Who’s ready for another edition of Photoshop Friday? Us too! There are so many ways to convert an image to black and white and everyone has their favorite ways. Our always helpful CMmentor Jenna Stoller is sharing one way in which she likes to convert her images in this Photoshop Friday. Fire up Photoshop and get ready to learn!
photoshop friday | converting to black and white
1. Opened up the image in ACR and adjust exposure.
2. Fixed the composition. I did this by double clicking on the background, pressing ctrl t (or edit-free transform), held down shift and drug the top left corner out a tiny bit so they weren’t quite so centered.
3. Duplicated the Layer.
4. Used the clone stamp set to 100% and stamped out the rest of the people (just basically creating more trees and more of a solid image).
5. Next is the black and white conversion. Go to Image-Mode- Lab Mode.
6. Next find your channels palette and click on your lightness channel.
7. Then go to Image-Mode-Grayscale.
8. You will have a pretty light version of a black and white at this point. Most likely you are going to want to add some depth into your blacks to give it more contrast. I decided for this image to do more of the matted look.
9. Create a curves layer where the left side climbs up. Then adjust the midtones area per your taste.
10. My final step is adding the gradient layer to bring some color back into the black and white.
11. Click on gradient in your adjustments palette. It may look kind of wonky at first. Double click on your gradient and choose your colors. The colors on the left of the gradient will affect your darker colors in your image. The colors on the right side of your image will affect the lighter areas. I chose a purple and yellow.
12. I then pressed ok, and set the blend mode to soft light and changed the opacity at 65%.
And here is the before and after, side by side.
Thank you Jenna for the awesome tutorial! Tell us, what is your favorite way to convert an image to black and white?
Jenna Stoller, Indiana/New Jersey
CM Mentor
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Even though Jenna enjoys traveling, which comes in handy with family scattered all over the globe, she loves her country life with her husband and three children in Indiana. As a family, they love to spend time outdoors going to the lake or water park and spending time in worship and fellowship with fellow believers at church on Sundays. Being creative is buried deep inside Jenna. She loved art and design as a child and now that love has branched into home decorating, music and photography. Shooting with a Canon 5d mark ii and various lenses, Jenna describes her photography as “relaxed + lifestyle + a hint of vintage.”
Read all photography tutorials by Jenna Stoller.
I love Jenna's work! Thank you, Jenna for a great tutorial!!
I just love your tutorials Jenna :)
Beauty!!! Thanks Jenna!
im loving the added gradient for the b&w. great tutorial jenna! tfs!
great tutorial! im trying to edit the composition on a photo right now and it says cant perform change, background layer locked. how do i do this? Thanks
Hey Alayna. Double click on the background layer to get it editable.
:) forgot that step!
Awesome Jenna! Thank you!
I don't know what I am doing wrong. When I go to do the gradient, I can not pick colors. Everything is just black and white. Help!
Never mind, I figured it. Love these ideas! Thank you for sharing.
I loved this tutorial, and cannot wait to try it! Thank you!! This is very clearly explained, too.
When i am using the Gradient tool i am not able to pick colors. How to resolve that. I have CS5.
Thanks
I enjoy your web site. Quite cool. Will come again.
Aw, this was a really good post. Taking the time and actual effort to create a great article… but what can I say… I hesitate a lot and don’t manage to get anything done.