Why Black and White (B&W)?
There are many reasons you might want to convert a colour photo to B&W.
- If you want to use a specific kit but the colours clash with your photo (it's quicker than recolouring the whole kit!)
- If the colours in the photo itself clash and hurts your eyes!
- If you want to remove distracting colours to allow more detail to be seen
- If you are preparing a photo for selective colouring or for colorising (like sepia)
The photo I've used for the conversion screenshots today has the colour clash problem within the photo (red, purple,pink, brown!) and I think the colour clashing detracts from the detail and the fact that she's sleeping in bed 'upside down'.
Method 1. 100% Desaturation
This has been traditionally one of the quickest ways to get, effectively a grayscale photo. In Photoshop the Saturation slider can be found in both the Hue/Saturation and Vibrance options. To find it in Photoshop, go to Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Vibrance (or Hue Saturation) ** PSE users see below. Then you just move the saturation slider as far to the left as it can go (in this case -100)
Method 1a. 100% Desaturation with Curves and Levels Adjustments
To give a better result with this Desaturation method, we can prepare the photo a little first, using Curves and Levels can help it. Personally, I like this better, it is more B&W than just grey. (Using a Brightness/Contrast layer and slider will have similar but less refined effects).
To do this I added Curves and Levels adjustment layers from the Layers menu in Photoshop.
Just clicking and dragging the pointer circled in the graph in the above screenshot to where it is in the next screenshot makes a big difference
Adding a Curves layer lets you be more detailed in your adjustments (you can drag the default diagonal line in as many directions and from as many places on the line as you want). Generally, making a letter 'S' shaped curve improves the photo.
So at this point, you can ad your Saturation layer, drag it to -100 like we first mentioned and have a more B&W rather than Grayscale photo.
** for PSE13 and above users, this describes steps for adding adjustment layers including Levels and Curves http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2298391&seqNum=5
**** there are many methods of B&W conversion - this article has screen shots for GIMP
https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Digital_Black_and_White_Conversion/
Method 2. Using 2 Hue Saturation Layers
This method works as long as one of the layers is in color mode and one in normal mode.
(Note: I'm using the original photo again to start with, no levels, no curves).
Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer (Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Hue Saturation) Set the saturation slider to -100%. You're done with that layer.
Now underneath that first adjustment layer create a second Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Set this layer/blend mode to Color Mode. Now while watching your photo, move the Hue slider and watch how it changes your image. Once you find a look you like, you can use the Saturation slider to control the intensity of the filter effect.
The sheets where I marked with a star shows some of the significant difference this Method can have. You can boost it by using the Levels and Curves adjustments like in Method 1a. This can work in any program you use layers, blend modes and can control Hue & Saturation in.
Method 3:
There are also plenty of apps and actions that can convert photos to B&W for you. Presets in Lightroom like
these by Sabrina Dupre also show you the range of B&W available, where whites can range from cold greys to warm cream colours and blacks can be any of a range of dark colours from charcoal to super dark navy or chocolate hues.
For today's Slow Scrap - use any method you prefer to create a B&W photo!
Method 4: Channel Mixer
As a bonus, and because I saw this mentioned in the GIMP info and because it's again fairly easy I'm just quickly mentioning the Channel Mixer as an alternate adjustment layer (it's like using the Hue/Sat sliders in Color blend mode). Using a 'Black and White' adjustment layer in Photoshop (which really should be an obvious method to mention here) brings up a similar menu panel to the Channel Mixer.
The main thing to remember here is to 'check' or 'tick' the 'Monochrome' box and then play with the sliders until you find the balance that works for your photo!
