Chapter 5. Creating a Black-and-White Image from an RGB File

I eagerly await new concepts and processes. I believe that the electronic image will be the next major advance. Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable structural characteristics, and the artist and functional practitioner will again strive to comprehend and control them.

—Ansel Adams

In this chapter, I’ll show you approaches for converting a digitally captured or scanned RGB color file into a continuous-tone black-and-white file that replicates the way black-and-white film would have recorded the image—without ever leaving the RGB color space.