How to Turn Color Photos into Black-and-White Images

Sometimes, it is only after a shoot that I discover a shot would have looked better in black and white. On other occasions, I turn my color photos into black-and-white images at the model’s request or because I need the pictures to create some special moods. Black-and-white images are particularly suitable for journalistic style photography or for evoking a sense of nostalgia. In this article, you will learn to turn a color image into a high-contrast black-and-white image in order to emphasize the lines and shapes in the image.

• Select [File]-[Open] from the menu bar. The Open dialog box appears.
• Open the image

• Select [Enhance]-[Adjust Color]-[Remove Color] from the menu bar. This removes all the color information so the color image changes to one in shades of gray.
• Select [Enhance]-[Adjust Brightness/Contrast]-[Levels] from the menu bar. The Levels dialog box appears.
• In the Input Levels text boxes, enter 50, 0.85, and 200, respectively.
• Click OK. This will increase the highlights and midtones in the image.
• Click and drag the Background layer in the Layers palette onto the Create a New Layer icon to make a copy of the layer.
• Select [Image]-[Adjustments]-[Threshold] from the menu bar. The Threshold dialog box appears.
• Move the Threshold Level slider to a value of 60.
• Click OK. The image changes from shades of gray to purely black and white. The Threshold command transforms color and grayscale images into high-contrast black-and-white images. Pixels lighter than the stated threshold value will be converted to white, while pixels darker than the thresh¬old value will be turned into black. In general, the higher the threshold value, the more black the image will contain.
• In the Layers palette, change the blending mode of all layers for which the Threshold Level has been changed to Overlay.
• In the same palette, change the layers’ Opacity to 60%. The result is a high-contrast black-and-white image.