9 Ways To Convert Your Image Into Black And White Format

Photography has been changed a lot during its long history, but black and white photography has the same popularity as hundred years ago. Here we are going to describe a lot of methods of B&W converting and you are welcome to use any you like.

Professional Tips

• It is not recommended to shoot in black and white at once, even if your camera has different settings of B&W formatting and rendering. Taking pictures in color with a consequent transformation into B&W on your PC offers more possibilities to work with tones and contrast.

• If you shoot in RAW and you want to post-process the shots in Photoshop, then in RAW-converter it's better to switch to 16 bits/component (.psd format) with low contrast. It gives you more chances to manipulate with grayscale, and 16 bits format prevents from vanishing of tones on the histogram.

color scale and grayscale in HSB-model

• Make several shots with different exposure, create HDRI with them using consequent tonal compression and only after that transform the image into black and white. Some of the effects (which are included during tonal compression by the software just like Photomatrix) could be seen unattractive on color shots, but their application is quite appropriate on the B&W photos.

 

• If you're planning to transform the shot into B&W, first of all you have to keep an eye on details in the shades, but not on the light areas, because when you transform your picture into B&W, overexposed areas are seen completely white, but the variety of black and gray tones can be lost.

• If you want to change the balance of white and dark areas you can use the Shadow/Highlight instrument. When working with color photos you should always  change parameters in the dialog box very carefully, otherwise, you can easily spoil the natural contrast of the motif and distort the colors. In the b/w format this instrument can be used much more freely, and particularly with architecture shooting, where the change of the light and shadow balance can make your picture more interesting. And don't forget, that it's better to use Shadow/Highlight before you work with the contrast.

 

1. Black/White

Black/White tool is one of the most convenient and clear methods of conversion into B&W format that leads to the most optimal results. It appears only in Photoshop CS3 version.
With the help of Black/White dialogue box you can define brightness of color tones. If you are not sure of the tint that the tonal area, which you want to change, is referred to, you can just click on it, without even closing the Black/White box, and the right color will be chosen. You can also change the brightness of the chosen tones here. In spite of the fact that Black/White tool resembles Channel Mixer tool, its mechanism differs totally: any changes in Channel Mixer influence the whole image, while in Black/White only definite color areas are affected.

2. Channel Mixer

Before Photoshop CS3 version, Channel Mixer tool was the best method of conversion into B&W format, but now it also can be interesting in many cases. Channel Mixer tool demands some experience if you want to achieve the best results, but this knowledge will be of use not only converting photos into B&W.

First of all, analyze all three channels one by one and decide which of them is closer to your preferences. If some channel contains the ideal B&W image, you may choose this very channel clicking on it and work with it as your background image. But if you want to mix the value of channels, so open Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Channel Mixer. Set Monochrome option in Channel Mixer dialogue box and change the percentage of color information in each channel.

If the effect of this filter is not so marked as you want, you may add new adjustment layer Hue/Saturation just under the Channel Mixer layer and increase the saturation of the whole image or only several colors.

The optimal result is when the sum of all channels equals 100%. The most natural proportion is 30/60/10. It is possible that value of one of the channel, for example, blue, may be set to zero.

Channel Mixer Portrait Tricks
- preference to the Red channel gives light and sleek skin.
- freckles can be more noticeable if you increase the value of Green channel.
- increasing Blue channel makes the skin darker.

3. Calculations

This tool is a logic continuation of the Channel Mixer. Calculations dialogue box (Image -> Calculations) allows you to calculate the result of channels’ merging with different Blending option and opacity. This method works only with two channels.

4. Gradient Map

Gradient Map tool is based on the following formula: 30% of Red + 60% of Green + 10% of Blue channel information (with few variations). The results are more different from our natural visual perception of brightness than the next methods, but your image will be more contrasting.

First of all, set the black and white colors, just pressing D button. Then open Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map and choose the first gradient Foreground to Background.

5. Changing Hue

This tool is acceptable for shots with pale colors. It's based on Hue/Saturation layer that is rather neutral to color tones, so it can be interesting as an experiment, but not as a practical method of post-processing. The shortcoming of this method is that you can't brighten the blue tints (only darken) and darken the Yellow tints (only brighten).

Well, open Layer -> New Adjustment Layer ->Hue/Saturation twice. On the lower layer change Mode to Color and on the top layer set Saturation to –100 . Now your tool is the lower layer: click on the layer thumbnail twice to open the Hue dialogue box and change its value - you'll see the difference.

6. Hue/Saturation and Desaturate

These are the simplest tools. You just duplicate the background layer and go to Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation or Desaturate. But these tools have important drawback: hue and saturation are not taken into account. Blue color, which seems to be darker, becomes the same gray tone as brighter green color. This method is only good if there aren't almost any colors on the shot that you need to include.

7. Grayscale

This tool (Image -> Mode -> Grayscale) uses almost  the classic formula 30/60/10. But Photoshop carries out some additional manipulations in order to distribute degrees of brightness among color tones evenly.
Grayscale gives not very high contrast but this fact allows you to use Curves, Levels and other tools to increase contrast as you wish. Grayscale is also better to use with images of pale colors, but it is more effective than Desaturate Tool, because it takes into consideration color tones.

8. Lab

Lab channel contains the information about lightness that is visually perceived by our eyes. The outcome of this tool is close to the previous one, but the range of lightness is less here.

First you should convert your image to profile Lab. It's better to open Edit -> Convert to profile -> Lab Color, you can also use faster but not so qualitative way Image -> Mode -> Lab Color. Than choose L channel (Lightness) in the list of channels or Ctrl+1. Than transform it to Grayscale (Image -> Mode -> Grayscale), discarding other channels.

 

9. Tools Combining

Sometimes it's reasonable to use several layers converted into B&W with different tools. For example, when imitating red or orange filter in Black/White dialogue box, the sky turns more contrasting and clouds appear to be more stressed. But at the same time red and orange color contrast is decreasing and you won't be able to fix it if you just brighten the appropriate tones. In this case you can create the second variant of B&W image using Red and Green channels in Channel Mixer. Then add mask to the first layer and draw everything except the sky with black color.

We hope this information will help you to create new black and white photos. We are waiting for them in our PhotoContests!