Photoshop Question

[Amber]

Can someone tell me an easy way to change a color picture to B&W?

Thanks!
Amber

[Capmom]

Open your picture. Go to top menu - Image - Adjustments - Desaturate. Save as a separate file from your original so you don't overwrite the colored version.

[Lauren]

The most simple way to do this is image - adjustments- desaturate - of course there are many many other ways but this is the easiest - you might want to play with the contrast and brightness if you do it this way

[Amanda]

Absolutely! Piece of Cake! CTRL-SHFT-U will desaturate your photo. You may need to play with contast and brightness to get it to look good.

Check out this tutorial: Photo Tinting in Photoshop (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/university/phototintingps.shtml)

[Lauren]

You can also do it through an adjustment layer - layer - adjustment layer - desaturate- - this way you dont touch your original layer :)

[Amber]

Thanks ladies!

Amanda- I knew that I had seen a short cut to doing that put couldnt remember the command keys! Thanks for responding!

Amber

[DragonLady]

Can someone tell me an easy way to change a color picture to B&W?

Thanks!
Amber

Dear Amber,
Although I don't own photoshop, most photo applications have a "sepia" (black N' white) choice - so even if your photo is colour, simply change this by clicking on sepia and it should give you what you are looking for.
Best of Luck,
DragonLady

[Cris]

colorizing with Duotones? I have found that although I really LOVE b&w photos, sometimes colorizing with black and a light color looks really fabulous in a layout that needs a little something different, kwim? An example of a black and light blue application is attached...

[Karen]

Amber another way to do this to get crisper black and white tones is to go to Image.....mode.....lab colour then go to windows......channels and select the lightness channel, you may still have to play around a little with the contrast. Just another way of doing it :-)

[andrea]

Oh, I *SO* agree with Cris! I'm never happy with just desaturating or grayscale anymore. Once I discovered the wonder of duotones, I was hooked! As you play with the colors, PS shows you what it will do to the photo, so you can just play until you get the perfect look, and even make it look more compatible with your background.
Try it! You'll like it! Here's how: With your photo layer selected, go to image>mode>grayscale, then image>mode>duotone. It will prompt you to choose however many tones you wish to use, but don't complicate it, just choose two for now.
See my photo in my Lazy Days LO,
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2073&password=&sort=2&cat=500&page=1
It was done using duotones. I can't remember what colors I used, though. Also see my LO at
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2130&password=&sort=2&cat=500&page=1
it has a pink tint to work with the kit background.
HTH!

[tlccreates]

This takes a little bit more time than the desaturate button but you get MUCH better results:
1)Create 2 hue/saturation adjustment layers above your original
2)on the top layer set the saturation to -100 (or whatever the setting is to remove all color from the picture) set the blend mode of that layer to color
3)now go to the lower adjustment layer and move the hue and or saturation sliders around looking for your best result. This gives you great control !

you can still do duotones afterwards.

[Amber]

Thanks everybody for the tips on this! I will definitely have to try the duotones way because I have noticed that just desaturating pictures looks a little off, kwim?

[sal4gal]

I love this thread and I am learning a lot by reading your responses. Thanks Andrea for the details for PS, I will have to play with it soon.

Sallie