Black and White Bristlecone 3, photo by Harold Davis. View this photo larger

In an earlier post I explained several Photoshop techniques for converting digital photos from color to black and white.

Based on comments from readers and my own research, here are another couple of conversion techniques that you might like even more!

For the record, here’s the original color photo:

The black and white version at the top, like the first version in the previous post, was obtained starting by converting the color space from RGB to Lab. With the color space converted, I then took the following steps:

• Discarded everything but the Lightness (L channel) by making it active, then choosing Image > Mode > Grayscale
• Created a duplicate layer
• Blended it with the original background layer using Multiply
• Took down the opacity of the blend until I was happy with the way the b&w photo looked

Pretty simple, right? The next method probably gives you the most control over final results of any of the techniques I’ve explained.

Here’s the black and white image I ended up with:

View this photo larger.

Here’s how I got there:

• Using the Layers palette, I created an adjustment layer by selecting Channel Mixer from the Layers palette drop-down menu.
• I checked the Monochrome box at the bottom of the Channel Mixer
• In the Channel Mixer, I used the Red, Green and Blue sliders to tweak the image (see the comment below about the settings)
• I tweaked the overall brightness of the image slightly using the Constant slider

I liked this method best I think, because the ability to tweak the three channels (Red, Green, and Blue) with sliders, with each channel contributing to the result, seems very flexible and intuitive. Normally, you want to keep the total of the three sliders to 100%. It’s possible to create dramatic effects by deviating from this. To create this kind of drama, you typically increase two channels way high, and compensate by making the thrid channel a negative percentage.

For example, a Channel Mixer setting that has been called the Ansel Adams effect would be Red +160%, Green +140%, and Blue -200%. This still totals 100%, but when I tried on this photo, the results looked garish to me. The result above is a more modest Red +70%, Green +50%, and Blue -20%. I think this adds a tad of glamour without going overboard.

Black and White Bristlecone, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Here’s the original color image:

Amsrun, on Flickr, suggested I try converting it to black and white. I’ve been looked for an image to experiment with b&w conversion, so on this rainy day with a little extra time I thought I’d give it a whirl.

It’s easy enough to mechanically convert an image to black and white in Photoshop using a variety of methods. For example, Image > Mode Greyscale does the trick, as does Image > Mode > Adjustments > Desaturate. But these techniques basically drop the color information without any compensation and produce pale, gray, washed-out looking black and white photos.

I’m not claiming to be an expert at this (yet!), but here’s what I did:

• Converted from RBG Color to Lab Color
• Used the Channels Palette to just look at the Lightness (L) channel
• Worked with Image > Adjustments > Levels to bring the image into a pleasing tonal range
• Converted to grayscale to discard all the channels other than the Lightness channer
• Applied a red contrast filter to increase the “drama”
• Selectively burned and dodged
• Sharpened using the Unsharp Mask and Smart Sharpen

I’m pretty happy with the way it came out (thanks, Amsrun!), and like it best larger!

Look Ma, no Image menu! (…and no color space change or dropped channels!)

Phyllis, my beautiful wife and resident Photoshop guru, came along and suggested an alternative b&w conversion technique that is really easy and doesn’t involve channels, color spaces, or the image menu. First, here are the results:

View this photo larger.

This doesn’t look that much different than the first version, maybe a little nicer (I think a bit more of the wood detail is preserved).

Here’s how it works:

• Add a new layer to the color image
• Use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the layer with black
• Select Color as the Blending Mode (it’s towards the bottom of the Blending Mode drop-down list on the Layers Palette
• Voila! It’s that simple! Pretty nifty…