By Eugene Struthers
In this tutorial, I'll be showing how to use Photoshop to remove the colour from within your images. So that they are converted in to great Black & White images using various sliders to control the Highlights, midtones and shadows to give an image more contrast and definition. Giving your images that wow factor. I thought I would do a tutorial on just using Photoshop for this conversion and then a separate tutorial on using "Camera Raw" Black & White conversion. Makes more sense to keep these two separate and simple in explanation.
Desaturate
The Desaturate command converts a colour image to grayscale values, but leaves the image in the same color mode. It will assign equal red, green, and blue values to each pixel in an RGB image. The lightness value of each pixel does not change.
First open an image in Photoshop, in this case I have used Photoshop CS5.
Scroll a long the top menu bar to Image then down to Adjustments and then across and down to Desaturate.
This has the same effect as setting the Saturation to 100 in the Hue/Saturation dialog box.
As you can see from the image above. It appears flat and the tones appear to be the same.
The Black and whites within the image have no definition. They basically almost blend into one another.
It is important to note: That if you are working with a multilayer image, Desaturate converts the selected layer only.
Channels
In the second method to convert a colour image into a Black & White image. I first opened an image in Photoshop - Photoshop CS5.
Then click the "half Black & white" circle (as indicated by the bottom red arrow) to create a new adjustment layer. Choose Hue & Saturation. A new "Hue & Saturation" dialog box will appear above your Layer pallet box. Keep this on custom, leave the Hue slider on zero (it doesn't have any effect on the image), decrease the Saturation to negative one hundred (-100). This will take out all the colour within your image. The lightness slider should remain on zero, as it doesn't introduce any positives effects within an image at this stage.
Once the image has been converted to Black & White. Click onto the Channels tab as indicated by the image above. This is subject to your own preference, so click onto each channel one at a time to see the effect it hows within your image. This method is great for images which have a subject matter standing near natural light which is flooding in through a window.
In the image above, green was choosen as the preset preference as it introduced a more natural affect within the whole image. Introducing more natural light through and into the darker area;s within the image.
Lab Colour
This is a fairly simple process for converting an image into "Black & White". Open an image in Photoshop, scroll to Image down the submenu bar to Mode across and down to lab Colour.
A new Channels adjusment layer will be created. As indicated by the red arrow above. Unclick the Lab tick box but the leave the Lightness ticked. As you can see from the image above, it creates a very professional looking image. (Remember to switch your mode back to RGB when you are finished using this method).
Hue & Saturation
Open an image in Photoshop, in this case I have used Photoshop CS5 again.
Then click the "half Black & white" circle (as indicated by the two red arrows) to create a new adjustment layer. Choose Hue & Saturation. A new "Hue & Saturation" dialog box will appear above your Layer pallet box. To convert the colour image to Black & White, simply click and drag the Saturation slider to the left until it reads negative one hundred (-100). This will draw out all the colour within your image. As you can see from the image below, it delivers real professional results.
Channel Mixer
Open an image in Photoshop, in this case I have used Photoshop CS5 once again.
Then click the "half Black & white" circle (as indicated by the two red arrows) to create a new adjustment layer. Scroll up the pop up menu to Channel Mixer. The best thing about working with an adjustment layer is that you’re not changing or harming ANY pixels in your image. A new layer is created and the adjustments are applied through a mask.
A Channel Mixer adjustment dialog box will appear. Tick the Monochrome box. As indicated by the arrows above. At first use it will be set to a Photoshop default setting. Ignore these, as they are slightly off what is required.
As a quick test to verify what your bench mark settings will be. Enter 100 as your Red value, to see what effect this will have on your image. In the above image it has a bleaching effect, causing the image to turn snowy white.
As a quick test to verify what your bench mark settings will be. Enter 100 as your Green value, to see what effect this will have on your image. In the above image it darkens certain areas. And it kind of looks okay. But it's not 100% professional.
As a quick test to verify what your bench mark settings will be. Enter 100 as your Blue value, to see what effect this will have on your image. In the above image it has darkened certain areas of the face and hair. And it kind of looks professional. We are almost there.
In the final image above. I have introduced all three colours. To mix and blend them with one another to achieve the result I wanted. For the Red value I chose +1, Green value I chose 22+, Blue value I chose +87. The other slider to look at here is the Constant slider. This adjusts the overall brightness. In this example, I lightened the whole image down by increasing the Constant slider to the left, to a value of 1%.
Basic Black & White
Open a new image in Photoshop, in this case I have used Photoshop CS5 once again.
Duplicate the Layer (Ctrl+J).
Change the Blend mode from normal to soft light. Experiment with the different types of light avialble.
Then click the "half Black & white" circle (as indicated by the two red arrows) to create a new adjustment layer. Scroll up the pop up menu to Black & White adjustment layer.
A Black & White adjustment layer will be created. As indicated by the image above.
In the method above it is a matter of personal preference. Tweak around with each Colour setting to draw back that particular colour into the image. As you can see from the image above there are six in total and this can have a overall effect on the tone and contrast of your image.
As an added bonuse. You may want to get artistic and introduce a shade of colour back into your image. Giving this particular image a vintage feel. I did this by slightly lowering the Opacity and the Fill amounts.
Gradient Map
In the final method. Open a new image in Photoshop, in this case I have used Photoshop CS5 once again.
Then click the "half Black & white" circle (as indicated by the two red arrows) to create a new adjustment layer. Scroll up the pop up menu to Gradient Map.
A Gradient Map adjustment dialog box will appear. Use the pointer on your mouse to click into the centre of that gradient bar.
In the Gradient Editor box that will appear. Presets: choose the third box from the left titled Black & White. As we want the sliders below to effect the Black & White pixels in our image. At the gradient bar below, leave the Gradient type to solid and Smoothness to 100%. Depending on the type of image you have and the amount of black & white within that image. The next step will influence how much you want to increase or decrease the Highlights, Midtones or your Shadows within your image. It's basically a trial and error method. By dragging the Highlight bar slider to the left, we increase the Highlights. If we move the Midtone bar slider to the right, we decrease the amount of grey tones in our image. And if we move the Shadows slider bar to the right we lighten the darker areas within our image. A basic procedure which is used by professional photographers to increase the "Punch" factor in contrast and definition in tonal values. Especially within black & white images.
As you can see from the image above. It has pulled back what appeared to be a flat black & white image. Giving it depth in perspective, colour tone and contrast. Almost as if the model with the sword is going to pop out of the image.
A great little trick you may want to try. Is introducing existing colour back into the image. Basically pulling colour back into the image through the black & white. To do this: Click onto the Colour swatch, or just press "D" on your key board to bring up the Photoshop default Black & White setting. The Black on the top adds colour and the white on the top subtracts any colour overspills you may do accidently whilst editing your image.
Use a small brush size with a medium hardness and paint over areas you know colour existed within your image originally. This will reveal the underlining colour back into your image.
As this image was not opened as a smart object. I needed to complete two final steps. That was to flatten the layers and sharpen the image. This pushed up the clarity, contrast and tonal values.
Hint: If you find that you can't increase the contrast or tonal range using the Gradient Editor, you could also use the Curves (Ctrl+M) to increase the "Highlights", "Shadows" and "midtones". (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves)
Keep practicing and keep it simple.
Black&White©Glamour Photo OnLine 2012