Greyscale or Black and White?

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By John Sweeney - 16th of January 2007

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Have you ever de-saturated a picture and found it wanting, it looks more like a greyscale image than a black and white picture, and, what you really wanted was a rendition as near to a black and white film picture as possible. Well, de-saturating doesn't cut it, does it. No worries, help is at hand. A true black and white picture has more impact, and that's what you want, right, OK, follow me:

1. Open a colour picture that you want to convert to black and white. Perhaps you might like to make a duplicate of the picture so that you can see the differences. To make a duplicate right your mouse on the blue border at the top of you picture and click the word duplicate.
   
2. Now, De-saturate both images, (Ctrl Shift U) or Image – Adjustments _ De-saturate.
   
3. Leave the duplicated copy behind the original you don't need to do anything else to it. We will now work on the first picture.
   
4. Convert the first picture to a lab colour image, (Image – Mode – Lab Colour).
   
5. Duplicate the layer in the layers pallet and apply a high-pass filter to it. (Filter – Other –High Pass), The whole image turns a dirty grey colour and a new selection box appears on screen, for a small picture select a radius of about 2 and for a larger picture select a radius of 10MP.
   
6. Next Change to High-pass layer opacity to about 25 to 35 % and change the drop down menu item from normal to Hard Light.
   
7. Click on the create a new layer icon on the bottom of the layers pallet, the third from the right, and select Curves.
   
8. Now move the curves line to the left and the upper part towards the top of the box, play about with it a while and get used to it. What you are trying to do is darken the dark areas and lighten the light areas. Once you are satisfied click OK. Don't overdo the adjustments either with the high pass filter or with the curves, it needs a little practise to get it right, but, believe me it does work.
   
9. Now compare the finished article with the duplicate you made earlier. You should be able to see a marked difference. To those purist photographers amongst you, yes, I know, there is no substitute for the old black and white film, this will go some way towards restoring your faith in the digital era, and, I believe, it's the nearest you will probably get to having a true black and white image. Good Luck.