Photoshop Basics: Make Color Image B&W and Sepia

While advanced versions of Photoshop (CS3 and CS4) have the option to produce a black and white print from a color image, older versions of Photoshop and some other programs depend upon other methods of converting the color image to black and white.

Desaturate:

Obviously, the simplest method of converting a color image to black and white is to desaturate it.  This will produce a black and white image that seldom has truly good blacks, so it is often necessary to use contrast controls to increase the overall contrast of the image, or it may be necessary to adjust levels to beef up the blacks and whites.  Try both methods, they produce similar results, but not identical.  Choose the best one for your purpose.

Here is a color image on the left and a desaturated image on the right.

Here is a desaturated  image adjusted with contrast/brightness on the left, and with levels on the right.

Using The Channel Mixer:

A superior method of converting an image to black and white is to use the channel mixer: Choose IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > CHANNEL MIXER.

Choose Adjust > Channel Mixer and then select MONOCHROME.  The image will change to a black and white image.

Once MONOCHROME as been selected you may note that Red, Green, and Blue Channels are shown in the custom menu.  Try experimenting with changing the values in each channel but at the same time keeping the total value of ALL the channels between 90 and 110.  Exceeding these values may produce useable variations but will exceed what you might think of as "normal" variations of tone in a black and white print.

Now we take our selected image and prepare to produce a SEPIA toned version.

Go  to IMAGE>select ADJUST>select SELECTIVE COLOR

Select NEUTRAL from the list of colors. Choose RELATIVE from the options.

Set Cyan at -48 to -53; set Magenta at -30 to -33; set Yellow at -15 to -22.  Method should be RELATIVE with the preview mode selected.  Adjust Black as necessary.  This  produces a neutral to slightly warm sepia tone.

So there you have it.  Color print to black and white print by two methods and black and white print to sepia toned print by a third technique.  Experiment with the latter method to produce a wide variety of toned image possibilities.

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