Black & White Conversion Technique in PhotoShop

Converting a digital color photograph into a black and white gives a totally different look into a photo. There are various ways of doing this and based on my experience after trying out several techniques, I discovered an effective method which I will share here.



First, using the Curves Adjustment Layer, i tune the contrast of the photo to a desirable sharpness. Then, I desaturate it using the desaturate adjustment layer. Applying the shadow-highlight adjustment layer dropping down all options, i play with all the parameters available to get the desired effect. This technique was the one I applied in the two photos above.




My old method of Black and White conversion is done thru the Channel Mixer. This tool allows the user to control how much each of the three color channels (Red, Green and Blue channel) will contribute to the grayscale brightness of the monochrome version of the photo. The last two photos above were converted into black and white using the channel mixer tool.