Photo Sharing & Photography Forums | Converting Color to BW

Converting Color to BW

Posted by James Hanna on October 13, 2007 at 1:07am in IMAGE EDITING

Hello!

What is the best way to turn a color photo into BW in Photoshop. I heard that there are couple of techniques to do this..

Any opinions will be much appreciated..

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by James Hanna on October 17, 2007 at 2:09pm: Thanks Marianne!
Do you know how much it costs me to upgrade from CS2 to CS3?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Marianne Venegoni on October 17, 2007 at 4:09pm: Hi, it was 200 dollars when I upgraded, you can check Adobe's site for a price but it's probably the same.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rod Connan on October 19, 2007 at 8:19pm: Lightroom has a very nice conversion system for B&W - worth trying if you are a Lightroom user.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James Hanna on October 20, 2007 at 3:04am: Is Lightroom still available for free trial?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rod Connan on October 20, 2007 at 12:28pm: Only for the standard 30 day (or whatever) trial period method - the long Beta trials are finished.

Rod; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alejandro Cerdena Photography on October 20, 2007 at 4:16pm: MY OWN PERSONAL VERSION FOR CREATING B&W IMAGES, ITS LONG BUT PRODUCES GREAT RESULTS.

1. OPEN A COLOR IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP
2. UNDER YOUR ACTION PALETTE POP OUT MENU, SELECT NEW ACTION
3. NAME THE ACTION BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSION
4. ASSIGN A FUNCTION KEY SUCH AS F1 TO YOUR ACTION
5. SELECT RECORD
6. UNDER THE IMAGE MENU, SELECT MODE>LAB COLOR
7. CLICK (HIGHLIGHT) THE LIGHTNESS CHANNEL
8. UNDER THE IMAGE MENU, SELECT MODE>GRAYSCALE (DISCARD COLOR INFORMATION)
9. COMMAND\CONTROL CLICK ON THE GRAY CHANNEL (TO LOAD THE SELECTION)
10. UNDER THE SELECT MENU, CHOOSE IMAGE>INVERSE TO SELECT THE SHADOWS
11. UNDER IMAGE MENU, CHOOSE MODE>RGB COLOR
12. IN THE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS PALETTE CHOOSE SOLID COLOR
13. SELECT A COLOR FROM THE COLOR PICKER OR FROM THE SWATCHES PALETTE (WHICH I PREFER BECAUSE
YOU CAN SAVE A CUSTOM COLOR)
14. YOUR CHOICE OF COLOR SHOULD BE BASED ON THE TONAL RANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN YOUR FINAL
TONED B&W
15. GO TO YOUR LAYERS PALETTE AND CHANGE YOUR BLENDING MODE TO MULITIPLY
16. BECAUSE YOUR COLOR FILL IS ON A LAYER YOU MAY ADJUST THE OPACITY TO DIAL BACK THE COLOR THAT
YOU DESIRE
17. IN ADDITION (IMPORTANT), YOU MAY ADD A CURVES OR LEVELS ADJUSTMENT TO ACHIEVE THE DESIRED
CONTRAST
18. SHOULD YOU WISH TO CHANGE THE COLOR OF YOUR B&W “DUOTONE” SIMPLY DOUBLE CLICK THE COLOR
FILL AND RESELECT THE COLOR
19. CREATE A NEW LAYER
20. WHILE HOLDING THE OPTION BUTTON GO TO THE POP OUT MENU AND SELECT MERGE VISIBLE
21. CHANGE THE BLENDING MODE TO OVERLAY
22. REDUCE THE OPACITY TO 20%
23. CHOOSE FILTER-OTHER. THEN SELECT-HIGH PASS. SET RADIUS AT 50 PIXELS
24. DOUBLE CLICK THE NEW LAYER TO BRING UP LAYER PROPERTIES
25. BRING THE BLACK POINT ARROW IN TO 70. NEXT OPTION CLICK THE BLACK POINT ARROW TO SPLIT THEM,
PULLING ONE HALF OF THE ARROW BACK TO 50
26. BRING THE WHITE POINT ARROW IN TO 185. NEXT OPTION CLICK THE WHITE POINT ARROW TO SPLIT THEM,
PULLING ONE HALF OF THE ARROW BACK TO 205. CLICK OK
27. IF NECESSARY THE OPACITY MAY BE VARIED TO REACH YOUR DESIRED ADJUSTMENT
28. UNDER THE FILE MENU SELECT SAVE AS AND CHOOSE YOUR FILE AND LOCATION (FOR EXAMPLE DESKTOP>NEW
FOLDER> BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSIONS)
29. IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO FLATTEN YOUR FILE AT THIS TIME YOU MAY BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE TONAL AND
CONTRAST ADJUSTMENTS TO DIFFERENT SETTINGS IN THE FUTURE IF DESIRED
30. CLOSE YOUR FILE
31. STOP YOUR ACTION IN YOUR ACTION PALETTE
32. THIS COMPLETES CREATING YOUR ACTION AND ASSIGNING A FUNCTION KEY. ALL THAT IS NECESSARY TO
DO AFTER OPENING A COLOR IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP IS TO PRESS YOUR FUNCTION KEY. ALL YOUR FINE
TUNING ADJUSTMENTS MAY NOW BE PERFORMED ON THE INDIVIDUAL LAYERS AS DESIRED; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by C. Karmel on October 20, 2007 at 7:30pm: Alejandro.. Thank you for sharing this..
Gotta try this one!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alejandro Cerdena Photography on October 21, 2007 at 1:58am: I do, I use this technique when converting my images to B&W.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James Hanna on October 20, 2007 at 9:47pm: Thank you for the tutorial.. :)
Do you use technique when converting your photos? They're beautiful!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by photogR on October 21, 2007 at 6:12am: Lots of great techniques listed here! My favs:

Adobe Lightroom has several filters .... as does CS3 .... or use the hue/saturation adjustments under any image editing app to yield the same results. Can also adjust the hue to an appropriate tint and take the saturation up just a few notches to simulate Sepia.; ▶ Reply to This