ebony and ivory

James Tarpley January 3, 2012 Business Concepts, Contributing Photographer, Photo Editing, View All Articles

There are a few reasons to convert an image to black and white… First of all, many times, we’ll shoot an image with B&W in mind. Shadow, line, form, etc. can be emphasized with a good black and white conversion. Secondly, we convert to black and white to remove distractions. Color, pattern, etc. can be minimized if changed to black and white. (Remember that mother-of-the-bride with the fuscia sweater…) Also, one of the main reasons to convert to a monochromatic image is to hone in on your primary subject, emotion, etc. Color can sometimes detract from the moment taking place. Another reason why you may want a black and white is for a certain feel or look (think classic, vintage, etc.)

So, we’ve covered the “whys”, now to the “hows”. What is the best way to convert a color image to black and white? It depends on who you ask. There are numerous ways to convert an image to black and white, but we’ll just look at a few… Click play on the video below to view the tutorial.. (please allow for a few seconds for the video below to load)

Desaturate is probably the quickest method, but also the least desired as it eliminates all color information so you no longer have access to individual color channels leaving a potentially flat image with little flexibility in shadow and highlight areas. Desaturate is also destructive as it alters the original image and offers no control over the conversion.

LAB mode conversion is a step up, giving better contrast while retaining the luminance layer. However, this method as well gives limited control as you remove color channels.

Using a gradient map adjustment layer is non-destructive, but offers little control over the outputted black and white conversion.

Using black and white adjustment layer non-destructive and provides a lot of control. With CS2 and older versions of elements, the B&W adjustment layer isn’t available. You can use a channel mixer adjustment layer and check the monochrome box before adjusting you RGB values.

In the following image, I used a black and white adjustment layer. Then, I used a multiply layer as mentioned in a previous tutorial on adjustment layers

For the next image, I used a LAB mode conversion to black and white as mentioned above. I then adjusted curves a little and because I wanted the image to have a bit of a vintage feel, I added a little warmth with a hue/saturation adjustment layer.