Apogee Photo Magazine: Carl Volk's Photoshop Tips

There are several ways to turn a color photographic scan into a black and white image in Photoshop so, since the results are often image dependent, it is good to test these techniques before deciding which one is best for your photo. The four (slightly sepia toned) black and white results to the right from the color scan of Natasha below demonstrate how varied the response can be with these four different approaches.

Perhaps too obvious a place to look for a black and white interpretation of color is in what you already have. By looking at the individual Red, Green and Blue channels of your RGB color scan you will see the density for each of these colors. Often there will be an interesting monochromatic version of the color image on one of these channels, or even two, and since it takes so little time to look, why not? Make sure you have the "Show Color Channels in Color" box Unchecked in the Display and Cursors Preferences window to see each channel in grey scale terms. If you have the Channels Menu out, just click on each channel to view it. The type commands to see each channel are: Control Key 1 for Red (Command Key for Macs), Control Key 2 for Green, and Control Key 3 for Blue (and Control Key ~ for RGB or the master channel).

Keep in mind that you are only looking for a good staring point which may be quite refinable with further density adjustments using Levels or Curves. If you do determine that one of your individual channels will work then simply Select it (Command for Macs, Control A) and Copy it (Command, Control C), create a New document (Command, Control N), and Paste it (Command, Control V). You will be in Grey Scale mode because you copied a grey scale channel.

Just going from RGB mode to Grey Scale mode seems too easy so it should make you a little suspicious. However, sometimes the results are quite rewarding and (once again) it takes just a second to see so do check. This is the same result you get when you Desaturate 100% (while still in RGB mode), dropping all color out. Remember that what works for some images won't necessarily be the best method for others and refinements in density may be needed, both globally and locally. Oh, don't worry about the "Lose all color" warning.

The Lightness channel in LAB mode is always worth checking out - just switch modes from RGB to LAB and click on the Lightness channel. Essentially a representation of the overall density of the color scan in grey scale terms, the Lightness channel will often have a more expanded tonal range than the results from just going from RGB mode to Grey Scale mode. Just copy this Lightness channel into a new Grey Scale document or trash the A and B channels then switch modes from Multi to Grey Scale. There is usually very good shadow separation with this method although the image often appears a little too light overall (but becomes very successful with a slight midtone darkening Curve adjustment like the example of Natasha in the lower left corner).

Original photo of Las Vegas magician Rick Thomas (who performs at the Tropicana) and his tiger Samson was taken with a Mamiya RB-67 using Ektachrome SW film and drum scanned to a file size of 140 MBs.

The latest (and greatest?) way to translate an RGB scan to grey scale is with the Channel Mixer window (under Image>Adjust), one of the additions to the program with version 5. Click on the Monochrome box and your color photo instantly turns to black and white. With individual controls of each channel's participation you can see a myriad of grey scale versions of any color image. Although the default setting of +100 Red, 0 Green, 0 Blue is often a good starting point, do experiment with varying the amounts for each channel to get the most interesting grey scale rendition of your color image. Be sure to have the Show Info box out and check your density adjustments before you say OK to make sure you are holding highlight and shadow detail. The lower right grey scale version of Natasha (in the top right group) had settings of +100 Red, -15 Green and +28 Blue, which created a very nice monochromatic version of the image. Notice, though, how the lips became distinctly lighter than in the other three versions. This brings home the point that it is good to look at these four various techniques of creating a black and white photo out of a color one. You might even decide to use two different approaches and combine the best of both using compositing techniques with Layers' abilities.

My portrait of Samson, Rick Thomas's wonderful albino tiger, provides an interesting result of turning a color image into a mostly-monochromatic one. After cropping the original photo (above) the color photo of the tiger was copied to a Layer. Channel Mixer was then used to create a monochromatic version of the tiger on this layer which was then slightly sepia toned with Hue and Saturation's colorizing ability. Next Samson's right eye was carefully selected, copied from the color original and Pasted Into the eye selection above the sepia tone layer. The tiger's left eye area was then selected and the color right eye was Pasted Into this area also and flipped horizontally (under Transform) to give Samson a matching set.

Cropping in on the original (left) leaves an area about the size of a 35mm slide - approximately 7 x 9 inches at 300 dpi, shown above.

Finished image of tiger above and detail below is a sepia-toned black and white photo with the eyes in color.

I am not professing that you should give up (the virtues of) shooting black and white negative film in order to do monochromatic prints - just that you can get very nice grey scale results with a color photo-scan using Photoshop. The three examples below further testify to this but not every color photo will look great in Black and White - a lot depends on the lighting and use of color to begin with.

The portrait below is another example of a black and white image created from a color photo (and scan) by first going to LAB mode. In this case the colorized areas are actually "tints" of the color photo copied and "pasted into" the same areas above the black and white sepia tone. Each colorized part is a separate layer and the opacity settings have been reduced for the tinting effect.

The fine art nude below, which was shot with Agfachrome 50, is an example of using Channel Mixer to create a black and white image out of a color scan.

The photo below is another example of a sepia-toned black and white image created from a color photo (and scan) by first going to LAB mode.

Carl Volk's
Photoshop Tip of the Month

Turning Color
into Black & White

Carl Volk's Photoshop Tip of the Month

Turning Colorinto Black & White

Carl Volk's
Photoshop Tip of the Month

Turning Color
into Black & White