Black and white is favored by a lot of photographers – it evokes feelings of antiquity, style, and artiness in many different scenarios.
The trouble is, if you ask a bunch of photographers how to convert a file into black and white, they'll come up with multiple different ways of doing it – some good, some great, some too complex.
Elements makes this process a little easier with a specific Convert to Black and White tool. Here's how it works:
- Open an image.
- Choose the Convert to Black and White tool (Alt/Opt + Ctrl/Cmd + B or Enhance | Convert to Black and White).
- The Convert window opens and the image in the main edit space automatically converts into one of the black and white recipes on offer. With the introduction of higher resolution monitors, the fixed-shape preview before and after windows are less relevant than the main image behind it.
- Choose from one of the recipes on offer, that is, Infrared effect, Newspaper, Portraits, Scenic Landscape, Urban Snapshots, or Vivid Landscapes.
- Adjust the intensity of the black, white, and mid-tones using the sliders to the right of the recipes.
- When satisfied, click OK and save the file.
Personally, when it comes to using this specific tool, I prefer to use the least contrasty conversion first (for me, this is usually Urban Landscape), click OK, then finish editing the contrast using Levels. Everyone has their own best way to make a black and white shot pop off the page:
Seven other black and white conversion techniques are as follows:
- In the Hue/Saturation tool, set the Saturation slider to
-100. - Convert the color mode from RGB to Greyscale. (Image | Mode | Greyscale).
- Use the Remove Color tool (Enhance | Adjust Color | Remove Color, or Shift>Ctrl/Cmd + U).
- Use the Black & White Effects thumbnail in Quick edit mode.
- Use the Black and White Conversion tool in the Guided edit mode.
- Use the Monotone Color menu from the Expert | Effects panel.
- Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.