Black and white

[pipsternat]

Does anyone have any thoughts on converting photos to black and white in PSE? I have PSE 2020 and wonder what the best option is. Letting PSE do it and then make my own adjustments? Use actions? External editor such as Silver Efex Pro? Or any other ideas? Many thanks if you post a reply 😊

[hmca]

pipsternat, our members use a variety of ways to convert their images to black and white. You may have noticed that we have a Black and White Challenge.

At your leisure you may want to browse through the work that has been added there.  We started out very good about sharing our method of conversion so you might want to look at some of the earlier threads
on that board.

Just took a quick look and thought these threads might be of particular interest.

photoshopelementsandmore.com/thread/4412/challenge-7-raw-conversion

photoshopelementsandmore.com/thread/3937/challenge-1-second?page=2

I seem to remember michelb posting how he used gradient maps to convert to black and white.  If I can find that later I will add the link.

[Sepiana]

Oct 6, 2020 9:16:14 GMT pipsternat said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on converting photos to black and white in PSE? I have PSE 2020 and wonder what the best option is. Letting PSE do it and then make my own adjustments? Use actions? External editor such as Silver Efex Pro? Or any other ideas?

pipsternat,

Once I asked a similar question in a PSE class I was taking. The advice I got was . . . PSE offers more than one way to convert your images to B&W. Use it as a starting point. Then, later, you can "graduate" to the field of actions or plug-ins if you so wish.

IMHO, a good starting point is letting Elements take you by the hand in . . .  Enhance>Convert to Black and White. 

Precisely convert to black and white (Help file).
Photoshop Elements Black and White

Then, you could move into using a Gradient Map.

Converting to black and white in photoshop elements

[pontiac1940]

pipsternat
As suggested, gradient map is a good method. Sepiana shared a link to a tutorial. It is more complicated than the flow I use so I'll have to look more into that. 
Once in a while, I might just desaturate or use auto convert, but the majority of my B&W conversions are using gradient map. It can be a bit fussy, but the results decent. 
Clive

 

[BuckSkin]

This discussion prompts me to ask the question.....

There are as many "types" of B&W as there are methods to create/convert to B&W.

I can remember when we didn't have anything else, camera or TV; more likely on account of we couldn't afford anything else than because the technology wasn't there.

Although I have never even taken a single picture using the feature, most, if not all, of our digital cameras have a B&W setting; what "style" of B&W would be the result of photos taken as B&W to start with; and, what method would be used to replicate that ?

[blackmutt]

BuckSkin,

A problem I see with setting the camera to a black & white setting is you would not have a color version to work with and what if you forget to set it back to the "normal" way you shoot. Of course, you could in some cameras copy it and covert to black and white in camera, but what the camera uses to convert to black & white is way above my pay grade!

[pipsternat]

Oct 6, 2020 13:09:15 GMT hmca said:

pipsternat, our members use a variety of ways to convert their images to black and white. You may have noticed that we have a Black and White Challenge.

At your leisure you may want to browse through the work that has been added there.  We started out very good about sharing our method of conversion so you might want to look at some of the earlier threads
on that board.

Just took a quick look and thought these threads might be of particular interest.

photoshopelementsandmore.com/thread/4412/challenge-7-raw-conversion

photoshopelementsandmore.com/thread/3937/challenge-1-second?page=2

I seem to remember michelb posting how he used gradient maps to convert to black and white.  If I can find that later I will add the link.

Thank you for your reply 🤗

[pipsternat]

Oct 6, 2020 14:04:41 GMT Sepiana said:

Oct 6, 2020 9:16:14 GMT pipsternat said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on converting photos to black and white in PSE? I have PSE 2020 and wonder what the best option is. Letting PSE do it and then make my own adjustments? Use actions? External editor such as Silver Efex Pro? Or any other ideas?

pipsternat,

Once I asked a similar question in a PSE class I was taking. The advice I got was . . . PSE offers more than one way to convert your images to B&W. Use it as a starting point. Then, later, you can "graduate" to the field of actions or plug-ins if you so wish.

IMHO, a good starting point is letting Elements take you by the hand in . . .  Enhance>Convert to Black and White. 

Precisely convert to black and white (Help file).
Photoshop Elements Black and White

Then, you could move into using a Gradient Map.

Converting to black and white in photoshop elements

Thank you and I will take a look at these.