Black and white conversion methods with Photoshop
January 29, 2008 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Home & Living
Technique Tuesday!
Most photo-editing probably has a desaturate button, or maybe even a grayscale mode. These remove the color and also the life from a photo. Photoshop had a wonderful conversion method in the Channel Mixer: you’d add an adjustment layer, tick the monochrome box, and slide your green and blue sliders up to total about 100. Red would stay down around 0 so that you wouldn’t be adding unwanted noise to your print. Here’s what you’d get:
would become…
Not too bad, but still kind of dull.
Step by step instructions for a better Black & White!
Nice tutorial! Artists often forget the power and beauty of black and white.
Thank you, Chris!
These pictures remind me of the type of old western stuff I normally associate with sepia…do you think that would work?
(See, I can do more than just tag you in silly games of tag. You are it, though.)
Absolutely! This new adjustment layer approach has a built-in checkbox for tinting, allowing you to add the sepia tones in the same step if you want. It’s amazing.
I never used scrubby sliders before, and I appreciate your information. I tried it on a photo, and it was fun to see the controls at work. Thanks for posting the tutorial.
Elinor
Isn’t it just the coolest thing?! What a concept