Digital Black & White
Prolog
Due to the current state of digital camera sensor design it is impossible to capture images in true Black & White. Fortunately for us though, this drawback can turn out to be a significant advantage.
Digital images are comprised of three channels of luminosity information describing the three primary colors of light (Red, Green, Blue). In short, three monochromatic images. Using software we can combine and mix those channels to produce exactly the B&W effect we want. By shooting digital you have a level of control over the outcome of your B&W images that you could only dream of with film.
In this multi-part series, I’ll be outlining the many different options there are in Adobe Photoshop to convert your color images to B&W. Which one method or combination of methods will work best for you depend upon your tastes and/or needs.
Methods of Conversion
- Basic Methods
- The Channel Mixer
- Dual Hue/Saturation Adj. Layers
- Channel Layers
- Solid Color
- Calculations
All tutorials were made using Adobe Photoshop CS2 or higher. Although some techniques or steps I might mention are only possible in Photoshop, a vast majority of them can be performed in any other mid to high–end imaging software programs.