Colour to Black & White (Grayscale)

Take your colour images and turn them into 'classic' Black & White images.

There are many ways to achieve this, they range from one click 'quickies' to complex tasks...
guess what? Yes, the more complex ones give better results and more control over the finish too.

Each technique gives subtly different results, it's up to the artist (you) to decide which one is correct for a given image.

I haven't put the finished small B&W images in these pages, as by the time they are 'web worthy' a lot of the
subtleties tend to get lost.

Strictly speaking, what most people refer to 'Black & White' is really 'Grayscale'.

Let's begin. As usual here's the original (well actually it's a SMALL version to show the technique. The large version is HERE - (right click save as... )

Each colour image has several 'colour components' the ones that you'll learn about today are called CHANNELS in Photoshop.

Each channel contains unique colour information about the image, the RED channel contains ... come on .... yep RED!

The channels palette is grouped (default settings) with the Layers palette. Click on the tab and take a look at it.

Here is a close-up of the Channels palette. Notice the 'eye' icon, and the tiny thumbnails of the image. If you look very closely you'll see that each channel is actually in Black & White or 'Grayscale'. Each channel contains information for it's designated colour, it's the combination of all three that gives you a totally coloured image - in this case known as RGB.

Try this... click on any of the (Red, Green or Blue) 'eye' icons (turn it off) ... notice the results!!!

You can go solo (i.e. 1 channel on it's own) 'Grayscale'.
or combine two channels (i.e. Red & Blue) purple-ish

The image here (& possibly your own image) is currently in RGB MODE. The mode of an image can be used by you to alter it. In Photoshop there are quite a few image modes available - RGB, CMYK, 'GRAYSCALE'.& LAB COLOR to name just a few.

Here are three of the 'quickies' I mentioned earlier...

Using the menus.

1. Image>Mode>'Grayscale'.
2. Image>Adjustments>Desaturate

The results are different to look at (so choose your preferred finished look), also the second one is STILL a colour image (!) so you can paint/colour it.

3. Select ONE channel only (Red, Green or Blue) - remember each Channel will be in B&W but will look different.     Choose the one you prefer, then Image>Mode>'Grayscale'.

4. Gradient Map

Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map...

This opens the box shown here, two things to note-

1. The arrow on the right of the gradient. Click on this and then choose a gradient (Black to White is shown here, but try a coloured one! - Wow!)

2. The Reverse check box gives you a 'negative' (if your gradient is Black to White)

NOTE. you can use this on an adjustment layer, then you can re-edit later.

5. A more advanced technique now...

Image>Mode>Lab Color (the image LOOKS the same), but if you view the Channels palette....

Lightness Channel shows the LUMINOSITY values and they are basically B&W ('Grayscale'.).

A Channel shows the Magenta/Green.

B Channel shows the Yellow/Blue.

Click on the eye icons to get the Lightness Channel as the only active/visible Channel. As you can see here the color image is now shown in glorious monochrome/B&W/'Grayscale'.!

But there is one more step....

Image>Mode>'Grayscale'.

The results here *are* different from simply using Image>Mode>'Grayscale'.

In a later lesson I'll show you how to save various 'versions' of your image - thus allowing you to do a very quick comparison - all version are stored in the same Photoshop file ... Later... honest!

6. An even more advanced technique!

Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer

Check the Monochrome box. Then mix the Channels!

Try to make the 'total' mix 100% - otherwise you get weird results, but then you can always get creative!

The constant slider acts as a brightness control.

The reason that I think of this as a more advanced technique is that you have COMPLETE control of each Channel, so your decisions/results can take a while longer!

Here's the final B&W image (via the Lab Color conversion technique), the LARGE version is HERE.

Phew! That's a LOT of techniques to learn and master, hopefully you have followed this lesson OK, and even had a play around with alternatives.

Remember, you can combine these techniques with the previous lessons.

Any questions? Email me!

Next lesson ... Filters Introduction