The following examples are for reference purposes only. The settings I used are not meant to be universal, but they will give you an idea of where I was in my black and white conversion process. Keep in mind that your monitor is different from mine, and that the settings I used will probably look different on your screen. Check out our videos on black and white conversion for an in depth look at all of the techniques pictured below. You can also click various thumbnails to view their videos.

 

		Click thumbnail above to view video.	My BW curves adjustment.

 

Click thumbnail above to view video.		My channel mixer "Tweaked" settings	Click thumbnail abvoe to view video.

 

	Click thumbnail above to view video.	My BW adjustment settings for this image.

Notice the HSL/Grayscale settings I used in ACR, you get three extra color values to adjust; oranges, aquas and purples. For this image I prefer the ACR black and white to the Photoshop BW Adjustment (pictured above) for the simple reason that I could tweak the orange values and lighten up the face a little more.

 

	Click on the thumbnail above to view a comparison of ACR's HSL/Grayscale tab and Photoshop's Black & White Adjustment.	The HSL/Grayscale settings I used for this image.

As you can see from the three examples below, the HSL/Grayscale sliders in ACR give you lots of creative freedom when it comes to black and white conversions.

No Photoshop? No problem. It is 100 percent possible to achieve great looking black and whites in the freeware GIMP.

 

	Click thumbnail above to view video.	My GIMP channel mixer settings.

			View of Decompose To RGB.

 Click the thumbnails above to view their respective videos.

We finally embrace digital photography as the new way, and what do we do next? We try to figure out a way to make it look like the old way! At least when it comes to black and white, adding a little grain can enhance the mood or feeling and lend a sense of realism akin to the old black and white films.

Create new layer fill 50% gray add noise (around 100%) - gaussian - not monochromatic desaturate noise layer add gaussian blur to noise layer - about .5 pixels set blend mode to overlay adjust opacity to taste	duplicate layer add noise - around 100% - gaussian - monochromatic add gaussian blur to noise - about .5 pixels set blend mode to soft light adjust opacity to taste	duplicate layer filter > texture > grain grain mode - clumped intensity - around 50 or 60 desaturate grain layer lower opacity to taste add levels adjustment or unsharp mask to add pop

Click the above thumbnails to view their respective videos on adding film grain to digital black and white images. Or click here to go back to the top.

Back to top.