B+W conversion is PS Elements 2?

[jmjmotorsport]

Just curious if anyone has any better way of doing this than greyscale. I never like the way I lose contrast I can't get back using grayscale to convert my images. I would upgrade the software but don't have the money as I just spent it all on my new camera. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jason

[PacAce]

What I would suggest if you want to convert to B&W and have a little more control over it is to try playing with Enhance >> Adjust color >> Hue/Saturation. When you get the Hue/Saturation window up, verify that Edit is set to Master, then slide the Saturation slider all the way to the left to turn the image to B&W. Now, click on the Edit dropdown list and go through the different colors and adjust the Lightness slider until you get the look you want. When you're all done, you can then set the image to Grayscale, if you want, to slim down the file size.

[jmjmotorsport]

File size is of no concern, I've got about 250GB free on machine. But I will give this a try, I just didn't like the look of going straight to grayscale from color.. thanks for the tip.

[Polar Bob]

How does the remove color command compare? Don't have my machine with PSE on it at the moment.

[Goofup]

Remove Color removes the color and leaves you a grayscale image.


The saturation slider lets you adjust how intense the colors are.

Remove Color or moving the saturation slider to -100% gives you exactly the same image- a grayscale image with no color.

[malum]

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

does this work with Elements?

It's what I mainly use, it's free.
I also have FM B&W workflow pro but I find the free plugin as good if not better.

[Goofup]

Yes, the virtual photographer plugin works just fine with Elements.

[dpp]

Hope this works in Elements

Image>Mode>Lab Colour
Press F7 and go to channels
Click on the Lightness channel

Then Image>mode>Grayscale
Then Image>mode> RGB Colour

Then Image> adjust>curves.

Then you want to get that graph looking like an elongated "s" by clicking on the line top, middle, bottom

Play with the Graph until you get the desired affect

I'm sure that this is very long winded and I have set an action for most of this, it may be completely wrong , but the curves bit enables you to have much more control over contrast and brightness

[ToddMorris]

Hi,

In elements 2, I've found that using the gradient map produces some nice B&W conversions. I'm at work right now, so can't look at the program, but I know it's the second menu on the top row, then under "adjustments", choose gradient map ... then select the third box over from the left (with the black and white triangles). If you then click in the long rectangluar box, you will get slider bars which will allow you to further adust the image (I usually just experiment until I get the look I want).

Here's an image that I converted using this method:
http://www.alohateam.com/toddspictures/Train.jpg

Hope this helps,
Todd

[PacAce]

Hope this works in Elements

Image>Mode>Lab Colour
Press F7 and go to channels
Click on the Lightness channel

Then Image>mode>Grayscale
Then Image>mode> RGB Colour

Then Image> adjust>curves.

Then you want to get that graph looking like an elongated "s" by clicking on the line top, middle, bottom

Play with the Graph until you get the desired affect

I'm sure that this is very long winded and I have set an action for most of this, it may be completely wrong , but the curves bit enables you to have much more control over contrast and brightness

Unfortunately, PSE 2 does not have channel capabilities nor can one work with curves.

[jmjmotorsport]

I'll try the gradient map.. I've only used grayscale and I always feel it lacking.. here's an example.
http://home.comcast.net/~jmjmotorsport/statue01.jpg

[malum]

try the optikverve plugin you won't be disappointed

[sknnylgsandall]

Try either two:

Custom RGB to grayscale. You will have a sliding bar and usually the red bar will bring the best results. Then covert to RGB, always make your file RGB before sending to the lab, and use the Curves to fine tune.

Or, go to tool bar Image/Mode/Lab Color, then in your Channels (usually under Layers) select "lightness", then Image/Mode/grayscale, click okay to discard color information, then Image/Mode/RGB color. Use curves to fine tune.

There is a NIK plug in for black and white conversions as well, but this is a bit more time consuming.