1 2 3 4 5
converting to black & white
Photographers using black and white film will often employ
color filters to enhance or soften contrasts and to alter the
appearance of items in particular colors. A red filter will
lighten all the red areas in an image because it absorbs all
the colors except red, and it will darken the sky and givedramatic cloud contrasts; a green filter will lighten foliage
and alter skin tones. Once in the darkroom, it is only
possible to play with the overall contrast in certain areas
of the image. On the computer, however, you can mirror
the effects of using filters at the time of taking the shot.Using channels
The easiest ways to convert a color picture to black and white are
to change it to gray scale or to desaturate it. However, these methods
lose a lot of the potential of the picture. With your channel mixer set to
monochrome you can change the proportions of red, blue, and green
to replicate the effect of lens filters.1 The original color image is composed mainly of flesh tones and
reds and greens.
2 Here, the image has been changed to gray scale. Desaturating it or
using the channel mixer with a value of about +33% on each channel
would produce a similar result.
3 The channel mixer has been set to +100% red, 0% green, and 0% blue.
The effect is the same as using a red filter: the poppies and the skin tones
have become lighter in relation to the green foliage, which is now darker.
4 A setting of –130% red and +160% green and blue has made the reds
almost black and the greens lighter.
5 At –40% red, +80% green, and +70% blue, the image is well balanced
with a clear difference between the flowers and the foliage.Pushing the limits
The effect shown here was produced by
using +110% red, +120% green, and –200%
blue. The image looks almost like a solarized
darkroom print, especially in the outlining
of the model’s body. The dark shadows
underneath her arm have become white
because they contain no blue light.138 POsTPrODucTiOn