Black and white: part one

With the advent of digital cameras, black and white photography has changed. Now, rather than loading a black and white film into your camera, you can either select to shoot in black and white mode (if your camera has one) or convert the image to black and white during post-production. There are a variety of ways of doing this within Photoshop, the simplest of which are the Desaturate command and the Hue/Saturation tool. Both of these methods convert an image to black and white based on an average of the RGB values of the individual pixels, and both can often only produce average results.

In this tutorial we will be discussing three further methods of creating black and white images. The first uses the Channel Mixer tool, which offers a much greater degree of control over the appearance of the final image, and the second – using Lab Color mode and the Lightness channel – is a great technique for producing black and white portraits. The third method discusses the new ‘Black and White’ tool, introduced with Photoshop CS3.

The topics covered in this tutorial include:

The limitations of the Desaturate command and the Hue/Saturation tool
An introduction to the Channel Mixer tool
Smoothing skin tones using the Channel Mixer
Balancing tonal range
Customising the Channel Mixer settings
Lab Color mode and the Lightness Channel
CS3’s Black and White tool

This tutorial contains 5585 words, 56 illustrative images and screen grabs, and has received 11 comments.

Photoshop files included with this tutorial

Each of our tutorials is based around a series of Photoshop files, at the resolution originally posted on chromasia, and each contains all the original adjustment layers I used to create the final image. The ones that are included in this tutorial, and a brief description of how each one will be used, are listed below – the ‘before’ version on the left, the ‘after’ version on the right. Each of these files can be downloaded after you subscribe.

How to get from this …	to this
		Image 1 In this example I will introduce the Channel Mixer tool and show you how to use it to lighten and soften skin tones.
		Image 2 In this example I will show you how to use the Channel Mixer to balance the tonal range of different areas of an image.
		Image 3 In this example I will show you how to alter the settings for the Channel Mixer to draw attention to the areas of an image that you wish to highlight.
		Image 4 In this example I will show you how to use Lab Color mode and the Lightness channel to produce a black and white image.

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