Converting color to grayscale.

DH
Posted By
Donna_Hanken
Aug 22, 2004
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298
Replies
12
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Closed
I know there are a few different way to do this, but I was curious if anyone had an opinion as to the best way to go about converting a color image to grayscale??? Actually, i’m plannignon converting to grayscale an then possibly adding some color later on…
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color conversion grayscale

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EH
Ed_Hannigan
Aug 22, 2004
If you want to add color later on, use Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer to make the image monochrome. You can’t add color to a Grayscale Image without changing it to RGB or CMYK.

Channel Mixer will give you more control over the tones in te image as well.
DH
Donna_Hanken
Aug 23, 2004
Thanks a bunch for your reply…

I’m not sure how to go about adding color using channel mixer. Would I just add a blank layer on top of the channel mixer layer and add my color to that?

Also, is it possible to use the calculations method and then just leave it in RGB mode and then colorize?
GB
g_ballard
Aug 23, 2004
here’s the ultimate color>b&w tutorial…if it takes you all day to download the movie it will be worth your time

<http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html>
More Tips> Seeing in Black & White
R
Ram
Aug 23, 2004
G B,

if it takes you all day to download the movie it will be worth your time

That would have to be one slow connection. 🙂 (Less than a minute here.)
DH
Donna_Hanken
Aug 23, 2004
Cool Website thanks. Actually, that technique is in Katrin Eismann’s book also. Do you know how to get the color wheel shown in the top left corner of the movie? I don’t know what to call the technique-film and filters ???

Anyway, I was still wondering what the best way to colorize an image after converting it into a grayscale???
DH
Donna_Hanken
Aug 23, 2004
Yeah, mine downloaded pretty fast too..
DH
Donna_Hanken
Aug 23, 2004
I’m going for the hand-tinted/color on a black and white photo look.
GB
g_ballard
Aug 23, 2004
after converting it into a grayscale???

Why go to grayscale (that can’t be a good move for what you’re doing?) why not stay in RGB.

one slow connection.

Just making an editorial point 🙂
RM
Rick_McCleary
Aug 23, 2004
Donna –

For a hand-tinted color on black and white look, this is the approach I use. First, you need to remain in RGB (so you can manipulate color). You can "grayscale" your original either with a channel mixer adjustment layer (which will keep the change editable), or go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (not a very good method). Russell Brown’s tutorial is excellent for this.

Once you have your "grayscale" image, place an empty layer above it (and the Channel Mixer adjustment layer), set its blending mode to Multiply, and paint on the new layer with your brushes set to normal mode. You can adjust the opacity of the entire layer, or adjust the opacity of the brush as you go. A Wacom tablet is particularly useful for this.

Good luck.
DH
Donna_Hanken
Aug 24, 2004
Thanks for the great suggestions…I found Russell Brown’s tutorial. I was wondering if anyone knows how to get the color wheel (top left corner) of the tutorial that he uses to select a particular color to edit???
EH
Ed_Hannigan
Aug 24, 2004
Donna,

I am pretty sure he just made that color wheel. You can do the same easily (use Screen as the Blending Mode).
PC
Pierre_Courtejoie
Aug 24, 2004
Donna, you can notice that you are maybe using wrong terminology: when you say "converting to greyscale", we understand "go to image>mode>greyscale . This opearation removes all the colors from the file (go to the channels palette)

What you should ask is to desaturate the picture, or remove the colors of a picture. —
Instead of using Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer and checking monochrome, you can add a channel mixer adjustment layer. You’ll be able to let colors show trough by painting in black on the layer mask of that adjustment layer.

It is possible to do the same with Russell Brown’s technique.

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