6 WAYS (VERY SIMPLE) TO CONVERT TO BLACK AND WHITE WITH PHOTOSHOP

You have fallen into the net of black and white. I know, it can become inevitable. Black and white photographs seduce, catch. Either by its authentic nature, without ornaments or frills, by its timelessness, by romanticism or nostalgia or by its ability to convey the essence of the moments. There are numerous reasons and everyone has their own. No matter why black and white has caught you, what matters is that you perform a conversion at the height of your image. How? Well, there aren't as many ways as reasons to fall in love with the gray scale but there are a few. Today I show you and I tell you how they work, those of Photoshop, that in Lightroom I told you about my Alexa compi here . While I will tell you first, that if you have the option to convert black and white from Camera Raw, do it from there for the best image quality and for the versatility it offers you. Now, this article goes through those cases where it is not possible because what you have in your hands is a JPEG, or another format not compatible with Camera Raw.

BLACK AND WHITE IMAGES

First of all, no matter how much you love black and white, you should know that you cannot use it at any price. That is, not just any image is worth moving to grayscale. Some photographs are supported by color or contrast, or even by other features but that disappear at the time you delete it. That's why it's important to know first if your image is held in black and white, if so, you can do the conversion. If you have doubts here you have an Introduction to Black and White Photography . And if you have doubts in situ you can use the monochrome option of your camera. But beware, just to have an orientation of how it can be black and white. If you like it, shoot in color to avoid losing information that you will need later.

EDITION YES OR NO?

For the very purist purists of the "no edition", in case someone has fallen here who refuses to edit because of what the photo is taken on the camera and not on the computer, I want to clarify something. Editing is not the same as retouching. I am also in favor of taking the photo on the camera, but it is inevitable to make certain adjustments in a later edition. Before, when they were analog photos and we took them to the lab to reveal them they also did them, but we didn't know. Now we shoot and reveal, therefore we have to do that part that consists of adjusting for example exposure, contrast, tone, etc. That is not retouching, or distorting the photo, is doing the job well done. And if you like the result directly from the camera, great, but if not, don't shake your hands to adjust the necessary parameters. Now yes, we are going to the simplest conversion modes with this photograph:

1. DESATURATE

If you follow the route Image ? Settings ? Desaturate you have a quick and easy way to convert to black and white. The most direct.

Steps to desaturate

The result of following these steps is as follows:

Desaturated image

From here you can make the adjustments you consider necessary to leave the image to your liking, because remember, there is no magic formula for editing, nor a mathematical formula. Each person will edit the same photo differently. Moreover, you will also edit it differently depending on the moment, your mood, the type of photo or the use you want to give it.

2. HUE AND SATURATION

There is also another fairly fast route to desaturate which is Image ? Adjustments ? Hue and saturation In this case you will have to move the cursor to the far left. Unlike the previous mode, you can choose the degree of desaturation. If you want it to be an almost-white-and-black-but-not-of-all- this may be your choice, because you can choose how much to desaturate. And with this method it would look like this: As you can see the difference with the previous step is not very obvious. The difference is the possibility of graduating the saturation in this second option. That is, if you do not want to completely desaturate, you follow this step 2. Another difference is that you can select the colors with the drop-down or with CTRL + (the color number) and move the brightness cursor to adjust it to your liking: You can also desaturate by tones but in this image, specifically, the differences are not appreciated because it is in itself quite monochromatic

3. GRAYSCALE

In this case, following the image path ? Mode ? Grayscale , you also arrive at a similar result. The inconvenient? This option is exactly the same as shooting in monochrome from the camera. You lose any information related to color and if you want to continue editing, you may miss it. And the result with this mode: Apparently, the difference with the first two options is that it is less bright, or perhaps, I should say less burned; P.

4.WHITE AND BLACK

Here you start having other adjustment possibilities. With the Image path ? Settings ? Black and white , a frame is displayed where you can play with the different colors of the image. It directly performs a "default" conversion, like the one you can see in the screenshot image: You can press the automatic button, which will offer you another image: Or you can move the different cursors to the right and left until you find the best values ??for your image, and when I talk about better values, I mean those that give you the result that suits you best, because here there is no rule written. Another option is to use the presets: If you fit any of these settings then great, right?

5. CHANNEL MIXER

The route here is Image ? Settings ? Channel Mixer . You have to click below on the left the square that says "Monochrome" and the black and white image will appear. From there, it is time to play with the arrow keys trying to add 100 to avoid encountering an unflattering result. Here are two examples in which the three channels total 100: You can also display the “Preset adjustment” window and choose one, as in the following example: This is the result of converting in this mode without touching the channels, simply leaving the one proposed by the program:

6. GRADIENT MAP

A somewhat less simple but also simple option is to create a gradient Map ajus layer . We see it step by step. First, create a layer, click on the icon surrounded in red and when the drop-down click on Gradient Map appears .

Step 1: Create layer

Step 2: Click on Gradient Map

Now in the PROPERTIES palette you click on the degraded bar:

Step 3: Click on gradient bar

A "Gradient Editor" dialog box opens and a slider appears. The image may appear very light or very dark, do not be alarmed Click on it and the «Color Picker» will appear:

Step 4: Open Color Picker

Select a gray tone on the left edge (red arrow) and press OK:

Step 5: Select gray tone

Again in gradient editor, you slide the triangular cursor to the left or right until you find the desired image. It doesn't seem so difficult, right?

Step 6: Move triangular cursor (to taste )

One last option, you can lower the Opacity of the adjustment layer to recover part of the color where the red arrow indicates.

Modifying opacity

And a possible result with this last conversion option would be this:

WHICH ONE DO YOU PREFER?

These are the six easiest ways to convert an image to black and white. From here, you can continue modifying and editing the image to your liking, in terms of exposure, contrast, color temperature or even sharpness. You can too create your own action and apply your favorite settings with just one click. There is no recipe to follow to the letter, because each image will require a different edition and, as I said, each one edits according to their tastes. I like this last option (now, the same tomorrow I edit it differently). Of course the image has aspects to improve, such as noise, but as an example I think it has served;). Now I leave you a collage with the six results that together show the differences better: Did you find it useful or interesting? If so, please ask you to share it on your favorite social network so that more people can benefit from the information. And if you want to make any comments, you will be welcome. Thanks a thousand!