B&W from Color

[omorrow15]

What's the best way to turn a color photo into black and white (probably in Photoshop)?? I've been dabbling in mono channel mixing and gradient maps but I like my bw photos to be pretty contrasty usually keeping as much detail as possible. Thanks.

[Ronald S. Jr.]

If I'm doing just a quick and dirty version, I'll just desaturate (ctrl+shift+U) and then do a 15,150,0 USM. Do the USM twice if it suits you. That gives a decent BW shot. There's countless ways to do it. Let's see what others come up with.

[patrific]

Well there about a half a dozen different ways to make good black and whites from color. If you have RAW you can really get some good b&w's but my favorite is the double hue and saturation method. It allows you to dial in the b&w based upon the colors you make in one of the dialog boxes. Now this works if you have adjustment layers.

First things first -- make a hue and saturation layer above the background layer "click OK." Now make another one the same way and "click OK." You now should have two hue & saturation layers on top of each other above the background layer.

Secondly, double click on the uppermost hue and saturation layer and open it. Take the "saturation" slider and slide it all the way to the left until you see all of the color go away. Again "click OK."

Thirdly, click on the hue and saturation layer underneath the one you just used to select it (you don't want to open it just select it.) Click on the blending mode (top left in the layers pallet) and change it from "normal" to "color" for its blending mode. When that is done open this hue and saturation layer and slide the "hue" slider back and forth until you see the b&w you like the best. You can also slide the "saturation" slider (a little not too much) to tune the picture further. When you like it -- "click ok." Voila.

[studio206]

if you want to make a b&w from color... the best way to do it with the most control and will the give you the closest results to a traditional film medium, is to do it through channels. going through your and then using channel mixer *make sure you click monochromatic* will give you to the most control in making a good b&w.

[savona]

I have always used the channel mixer, although I rarely do anything in black and white.

[TX_Gulf_Coast]

Ok, I use a totally different way to convert to black & white...Lab Color.

I am going to go through this and hopefully I remember everything and it works right!

Take care of all global edits and retouching prior to the converstion and cropping. You want the B & W converstion to be the final step in your image.

First, convert your image to Lab Color: Image> Mode> Lab Color

Next, under the Channels Tab, Delete the a Channel. (this will also delete the b CHannel as well. You want that.)

Under the same tab, delete your your Alpha 2 Channel. You are now left with true Black and White in Lab Color Mode.

You can make adjustments via layers and levels to tweak the image as you want.

To get the image back to RGB, you need to go back to Image> Mode> Greyscale
(Can't convert from Lab Color to RGB.) Then back under Image> Mode> RGB and you have your image back where you need it for printing.

I learned this from a fellow photographer. It is one of the nicest looking black and white converstions and the cleanest. Give it a try and see what you think.

[akhater]

here are some channel mixer formulas that can get you started
http://www.adidap.com/2006/09/08/photoshop-tutorial-bw-conversion-formulas/

[Cannibalized]

Well there about a half a dozen different ways to make good black and whites from color. If you have RAW you can really get some good b&w's but my favorite is the double hue and saturation method. It allows you to dial in the b&w based upon the colors you make in one of the dialog boxes. Now this works if you have adjustment layers.

First things first -- make a hue and saturation layer above the background layer "click OK." Now make another one the same way and "click OK." You now should have two hue & saturation layers on top of each other above the background layer.

Secondly, double click on the uppermost hue and saturation layer and open it. Take the "saturation" slider and slide it all the way to the left until you see all of the color go away. Again "click OK."

Thirdly, click on the hue and saturation layer underneath the one you just used to select it (you don't want to open it just select it.) Click on the blending mode (top left in the layers pallet) and change it from "normal" to "color" for its blending mode. When that is done open this hue and saturation layer and slide the "hue" slider back and forth until you see the b&w you like the best. You can also slide the "saturation" slider (a little not too much) to tune the picture further. When you like it -- "click ok." Voila.

Hey I did this (and more). The results are pretty sweet. I played with levels and lighting some, too, because the original had awful lighting. But the layers with the hue/saturation worked out nicely.

Here's a comparison. The first was just Auto Grayscale.



Pretty yucky, right?

And this was my edit with the hue/sat and more;



Better, yes?
Do y'all think I could have made it better somehow with different techniques?

[Cannibalized]

Actually it looks a little darker in PS. Why is that?

[Gunnar]

I tend to use a 4 step procedure to convert to B&W in photoshop:

1. Create a new Photo Filter adjustment layer (select orange or red )
2. Create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and reduce saturation to 0
3. Create a new Curves adjustment layer and edit your curves
4. Create a new Levels adjustment layer and modify the contrast

This method will allow you to go back and modify each individual step, e.g. change the intensity or colour of the Photo Filter layer, ...

Hope that helps,
Gunnar