Without further ado and as promised, here’s the tutorial I prepared which will help you convert your colored digital photographs into impressive black and white images. This guide may have been prepared using Adobe Photoshop CS4 but they are still very much applicable if you are stuck with Photoshop 7 or CS3.
1. First, open a photograph of your choice.
Initially, press X to toggle your foreground color to black (you can toggle between white and black foreground colors by pressing X. This may come in handy with other Photoshop techniques out there). You’ll observe the effect in the upper right hand corner of your CS4 window on the “Color” box as shown in the image below (try pressing X several times and observe what it does with the elements in said box).
2. Now go to the Layers palette and add a new “Gradient Map” adjustment layer like in the following screencap.
This screen will then appear (as a pop-up in CS3 or Photoshop 7) above the Layers palette. Just leave all the values alone as they were initially.
At this stage, your image will have already changed from colored to black and white but we are far from done yet.
3. Next, as in #2, create another adjustment layer but this time, choose “Channel Mixer.” The image will still look the same when you do this but everything will change as we proceed.
Right now, you have three items on your Layers palette: Background, Gradient Map, and Channel Mixer.
The screen below will then replace the “Gradient Map” pallete on CS4 (Channel Mixer will still appear as a pop-up in either CS3 or Photoshop 7), above the Layers palette. Make sure the “Monochrome” box is checked thereby making the “Output Channel” show a “Gray” selection (ticking the “Monochrome” box will automatically choose “Gray” for you).
The next step will call for values depending on how bright your image is. It may also depend on the effect you would like the lighting to be in your final B&W output.
4. There are four adjustable values in Channel Mixer. First thing’s first, bring down the value of “Constant” to -8. Now, darker images may need to be adjusted to around -6 and brighter ones may call for an even lower than -8 value. The lower the value, the darker the image (initially, but this is just normal). At this point, have Constant rest at -8 and fine tune it after we have pegged the value of the other variables in the next steps. For this photo, however, I used a -7 value.
Next, slide the value of the “Red” channel up between +70 and +75 (I used +72 for this photograph).
Now, the tricky part is finding the right values for “Green” and “Blue.” Drag the slider for Green to the right first and let it rest to around +20. Do the same with Blue. Please note that their values may most probably be different from each other depending on whether you think you have already achieved the “right” mix. Personally, if the whites have already taken over details in a photo that I think are important, then I’ve already overdone it with either of the Green and/or Blue values. Adjust one after the other and keep their values relatively close (a +20 Green value and a +40 Blue may still work for some photographs so just experiment while keeping an eye at your image).
For this photo, I used the values below.
Here’s the final output we got by using this technique.
Had you done it by merely selecting Image > Mode > Grayscale, you would have gotten this, instead:
Again, here’s the original photo as shown way up in this post:
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I hope you liked this nifty tutorial. It’s the very same technique I used with my Batman on Gargoyle statue photographs featured in the previous post.
Until next time!
Original image in this post was taken using a Sony DSC-W300, if in case you are wondering.
Twitter Updates
5 February 2009 at 3:41 am
Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge. **Goes now to put this info to good use!**
Regards,
Massa P
5 February 2009 at 10:22 am
Please share your final out please if ever you get to use this :D Thanks, fruityoaty!
5 February 2009 at 12:49 pm
Very interesting! I usually use desaturate+brightness/contrast, lol.
5 February 2009 at 1:28 pm
:) Yup.
5 February 2009 at 1:40 pm
naks! anggaling talaga!
salamats sa tip tay!
5 February 2009 at 1:44 pm
*slow clap* This is awesome.
6 February 2009 at 2:27 am
I noticed that images with a bright central light source don’t work well with this. I wanted to show you my results with this tutorial, but I kept using images with one big gaping white spot in the middle, like a reflection or sky.
Will try again tomorrow.
6 February 2009 at 2:40 am
Thanks Lizz, Nak, and Sorbetera. :D
6 February 2009 at 2:46 am
I just realized now that what you said has sound logic. Subject lit at the sides or probably anywhere not too directly in front a portrait (for example) will do this technique more justice as it plays with the light and dark hues of the subject. Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out, Bim!
6 February 2009 at 10:52 am
You just made me realize that I’m still using PS6. HAHAHA
6 February 2009 at 3:18 pm
LOL that’s way old na!
7 February 2009 at 11:30 am
I only use it to resize pictures. hahaha
and make err… “minimalist” site logos. haha
9 February 2009 at 3:55 am
LOL minimalist :D ok naman eh hehe
17 June 2009 at 10:09 pm
You do not heed the over Total 100% warning (in your case 156%). is that not deteriorating the quality of the result when printed?
5 August 2009 at 3:28 pm
do you have other photoshop CS4 tutorials??? i really love this tutorial .. it’s so easy to understand than that of watching a video on how to do this and that … :) hope you’ll post more photoshop tutorials soon .. :) i’ll be waiting ..
chill .. ^^\/
19 August 2009 at 8:17 pm
Why wouldn’t you just use the Black and White option that’s under Image>Adjustments? ?You get a lot of versatility with that tool. You can choose the strength of each channel like in your technique. Of course this is only in PS CS4, but it’s so much easier than going through the process written on this site, and you get the same results.
20 September 2009 at 9:14 pm
Try to experiment and compare for yourself. Variables are more contained and easily identifiable in this method as compared to what you suggested (7 variables). Up to you man, I personally would prefer this technique to what CS4 canned.
18 December 2009 at 5:00 am
This was a very useful tutorial for black and whites.
My question: I am using the photos I did in this tutorial in a brochure we plan on printing. Can these photos be used in a 2-color printing job being I was sure to select “monochrome” in the channel mixer, or will using these photos be considered a 4-color job by my printer?
7 January 2010 at 2:00 pm
Hi Dianne, I noticed your comment on the spam folder and immediately had it approved. Wonder how it got there… Anyway, I usually only post my photos online and haven’t really tried getting the ones I subjected to this technique on print so, sad to say, I can’t be of much help :( will update when I do :( so sorry again and happy new year!
16 January 2010 at 9:03 am
Hello sir, this is paul of forever flawless finalist, been browsing your page and found out great pictures. You do have a great talent of making the most out of your camera. Nice work.
16 January 2010 at 10:28 am
Paul! Hey, good luck on the campaign man. You’re doing great on your craft as well. I’ll email you when my coverage of last night’s event gets published. wootz!
28 January 2010 at 12:45 pm
Thanks a lot…best tutorial ever! very helpful with simplified instructions :D