Comments on: Black & White Conversion In 10 Steps

By: Sannetta Marsh

Sannetta Marsh — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:18:15 +0000

Stumbling upon your blog is like stumbling upon a pot of gold! Your way of showing us tricks and tips is THE best I have discovered! Thank you a million times over! You are a delight!

By: Lucy (Solarina)

Lucy (Solarina) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:21:34 +0000

Just wanted to say thanks for these tips! Ive been meaning to learn B&W conversion other than the notsogreat “desaturate” and this was perfect! I linked to you in my feeble attempt! I know its very different to yours, but its better than my usual ones! Thanks!

By: moderately-confused pinay in deutschland - How about black & white?

moderately-confused pinay in deutschland - How about black & white? — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:09:03 +0000

[...] Iâ€™ve always had a fondness for black & white photos.I’d never tire of lookingÂ at them on any walls or albums.B&W photos can be absolutely stunning.I’ve been experimenting with black and white ArcSoft Photoshop conversion recently.I like it very muchÂ as it only requires less timeÂ & very li’l effort (ideal for a busy mami like me lol)Â by justÂ selecting the grayscale mode in Photoshop.I know, I still have to improve the lowÂ resulting qualityÂ of the photos by probably following these useful steps! [...]

By: SharkyUK

SharkyUK — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 08:08:29 +0000

Thank you very much for this excellent little tutorial! It’s exactly the thing I’ve been looking for and will be very useful as my foray into the digital photography world continues… Thanks!

By: gingerpixel

gingerpixel — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:12:03 +0000

Wow, if only I could claim a tiny portion of his talents. Thank you very much for the comparison though!

By: omaniblog

omaniblog — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:09:30 +0000

Isn’t it Bill Brandt’s work your high contrast reminds me of?

By: gingerpixel

gingerpixel — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 21:08:56 +0000

Yes, exactly, everything is tweakable (if that’s a word ) once the actions have run because I do it with layers. I also have actions which run the seperate parts alone so I can mix and match for different results.

By: Siobh

Siobh — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:08:33 +0000

Thank you, you’re sweet! ^_^

I’ve just found this guide by Richard Lynch, which explains how to run actions in Elements! I might give it a try…

Do you have any control over the settings when you’re playing an action, or would that sort of defeat the purpose? But I’m guessing you can access the layers as normal when the action has run through, and make minor edits that way?

By: gingerpixel

gingerpixel — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 13:49:28 +0000

Siobh, I am so happy that you found it helpful and you got a great result with it! Your eyes look amazing.

Thanks for the information on Elements, I have a copy somewhere but wasn’t sure what it had stripped out so thanks for that link. I’m surprised it doesn’t have curves and I’d be lost without Actions!

By: Siobh

Siobh — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 13:18:36 +0000

Claire, thank you so much for this!

Here’s the result of my very first attempt at doing a proper BW conversion (instead of just stripping the colour or using a gradient layer).

And I agree with Omani and K8, I want more!

By the way, I only have Elements 2.0, which doesn’t have the channel mixer or curves. But Earthbound Light have created a great solution. The only thing is that you can’t go back and adjust the layer once you’ve clicked OK, so you have to create a new one every time you want to make a change.