Black and White Conversion

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Tutorial
Adobe Photoshop CS
Black and White Conversion
“One sees differently with color photography than black and white…in short, visualization must be modified by the
specific nature of the equipment and materials being used”
-Ansel Adams
The original color image. (left) The adjusted black and white conversion. (right)
Seeing in black and white
Black and white conversions are radical transformations of images. They’re about reestablishing the tonal foundations
of an image. That’s quite different than dodging and burning, or lightening and darkening locally, which is a
matter of accentuating existing tonal relationships.
The Channels palette shows the red, green, and blue components of a color image.
Each channel offers a useful black and white interpretation of the color image that you can use
to adjust the color. The key concept is for you to use the color channels as black and white layers.2
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS
Black and White Conversion
Tutorial
Conversion methods
There are almost a dozen ways to convert an image from color to black and white; and you can probably find at least
one expert to support each way as the best conversion method. The bottom line is that most conversion methods
work reasonably well. The method that works best for you depends on your particular workflow and the tools that
you’re comfortable with. The following method isn’t necessarily the best and it isn’t the fastest-it generates a larger
file-but it offers you the most control and flexibility.
Creating layers from channels offers you more control than any other conversion method. It also offers you the flexibility
of being able to change any aspect of the conversion at any time in the future. Here’s how you do it: copy the
individual channels of a color image, and then paste them into the same document as the original color image. Next,
rename the layers accordingly. Then, reduce the opacity of the layers to achieve the result that you want. If you want
a neutral image and don’t want the color of the Background layer to show through, keep…