Dec 22
Favourite Photo Tips #1 — Black and White
Lots of people seem to see Christmas as a time to get the camera out. So for those who want them, I’m going to post my three favourite tips for editing photos. I’ve used these so often, I now can’t remember where I found them, but none of them appear to be as well known as they should be. These are tips for:
- Converting an image to “Black and White” / Grayscale (this tip)
- Dodging and Burning (lightening and darkening selectively)
- Sharpening an image
The most important thing they share in common is that every application comes with commands for doing them, and so most people use the commands. Doing them the “obvious” way has a big disadvantage: it’s destructive, and alters your original image. The methods I’m recommending here are all non-destructive, and use layers to leave your original image intact.
I’m going to illustrate these methods using Photoshop, but they will work in just about any image editor which has both layers and adjustment layers (which is most of them nowadays).
Convert an image to black and white
Create two Hue/Saturation adjustment layers. (Either use the pop-up at the bottom of the layers palette, or Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.)
Select the uppermost adjustment layer (1) — double click the icon to open it — and drag the Saturation slider down to zero. This creates the same effect as the destructive de-saturate command.
Select the middle adjustment layer (2) and set the blend mode to Color (3). Then open the adjustment layer (again double-click the icon) and start moving the Hue slider backwards and forwards. You may need to position the sliders on your monitor so that you can see the image. As you do this you will see the shades of gray in the image shift.
When the contrast and balance of shades in the image looks good to you, click OK. You’re done, and best of all, you can come back at any time and readjust. The original colour image is still there at the bottom of the stack.