Simple Black and White

BT
Posted By
Bill_Thompson
Oct 15, 2007
Views
220
Replies
5
Status
Closed
How do you change a color image to a grayscale image in photoshop? Also, how do you adjust the contrast and brightness?

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JJ
John_Joslin
Oct 15, 2007
The method recommended depends on the version of Photoshop that you are using.
C
chrisjbirchall
Oct 15, 2007
There is only one way to convert a colour image to Greyscale: Image>Mode>Greyscale.

There are, however, many different ways of converting a colour image into Black and White – and each person will have his or her own favourite methods.

It also depends which version of Photoshop you are using. You really need to give this – and as much other relevant information – when asking for help.

If you are working with RAW files, Adobe Camera Raw is the place to make your conversions.

For non RAW files, the latest version CS3, has a purpose-made dialogue under Image>Adjustments which allows some degree of control over the tonality.

For older versions you can click the "monochrome" checkbox in the Channels Mixer and use the RG & B sliders to control the tones.

You could simply create a Hue/Saturation layer and take the Saturation slider all the way to the left to give you a simple, basic black and white with no control over the tones.

Try all these things and see which works best for you.

Chris.
P
Phosphor
Oct 15, 2007
The link below will get you a PDF from John Caponigro detailing several ways to get the best conversions:

<http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/phs8bwconversion.pdf>
DR
Danny_Raphael
Oct 16, 2007
Learn to use Curves and how to use layer masks for max control over contrast/brightness.

Good resource here:

< http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photo-art-101/4769-tutorial -05-converting-color-image-black-white-grayscale-bw.html>

Check out <http://www.atncentral.com> for several color->BW actions.
C
chrisjbirchall
Oct 16, 2007
I’ve posted this before, but now seems a good time to resurrect it.

Simply desaturating an RGB image completely destroys the tonal relationship between the colours, as you can see below. (try it for yourself by downloading this image). Converting to Greyscale preserves the tones.
..

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However: because greyscale is a single channel you lose a huge chunk of image data – and the more you edit (even a simple Levels adjustment) the more the image will degrade.

Here’s a better way:

First add two Hue/Sat adjustment layers as shown below. Name the top layer to "Film" and slide the "Saturation" to zero. Then set the one directly above the image layer to "Colour" mode and the set Hue slider to +82. Call this layer "filter".

As you can see the colour bar at the top has been converted to black and white whilst retaining the tonal relationships.
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..

Now comes the fun part:

Open the "filter" layer and move the Hue slider. See how easy it is to fine tune the tones? The "filter" layer is like having a continuously variable filter on a camera loaded with B&W film. The creative posibilities are endless.

The other nice thing about the Hue/Sat layers method is that it allows you to target specific colour ranges.

Picture this scene for instance: Green grass, Red car, blue sky with white fluffy clouds.

To darken the sky using B&W film you would place a Red filter over the lens. Both the Hue/Sat and Channel Mixer methods can emulate this. Snag is – whilst darkening the sky, you also lighten the car!

The solution is to target just the Blues in the scene by selecting "Blues" from the Hue/Sat’s drop down menu. Now you can darken the sky without altering the tonal values of the car!

But it doesn’t stop there! Standing by the car is a lady wearing a blue sweater. Darkening the sky has also darkened the sweater! However, because the Hue/Sat layer has a layer mask, it is easy to simply "paint out" the filtration locally to restore the paler tones of the sweater.

It really is the best thing since sliced bread.

Enjoy.

Chris.

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