PRODUCING MONOCHROME IMAGES

(Tutorial 2)

Before attempting this tutorial you should complete the BASIC monochrome conversion tutorial that you will find here.

This brief tutorial (AND THE TRAINING SESSION THAT GOES WITH IT) explores some additional ways in which you can convert colour images into monochrome images.

Note: In our club rules, a monochrome image is "any photograph containing shades of only one colour. If toning is carried out, it must be over the total photograph - partial toning and/or the addition of one extra colour is NOT acceptable in the monochrome section. Digital monochrome prints and modified monochrome prints may be entered in this section. Images entered in monochrome competitions may be processed or altered in any way as long as they remain monochrome.

This tutorial was prepared by Roy Killen and is COPYRIGHT. It is part of the supplementary training materials for members of the Belmont 16 Ft Photographic Club and is not intended as a complete, stand-alone instruction package.

Comments and suggestions on this tutorial are welcome - they should be emailed to Roy Killen.

Why do we need more conversion methods?

In the previous tutorial I described four different methods of colour to monochrome conversion. Often you will find that one of these methods gives you the result that you want. However, sometimes you might like to try a different approach in order to produce a special effect or to get an acceptable result with a difficult image.

The bottom line is that no one method of converson is best for all images or for all people. So - try them all and decide which method suits you best.

CONVERTING WITH A "GRADIENT MAP"

Open the image in Photoshop:

From the menu select IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>GRADIENT MAP.

This will open the following dialgoue:

If the gadient that shows in the dialogue is black-to-white just click OK.

If it is any other gradient then click once on the gradient to bring up the following Gradient Editor:

Select the black-to-white gradient (top row, third frm left in this example), click OK to go back to the previous dialogue and then click OK again.

The result will be a monochrome image with tones that extend from totally black to totally white.

What has happened in this conversion is basically this: The darkest tone in the original image has been converted to black, the lightest tone in the original image has been converted to white. The other tones in the original image have been "mapped" to shades of grey that depend on the original lightness of each pixel. The result is an image with full tonal range (even if the original did not have a full range of tones).

Note: You can (and should) apply the gradient map using an adjustment layer.

CHANNEL MIXER

This was a popular monochrome conversion method before the "Black and White" adjustment was introduced in Photoshop CS3.

Open the image in Photoshop and from the menu select Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer

This opens the following dialogue:

Make sure you tick the "Monochrome" box on the bottom left. This sets the "Output channel" to "gray" and sets the "Source Channels" to the default values shown above. For the test image this gives the following result:

By adjusting the sliders you can vary to percentage of the original red, green and blue luminance informaton that is "mixed" to give the monochrome output. Getting a satisfactory result is very much a matter of experimenting. It helps if you have a look at the individual channels before you start the conversion process so that you have some idea of the information they contain.

It is usually recommended that you should try to keep the "Total" close to 100%. If the total is much more than 100% you will tend to get a washed out image simialr to the following:

If the total is much less than 100% you will tend to get a muddy dark image such as the following:

When the image "looks right" click OK and yuo are finished.

OTHER OPTIONS

There are numerous other ways in which you can produce a monochrome image. Some other options will be explored in a later tutorial.

All images on this site and all documents and tutorials linked to this site are copyright.

This page last updated 20th October 2008 (RK)