Wedding mehndi in black and white
Mehndi images have been very popular in searches of my site of late, especially from google.co.uk. Here's the color version of same image. Let me tell you, the hot gold, magenta robes, and brown tones of the mehndi itself sent me deep into the toolbox to get this B&W conversion to look right.
This morning, I had a moment where I questioned my assertion in yesterday's post - do I really know a dozen ways to convert from color to black and white? I don't usually exaggerate my knowledge, but I hadn't really counted. So this morning, in between more conversions, I started a list:
Count'em. Twenty-one. Mostly because Photoshop lets you get at the same underlying tools through so many different paths. Some of these techniques are frankly ill-advised or silly, but I didn't say I knew 12 GOOD ways to do it. I've put an asterisk by the ones I use the most.
The starting point is a typical RGB image, in PSCS2. I'll upgrade after I finish some key tasks. No upgrades during mission-critical workflows, but I digress.
- Inspect Channels, discard all but one channel
- Image -> Mode -> Grayscale
- *Image -> Mode -> Lab, discard all but lightness channel
- Image -> Mode -> CMYK, select from channels
- Image -> Mode -> Multichannel, select from channels
- Image -> Adjustment -> Hue/Saturation
- Image -> Adjustment -> Desaturation
- Image -> Adjustment -> Channel mixer
- Image -> Adjustment -> Gradient map, use a black to white ramp
- Image -> Adjustment -> Variations, saturation (repeat several times)
- Image -> Calculations, creates new channel
- Create a new layer, fill with black, white or pure gray, set blending mode to hue, saturation or color
- Layer-> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color, use black, white or pure gray, set blending mode to hue, saturation or color
- Layer-> New Fill Layer -> Gradient, use a black to white ramp, set blending mode to hue, saturation or color
- *Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Channel mixer, using RGB image
- Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Channel mixer, using CMYK or Lab image
- Layer -> New Adjustment Layer ->Hue/Saturation layer
- Layer -> New Adjustment Layer ->Gradient map adjustment layer, use a black to white ramp
- Layer style ->color overlay, use black, white or pure gray, set blending mode to hue, saturation or color
- Layer style ->gradient map, use a black to white ramp, set blending mode to hue, saturation or color
- *Adobe Camera Raw, set saturation to 0
Add the power of masks to combine these techniques selectively in different zones of an image, and you shall make any color combination, even magenta/gold/brown, bow down to the purity of black and white.
An 8x10 formatted print in this series, with title and caption block.
I'm glad I did this exercise, beyond confirming what I thought I knew. It's inspired me to think about combining the more esotheric methods with layer blending modes not just for B&W, but other, new ways of seeing. And it gave me something to think about while I finished 28 work prints.
Comments (1)
Hi Ann - wait until you get CS3 and you should really enjoy the new BW adjustment layer!
Posted by jkiel | November 19, 2007 10:03 AM
Posted on November 19, 2007 10:03