B&W conversion method - help me find

[BlueTit]

About 3/4 weeks ago someone posted some great monotone pictures and explained how the created them, I think it was in Photoshop CS. I thought I bookmarked the thread to come back and try it but now I can't find it. The photos were a brownish sepia and I think they were of the users children. The only other thing I can remember is that the user was female! Don't ask me why I remember that, I have no idea.

Anyway I would be grateful if anyone knows what I am talking about if they could point me to the thread.

In the absense of that are there any good and not too complicated tutorials on here for B&W / monotone conversions?

Thanx

[neocastillo]

I've found this is the best way to convert to BW in Photoshop and plus its nondestructive to the image which is always plus.

1) Open your picture in Photoshop and create two hue/saturation layers
2) On the top hue/saturation layer bring the saturation down all the way on the master channel
3) Now change the second hue/saturation layer's blend mode to "color"
4) Now depending on what color your image had originally it will determine what channel you will want to mess around in but basically you will go to the different channels in the second hue/saturation layer and play around with the hue slider. Go to each channel and you will see the impact moving the hue slider will have for that channel.

That is your basic non-destructive color to BW conversion.

And if you want to add a non-destructive sepia tone just add one more hue/saturation layer at the top. Then check the box in the hue/saturation layer for colorize. Play around with the hue and the saturation sliders till you get the tone you want. Usually some where in the 30's and 40's for sliders works well for sepia tone.

Hope this helps.

I have attached an example of a bw and sepia done with this method (except for the colored eyes in the bw one sorry bout that)

[BlueTit]

Thanx for that, I will try tomorrow and let you know how I get on. Nice job on those two pics, I love the first, with the eyes :-)

Thanx

[neocastillo]

Thanx for that, I will try tomorrow and let you know how I get on. Nice job on those two pics, I love the first, with the eyes :-)

Thanx

If you need any help feel free to send me a message or what not.

[dwterry]

And if you want to add a non-destructive sepia tone just add one more hue/saturation layer at the top. Then check the box in the hue/saturation layer for colorize. Play around with the hue and the saturation sliders till you get the tone you want.

One more way of handling the toning of the image that I really like is to use the Color Balance layer.

The advantage of the CB layer over the hue "colorization" method, is that CB lets you set different hues for shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

[neocastillo]

One more way of handling the toning of the image that I really like is to use the Color Balance layer.

The advantage of the CB layer over the hue "colorization" method, is that CB lets you set different hues for shadows, mid-tones and highlights.


very true i was just trying to give him a base point to start with. But your right the CB layer give you more control over the image.