Black and white photography made easy: tips for pro-quality results from start to finish

crutter | B&W | Photography Tips | 05/11/2012 02:00am

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Black and white conversion in Photoshop Elements

Although the preset options are designed for specific subjects, such as portraits and landscapes, it’s often worth trying them on any type of image before you start adjusting the colour sliders,  as they will give a good starting point for your conversion.

Portrait
This preset converts the image so that the reds are slightly darker than greens or blues.

Scenic Landscape
With this preset the conversion sliders are set so the blues are dark and reds are lighter.

Custom settings
While the preset values give a good starting point for your conversions, you can also drag the individual sliders to fine-tune the results for your subject.

For our flower shot, we wanted to darken the petals a bit, so we dragged the Red slider left until the majority of the petals were a mid-grey or darker.

The rest of the image was too dark though, so we dragged the Green slider up until the overall image contained a full range of tones, from black to white.

PAGE 1: How to compose for black and white photography
PAGE 2: Good subjects for black and white photography
PAGE 3: Try using in-camera filters for your black and white photography
PAGE 4: Shooting images you can easily convert to black and white
PAGE 5: Black and white conversion in Photoshop Elements
PAGE 6: Black and white conversion in Photoshop CS
PAGE 7: Master Photoshop Levels and Curves
PAGE 8: Using the Levels sliders
PAGE 9: Master the Dodge and Burn tools
PAGE 10: Toning techniques for black and white photography