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Black & White Cheatsheet For Photoshop
When it comes to black and white conversion, there is no definitive method that will get the best results every time. Some use the channel mixer conversion, while others will swear by black and white filter. Other just like the simplicity of the desaturate function. Which one is the best? It depends. This is why I was so happy when Ladislav Soukup from ladasoukup.cz (flickr) sent me this cheat sheet. Read on to find your best suited conversion in an instant.
Photoshop Black and White Cheat Sheet
Have you ever converted any image to black&white? If yes, do You remember how many different ways and settings are there?
Photoshop itself has several ways (filters) how to make b&w images and each filter has many presets...
Wouldn't it be great if you could have quick preview with different filters and presets? Well, You can. Thanks to the smart objects there is a very simple way.
Just create one big file, use place command to place some image as smart objects and then make many copies of it (use duplicate layer). This is easy... just set different filters with different settings on each layer and you have your "quick preview".
See how this quick preview looks like (click to enlarge):
As I already written, it is easy to create PSD file with smart objects (Photoshop CS3 only), but why to spend time creating one, when you can download already created file (5MB download)? If you are interested, I made one this morning and You can freely use it. Just download it from here (did I say it is 5 megs?).
How to use it?
Well it's simple... Open the PSD file. There are several layers (some of them are in groups). There is just one layer you really need to work with. It is called "ORIGINAL". Just double click the layer and Photoshop will open image with 1500x1500 pixels resolution. Place ANY image here and make sure, that the image is scaled to fit in the "square". Then "flatten image". Just go to layer menu and select <flatten image> (last item by default). Then just close this square image and click yes when asked to save the file. Then let photoshop to do it's work... Photoshop will change all images and reapply all filters
Under every b&w variant you can find description about used filter and preset.
Hope this file will be useful for you. BTW: You can setup different filters and settings. Just open the groups and go through layers. I hope that you will understand how it works ;)
BTW: This is not my original idea. I just saw it in "Photoshop user TV" show (ep 146) and decided to make the PSD file and I just want to share it with others. It took me about hour to create it, so it can save you some time ;)
You can also watch the show for the next step of Black and White photo conversion - Quickly applying the desired filter.
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Other Cheat Sheets:
- Portrait Lighting Cheat Sheet Card
- Reflector Card Cheat Sheet
- Light Falloff Cheat Sheet Card
UPDATE:
Here are some more samples of activating the cheatsheet to view some Black and White conversions:
Image by Ladislav Soukup. Click here to view full version (6000x3635)
Image by Ladislav Soukup. Click here to view full version (6000x3635)
Image by Ladislav Soukup. Click here to view full version (6000x3635)
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Comments
Another type of conversion
My absolute favorite of black and white conversion techniques is a technique created by Greg Gorman’s photo retoucher, Rob Carr. It's simply this (quote):
Open an image in Photoshop, and convert it to 16-bit if you can afford the disk and memory space. Convert the image to LAB color, using Image » Mode » Lab. In the Channel palette, select the Lightness channel, then convert the image to grayscale using Image » Mode » Grayscale. Cmd+Click (MacOS) or Ctrl+Click (Windows) the thumbnail in the Channels palette to load a selection, then choose Inverse from the Select menu. With the selection still active, convert the image to RGB color, using Image » Mode » RGB. With the selection still active, create a Solid Color Adjustment layer, and fill it with whatever color you wish, preferably a rich, dark color. Adjust the opacity of the Solid Color adjustment layer and add a Levels or Curves adjustment layer to bump the contrast as needed. Tweak the color of the Solid Color adjustment layer to control various sepia tone looks. This technique produces wonderfully rich black and white photos.
The whole technique with examples can be found on Design by Fire.
I really like the results this method provides
They remind me of old film.
It looks like tere are endless ways to make a B/W conversion.
Thanks for sharing this info with DIYP readers.
I've enjoyed CS3 B&W
Photoshop CS3 B&W conversion with the color filter sliders have been wonderful. It really has opened up a new world, personally.
As always, I think these cheat sheets are great!
Rosh
http://www.newmediaphotographer.com
Gradient mapping
Another great method for creating a B+W image is to use gradient mapping.
This can be applied in a couple of ways:
go to Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map...
or add a new Gradient Map adjustment layer
Then select a black to white gradient and hey presto you have a full range black and white image.
thanks
thanks so much for taking the time to do this! i really, really appreciate it! you rock!
each time I make a BW photo
each time I make a BW photo I try different ways of conversion...
problem
Haven't been able to make this work.... I open the new image from the original [2500x2500px] and put in my image ...flattened and when I went to save it opened save dialog box and wants to save in my temp folder as PSD .... saved it as jpg in same folder as the cheatsheet.psd is but no luck.... not a great expert... :( what am I doing wrong????
Carol
re: problem
Hi Carol,
What version of PS are you using, some frames in the cheat sheet will only work with CS3.
Can you elaborate on what happens when you save the cheat sheet as JPG?
Conversions
Here are the steps:
1Working with CS3 opened photoshop_bw_cheatsheet.psd
OK
2 doubleclick the X image on the layer called ORIGINAL
get a notice that says: After sditing contents ,choose File>save to comitt
changes... those changes will be reflected upon returning to
photoshop_bw_cheatsheet.psd
The file must be saved to the same location. If the Save As dialog
appears, choose Cancel and flatten Image before saving
Clicked OK
Got the big white X jpg..2500x2500 pixels
Opened my image dragged it to this image scaled it to size
Flattened the image
So far so good!!!
Here is where I get mixed up!!!
You say to close this image and if it asks to save- click yes-
It opens a save dialog box to my temp file and wants to save as --
image 1.psd
Where should this file go and in what format---jpeg/psd
I clicked save without changing place or format
a progress chart pops up saying converting colors
Nothing happened in the cheatsheet file .
Did it over again this time saving the image1 as a jpg in same directory
as the cheatsheet image . Same progress window pops up but still no
changes....
Partial Success!!!!
I did succeed in making a sheet of my image with 4 small smart object
layers... did B&W conversions.... then I did an experiment... replaced
the image with another and WOW it worked
When i replaced the image and flattened and saved no dialog box came
up.....
L-R original/B&W adj default/B&W adj green/B&W yellow filter
noam
Group
Now I can't understand why on the one I created save came up with no
dialog and with your file it did.... computers/programs have a mind of their own it seems....
Anyway at least I understand the principle involved...thanks for the
lesson!!!
Carol
re: Conversions
Great news Carol, I am glad it worked out for you in the end.
I wonder if the initial issues was relaed to the size of the image?
conversion sheet
I really have no idea!!! My PSD is exactly the same size as yours and the smart objects are also the same size. I think maybe something got corrupted in the download process. In any case I am making a template to use.... THANKS!!!!
Carol
another conversion technique
This is one of my down and dirty ways to convert to BW. I was playing around with some effects and found this to be even more manageable than the channel mixer as it gives you more control over your final "artistic" vision. Duplicate the background layer. Run a high pass filter on it: Filter Menu>Other>High Pass. Set it at a radius of 10pixels. Go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. Change the blending mode of this background copy layer to "Color". Voila! BW! And for accentuating light and dark areas for extra OOMPH, I do two different Curves adjustment layers, one for the "LIGHT" highlights and the other for the "DARK" shadows. Fill both of the layer masks in with black (Ctrl+Delete, CMD+Delete), and use a soft white paintbrush at a lowered fill or opacity to "paint" in stronger highlights or shadows.
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this.
Cheers!
Black & White
From what I've seen, if you want a straight red channel out of the Black & White adjustment layer, instead of using the red filter preset (which will not give you a simple red channel's look), make your own preset:
Set the slider for anything containing red to 100% (red, yellow and magenta sliders)
All other sliders to 0%
...do the analogous operation for pure green and blue channels and make presets for them as well.
Black & White II
Don't forget with the Black & White adjustment layer you can set the finger tool and touch and drag in the image itself to make the hue under your finger whiter or blacker
Thanks
Thank you for taking the time to create this post :)
Chris
http://tutorialfreakz.com
Thanks
Thanks very handy.
I'm not very proficient at BW because I don't do it often and part of that is that there are SO many different ways. This will help a lot.
You're awesome!
This is really cool, I got to the step where I can see the thumbnails and they look awesome :-)
How do I see a fullsize (or make a fullsized version) of my favorite one?
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