You have fallen into the net of black and white. I know, it can become unavoidable. Black and white photographs seduce, catch. Either because of its authentic nature, without frills or frills, because of its timelessness, because of its romanticism or nostalgia, or because of its ability to convey the essence of moments. There are many reasons and each has its own. It doesn’t matter why black and white has caught you, what matters is that you make a conversion that matches your image. How? Well, there aren’t as many modes as there are reasons to fall in love with grayscale, but there are a few. Today I show you and tell you how they work, the Photoshop ones, which my friend Alexa told you about in Lightroom. But before getting into the matter, I have to recommend this mega guide with tips and tricks to photograph in black and white and achieve the most spectacular images, because the first step to success in editing is starting with a good photo.
Going back to the subject, first I will tell you that if you have the option to convert to black and white from Camera Raw or Lightroom, do it from there for the best image quality and the versatility it offers you. Now, this article goes for those cases in which it is not possible or when what you have in your hands is a JPEG.
black and white images
First of all, no matter how much you fall in love with black and white, you should know that you cannot use it at any price. In other words, not every image is worthy of being converted to grayscale. Some photos are held up by color or contrast, or even other features but they disappear the moment you delete it. That is why it is important to know first if your image is held in black and white, if so, you can already do the conversion. If you have doubts, here is an Introduction to Black and White Photography.
And if you have doubts on-site you can use the monochrome option of your camera. But beware, just to have an orientation of how it can be in black and white. If you like, shoot in color so as not to lose information that you will need later.
Edition yes or no?
For the very purist purists of “no editing”, in case someone has fallen here who refuses to edit because 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 in 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 laboratory to develop them, they also did them, but we didn’t know about it. Now we shoot and reveal, so we have to do that part that consists of adjusting, for example, exposure, contrast, tone, etc. That is not retouching, nor distorting the photo, it is doing the job well done. And if you like the result directly from the camera, great, but if not, don’t tremble your hands to adjust the necessary parameters.
Now yes, let’s go to the simplest conversion modes with this photograph:
1. Desaturate
If you follow the path Image ⇒ Adjustments ⇒ Desaturate you have a quick and easy way to convert to black and white. The most direct.
The result of following these steps is as follows:
From here you can make the adjustments you consider necessary to leave the image to your liking, because remember, there is no magic editing formula, nor a mathematical formula. Each person will edit the same photo in a different way. What’s more, 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 a almost-black-and-white-but-not-quite this may be your option, as 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 evident. The difference is the possibility of adjusting the saturation in this second option. That is, if you don’t want to completely desaturate, follow this step 2. Another difference is that you can select the colors with the drop-down menu or with CTRL+(the color number) and move the luminosity slider 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 already quite monochromatic 😉
3. Grayscale
In this case, following the path Image ⇒ Mode ⇒ Grayscale, you also get a similar result. The inconvenient? This option is exactly the same as shooting in monochrome from the camera. You lose any information related to the color and if you want to continue editing, you may miss it.
And the result with this mode:
In appearance, the difference with the first two options is that this one is less luminous, or perhaps I should say less burned; P.
4.Black and white
Here you already start to have other adjustment possibilities. with the route Image ⇒ Adjustments ⇒ Black and White a box is displayed where you can play with the different colors of the image. It directly performs a “default” conversion for you, 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 to the left until you find the best values for your image, and when I talk about the best values, I mean the ones that give you the result that satisfies you the most, because there is no rule here written.
Another option is to use the presets:
If any of these settings fit you, great, right?
5. Channel Mixer
The path here is Picture ⇒ Settings ⇒ Channel mixer. You have to click on the bottom left of the box that says “Monochrome” and the image will appear in black and white. From there, it’s time to play with the cursors trying to add up to 100 so as not to find ourselves with an unflattering result.
Here are two examples where all three channels add up to 100:
You can also pull down the “Preset” 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
One last option, somewhat less simple but still easy, is to create an adjustment layer of gradient map. We see it step by step. First, create a layer, click on the icon surrounded in red and when the dropdown appears, click on gradient map.
Now in the PROPERTIES palette you click on the gradient bar:
A “Gradient Editor” dialog box opens and a slider appears. The image may appear too light or too dark, don’t be alarmed 😉 Click on it and the “Color Picker” will appear:
You select a gray tone on the left edge (red arrow) and press OK:
Again in the gradient editor, slide the triangular cursor to the left or right until you find the desired image. It doesn’t seem so difficult, does it?
One last option, you can lower the Opacity of the adjustment layer to recover part of the color where the red arrow indicates.
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 to modify and edit the image to your liking, in terms of exposure, contrast, color temperature or even sharpness.
You can also create your own action and apply your favorite settings with a single click.
There is no recipe to follow to the letter, since each image will require a different edition and, as I have already said, everyone edits according to their tastes. I like this last option (now, maybe tomorrow I’ll 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 so that together the differences are better seen:
Did you find it useful or interesting? If so, I ask you to please share it on your favorite social network so that more people can benefit from the information. And if you want to make any comment, it will be welcome. Thank you thousand!