converting to b/w

thebaz

What is the best way to convert a colour jpg to b/w using ps or does it matter ?
I have been turning the saturation right down , but am not too happy with result !
Also what does leveling do , particularly autolevel ?

Thanks.

latchiko

There are a number of ways of converting a colour jpg to b&w using photoshop, reducing saturation being one of them.

Other ways include using a gradiant map (Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map - then choose the black to white gradient), or channel mixing (Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer - Check the Monochrome box and experiment with the sliders until you see the result that you are after).

Hope this helps!

thebaz

latchiko wrote:

There are a number of ways of converting a colour jpg to b&w using photoshop, reducing saturation being one of them.

Other ways include using a gradiant map (Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map - then choose the black to white gradient), or channel mixing (Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer - Check the Monochrome box and experiment with the sliders until you see the result that you are after).

Hope this helps!

Thanks -- which method do you find gives best results ?

latchiko

It can depend on the photo and the look that I'm after, but I usually go with Channel Mixing. Firstly, I'll look at each of the Channels in the Channels palette and see if any of them matches what I'm after. If one of the channels is exactly what I'm looking for I'll just set that channel to 100% in the channel mixer adjustment layer, but usually I'll combine 2 channels. When combining two (or three) channels, you might want to keep their combined percentages close to 100%.

Sometimes I'll use the Gradient Map method if I want to quickly see what a photo might look like as a b&W.

thebaz

Thanks again -- finally the second part of my q --

what does leveling do , particularly autolevel ?

latchiko

Levels allows you to adjust the brightness/contrast of an images by setting the black, white and midtone points using a histogram. This tutorial shows you how to do this.

Autolevel will automatically adjust the levels based on the histogram for each of your channels. It treats each channel independently so sometimes it can give funny results in images which are made up mostly of one or two colours/channels. For most images it will boost the contrast, thereby improving washed out images. Sometimes auto levels will work perfectly, but be aware that it's not always the perfect solution.

elven

Remember if you use the channel mixer on a noisy image or one with an area with smooth transition of tones, you might find that it starts to get messy. You can get more control over the conversion using the desaturation method by adding a second hue/saturation layer under the desaturating one, and changing the lightness of each colour individuall using the drop down box at the top (the one that says 'master'). I find this less destructive to the texture than the channel mixer.

thebaz

elven wrote:

Remember if you use the channel mixer on a noisy image or one with an area with smooth transition of tones, you might find that it starts to get messy. You can get more control over the conversion using the desaturation method by adding a second hue/saturation layer under the desaturating one, and changing the lightness of each colour individuall using the drop down box at the top (the one that says 'master'). I find this less destructive to the texture than the channel mixer.

I have a few nicish photos from my granny's b-day party -- unfortunatly , the backdrop was a window , with a lot of light , so the subjects in the forground are very dark , i've messed about with levels to try and brighten the subjects , but nothing too magical happened , any other ps hints for getting them back to life , or are they ruined , due to the strong light in the background ?

elven

Can you get anything back by going to image/adjustments/shadows highlights and playing with the sliders? Sometimes that can help. Even better if you shot in raw... then you can process once for the shadows and again for the highlights, and merge them together.

thebaz

elven wrote:

Can you get anything back by going to image/adjustments/shadows highlights and playing with the sliders? Sometimes that can help. Even better if you shot in raw... then you can process once for the shadows and again for the highlights, and merge them together.

Thanks Elven your a star

They've come back to life .. maybe too bright now .. but i'm playing with the settings .. the highlights do not seam to do much , but setting Shadows between 20 and 40 % has done wonders .. cheers.