If you reading this post probably you are looking for better or different technique to create a stunning Black and White photos from your color images.
There is plenty of different methods to convert a color photo into B&W, some are better some worse. You can use a channel mixer very popular and gives quite good results. Somebody still using ancient LAB conversion these days. Of course in Photoshop CS3 they introduced a dedicated Black and White conversion tool which is very flexible and simple.
Other techniques are B&W conversion when you are processing RAW file that works good in Adobe Camera Raw and if speed is your aim that works fine.
The problem with some methods is that the resulting image can look flat and lifeless. The image lacks contrast and depth. Other problems are banding and noise.
But if you need something better there is an another method: CALCULATIONS.
It is maybe more time consuming but if you are looking for best possible effect that is the way. What is also very important using calculations you do not lose quality of your photos.
There is a color image wchich wil be converted to B&W using calculations.
Once you opened your color image in Photoshop, then go to the Image – Calculations…
Your image turned black and white instantly, and as you see channel green is blended with green in overlay mode and opacity 80%.
When you choose Result: New Channel, a new channel will be added to your image.
As you see on image below a new channel – Alfa 1 is blended with Alfa 1 in multiply mode and 50% opacity.
As you see results image goes darker with more dense blacks.
Next calculations: blue channel blended with Alfa 2 in multiply mode with 100% opacity.
We have a massive amount of black you can not see any details in shadows.
Again calculations: red channel blended with Alfa 3 in screen mode with 70% opacity.
As you can see there we have back details in shadows and by simple blending two channels quality stays as good as original image.
As you see below there is an image after several calculations. Results of every calculations are saved as new alfa channels. But finally I selected channel Alfa 2 for B&W conversion.
Now you need to convert alfa channel to regular B&W image you can save as jpeg to publish on website or print. Highlight your alfa channel and go to Image – Mode – Grayscale and again Image – Mode – RGB, now you are back in RGB mode with great black and white image.
You can play around with different blending mode and blend different channels: red, green and blue as well as any new alfa channel you will make during that process. Some examples here just illustrate a flexibility of that method and of course quality always remains as original.