As I discussed in my last post, I enjoy taking my photos in color and turning them black and white. There are many ways to convert your photos into black and white but let me start my saying that the one way you should not use is going into a software program and just making the photo into gray scale or monochrome.
This will leave your photo looking dull and boring.
One of the easiest ways if you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements is to open your photo and create a new Adjustment Layer. Go to Layers, New Adjustment Layer, Channel Mixer. Then be sure to check
the Monochrome button on the bottom. At this point you have control over the Red, Green and Blue.
The default of this layer will be Red 100%, Green 0% and Blue 0%. At this point you can move the sliders to make the photo to your liking. When moving the slider to a negative number this will make it darker, to the positive side will make it lighter. You want to try and have all 3 color percentages add up to 100% if it is higher the image will be brighter, less than a 100% images will be darker.
After I get the look I am going for I add another New Adjustment Layer, Brightness and Contrast. Again, just play with these until you get the feel you want. Save your image as a .psd file, this will allow you to come back and change any of the adjustments you made. To post or print the image save a copy as a .jpg file.
Have fun with this and see how you can turn your color pics into fabulous black and white images.
Go out and take a Picture!
Happy Shooting,
Renee
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