Black and White Conversion

Image Editing Tutorial

Sometimes you look at a color photo and instinctively think, “This would look much better in black and white”. So how to do you go about achieving the monochromatic look, when you didn’t shoot in black and white or design the image to be grayscale? Luckily, Photoshop has some fairly easy ways of doing this…

Using the Channel Mixer

The Channel Mixer is your first option to switch from Color to Black & White. The Channel Mixer is a tool that enables you to adjust the individual color channels (like the Red, the Green, and the Blue) that make up the color values of any image. It allows you to make color adjustments at the additive level, in terms how you’re blending the raw color to make the colors you see.

Step 1

Open up the image you want to work the magic on, press Command-1 (PC: Control-1) or double-click the Zoom Tool to bring the image up to 100% of its actual size. You then want to add an Adjustment Layer, otherwise you'll throw away all the color information and you might not want to do that just yet.

Step 2

In the Adjustments Panel, select Channel Mixer; this is where you can become a mad scientist in the lab! Channel Mixer is also found under the Image Menu, nimbly navigate IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > CHANNEL MIXER. You'll need to choose the color mode that you want to work in (RGB, CMYK). You'll now have access to the all the different color channels, plus you have a Target Adjustment Tool (that Pointing Finger), in which you can click-n-drag directly on the photo to raise or lower a specific color/value. This is helpful if you’re not versed in color theory (do you remember the Color Wheel from art class? If not, then you're not versed in color theory).

Step 3

Check the MONOCHROME box. This creates a color image that only contains grayscale values, so that you can adjust the value of color channels (the separate RGB or CMYK sources). Now you can make adjustments to the level of details and contrast in your image, before the final conversion. Start tweaking the Source Channel sliders to enhance and reduce the various values. For the best results, don't exceed 100% on the source channel composite (Photoshop will warn you if you go over), because you really won't be able to reproduce that composite element in a distributable format. The last slider is CONSTANT, which adjusts the grayscale value of the output; a negative number adds Black to your image, a positive number injects white...

Step 4

You can always go into the Presets Menu, which gives you a series of settings of channel mixes that approximate the "look" of a Black & White photo in which a B&W filter has been attached to the lens; i.e. the Black & White with Red Filter, blocks the Red Channel completely, thus boosting the other two colors in the channel, such that blue skies pop and green foliage looks extra lush. You can save Custom settings, too. Once you have a Channel setting that you find pleasing, you can save those settings as a Preset; this way if you have a series of photographs that you know will all require the same base-level of adjustment, you can apply you Preset and then make the additional fine-tuning tweaks.

Step 5

Now that you have the sweet spot, lower the Amount by around 20 to 30 percentage points. For the final tweak, use the Threshold slider. Threshold sets a frontier in which the sharpening takes hold or doesn’t, and that’s based on the tonal value of the pixels that you’re looking to affect. The value establishes how different the sharpened pixels will be from the surrounding area before those pixels are affected by the filter. This is one of those “seeing is believing” options, so try between 2 and 20 for starters and then raise the Threshold to soften the sharpening until the image looks fabulous. Next, click on the Preview to see the before and after images. Since sharpening brings out some noise in the photo, you’ll want to change the blend mode to counteract this side effect; so change the Blend Mode on the layer you’re sharpening to Luminosity. This projects the image’s value, which is all important when looking to get rid of noise.

Before & After B&W Conversion

Using the B&W Adjustment Layer

You can also go back to the Adjustment Panel and select Black & White Adjustment Layer. This gives you access to all the different color channels (Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue and Magenta) plus you have a Target Adjustment Tool, where you can use the Tool to click-n-drag directly on the photo, and raise or lower a specific color/value. This is helpful if you’re not versed in color theory.

Step 1

Open up the image you want to work on, press Command-1 (PC: Control-1) or double-click the Zoom Tool to bring the image to 100% on the screen. It's always important to work at 100%, because you can see the details in your photo and understand how your editing is working in relation to how it's going to look printed out.

Step 2

In the Adjustment Panel, select Black & White - the half-black/half-white rectangle - to create the Black & White Adjustment Layer (this precludes you from having to make the background layer editable). This adjustment layer gives your move flexibility than just desaturating your image.

Step 3

Once you do this, Photoshop CS5 switches the Adjustment panel to show all the potential colors (RGB & CMYK), a Tint control (for sepia-toned type images) and a Target Adjustment Tool; that Pointing Finger, which you'll grow to love as it enables you to click-n-drag on an image. By moving the color channel sliders you adjust the values & contrast in your image and can better fine-tune your conversion.

Step 4

Now that your image is Black & White, you need to tweak it to make it pop. There are several presets that you can select as well. The presets approximate the shift in tonal value that you'd get by slapping a Black & White filter on your lens or printing on different quality photo paper. By playing around with these presets, you might find a setting that really says, "Wow." Black & White images usually fare better with higher contrast, so try that or the "Red Filter". You might want to brush up on the "Zone System" to really get the best out of your Black & White conversions. But if you don't have time for that (and who does these days?), then playing around with the presets will give you a good sense of how the grayscale values react.