Color photography became the norm, and is perfect for most cases, however, there are times when you want the power and simplicity of black and white.

The photograph in black and white requires a different set of skills for the color, the image is formed only in areas of light and shadow. Today, black and white film is increasingly difficult to find, and if you’re lucky enough to have a specialized laboratory near you, find the type of processing machine forming a “one hour” places much without photos to be desired when it comes to processing black and white film.

Many modern digital cameras have a dedicated mode in black and white, but mostly they just desaturate the image to appear washed out. It often works best to shoot color and convert the image into Photoshop.

Of course, the best way to make a color photo into black and white in Photoshop is to transform the mode to grayscale (Image> Mode> Grayscale), but this limits the options if you want to improve the image later .

In traditional photography, filters in black and white color are sometimes placed on the goal of creating a dramatic contrast. Because the colors that appear very different in real life (in color) capable of uniting in a shade of gray when seen in black and white. The intensity of the colors are the same, although the actual colors are different.

For example, a blue sky with white clouds can appear weak and washed in a black and white. If you put a red filter on the lens to darken the blue sky and white clouds do more. This is because the red filter blocks the blue waves of color more effectively than the fact that the colors are closer to red.

The great thing about Photoshop is that it allows you to experiment and achieve the desired effect. The method works better I find ways to keep the image in RGB mode, and adjusting one color channel.

If you go to the Layers palette, click the Channels tab, then click on (say) the red channel, you get the picture that looks like a red filter on the lens of a camera with a film noir and white. The darkening of the dark blue areas will make an image, Moody sophisticated. For comparison, click on the green channel and blue. The results are surprising – and very different!

I would then refine the results by adjusting the levels. Keep the chosen route selected, then go to Image> Adjustments> Levels and adjust the sliders until you get the desired result. So remember to save the image as a new file to keep the original.

Incidentally, if you apply this process two channels simultaneously, you can get color effects pretty incredible too!

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