contrast via black/white point; see this vid for more info.

 

[drh681]

Start by using a curve adjustment like the one above.

Then in the Lens correction filter set a white vignette with the settings all the way over.

--
Photons by the bag.
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The best photographic tool is between the photographer's ears, not in front of his nose.

 

[sabrina81]

I had no idea on the possibilities with black point and the responding saturation points.

... you should not reduce contrast via black/white point; see this vid for more info.

The man in that video says right at the beginning that there are exceptions. In many cases it is desirable to reduce contrast by raising the black point and lowering the white point.

 

[nand]

The lowest black on that handle is 14-15-15. This is not an unusual value for a black object.

I think you're mistaken. Here are my measurements, using point samples (which means the RGB values of individual pixels, not an average of at least 9 pixels (3x3 sample).



As you can see, most of the pixels range from 20 to 33 levels above pure black.

What evidence can you provide have to support your position that the black point is raised?

Also check the shadow underneath the radiator:



All of these are in the 70's (this is a 3x3 sample), far above what I would expect for the deepest shadows under an object like that.

I take all of these measurements as evidence that black point was raised. You're free to disagree, and I believe the world will continue turning round and round. :-D I'm just trying to help the OP achieve her goal, but it looks like she's lost interest in the thread.

Cheers, and thanks for your comments!

Yes obviously, I did use a single point sample. An average cannot show the lowest level unless all samples are identical. I have no idea why your black level results measure higher than mine. Actually, your # 2 is very close to mine. The black handles are really the only useful references since we know for sure that these are black with a minimum of shine. Not the shadow under the radiator in a bright room. Even if the shadow was the darkest spot in the room, and the black point was raised, the handles would be grey at that point. They are not.



Above is my black point measurements using the same spots as in your sample. For some reason these measure lower than yours. And I don’t do any pre-processing etc. in Photoshop that I know.



Also, an easier way to find both the black and the white points using the Threshold tool in this pictorial.

And for good measure, some samples taken using SoCalWill’s explanation on how some of these photos linked by the OP were likely done. I used a bathroom, since it is the brightest room in the home. The first set shows a picture taken with a 1.75 stop over exposure to keep the whites from turning grey. Also shown is the Lightroom develop screen where you will notice that the black point actually had to be turned down, not raised as you suggested.





In this second set below, I did not purposely over expose, but compensated for this by adjusting the exposure in Lightroom. And again, I needed to lower the black point.





I hope you can now agree that this "white look" can be achieved as SoCalWill explained in his post by just using proper age old exposure techniques.

Nand.

 

[Pictus]

I guess it is the "Christian Schmidt" Look.

Now we have another tool to experiment with the process, negative Dehaze.

Maybe the custom gamma trick can be used instead of the AIM RGB...

Anyway, the Christian Schmidt site.

 

[sabrina81]

Anything that raises or lowers contrast raises or lowers saturation respectively

That isn't correct. Altering contrast via black point will alter saturation. But it isn't true that anything that alters contrast will also alter saturation. Here's an example.





Clearly, the contrast between A and B is much lower than the contrast between A and C. But that difference has no effect on saturation. Here's the same comparison in color:





Again, contrast is great increased from A/B to A/C contrast, yet this change in contrast had no effect on saturation.