It's Black, It's White, Woohoo

The first thing you should do when preparing to convert your image to black and white is to first make a very nice color version of the image. Of special importance is the color correction/determination of correct white balance. Most of the methods used to convert an image to black and white are based on assigning tone based on color. If there is a color cast, then this will make it harder to make targeted edits to tone based on color.

Here is the handout that I wrote up back in 2006. It is a little dated, but most of it still applies. It covers many of the techniques that I demonstrated in class. All that is missing is the conversion available via Camera Raw and the Black and White tools within Photoshop proper.

Additional reading on Converting images to Black and White - please read these online books available via the library by Wednesday

Mastering Digital Black and White: A Photographer’s Guide to High Quality Black-and-White Imaging and Printing Chapter 5, the Color to Black and White section which discusses the Calculations method of conversion.

Some tutorials on using the Dodge and Burn technique 


Why dodge and burn?

Non-Destructive Dodge and Burn in Photoshop

Here is an article about why you might want to Dodge and Burn.

Here is an article about using the Gradient Map method to convert an image to B&W. 

Here is an article about using the Gradient tool to make a sky darker.

Some articles on toning images

Here is an article demonstrating multiple ways to split tone an image.

Here is another about multiple ways to add a Sepia tone to an image.