Not to long ago i made a tutorial on how to Creating Black and White Images in Photoshop CS3. This tutorial though centered around JPG was will an nondestructive method and has worked well for me in the past. But there are many methods in creating black and white images. Some involve a bit more understanding of colour and manipulating the colour channels in Photoshop. The method i have been using lately is done with RAW photos in Adobe Camera Raw 4.4.1.

Step 1:

First thing is first, we will need a RAW photo to work with, i have included a shot of a tomato here. This image can be used to the perpous of this tutorial, if you have any other RAW photos you wish to use feel free.

Now when you open your RAW photo in Camera Raw and we will see the default screen.

Step 2:

This photo was taken using a desk lamp as lighting and will need to be White Balanced. This image is about 2700Kalvin or using the White Balance Toll (I) this will remove the orange cast.

Step 3:

The next step is just as simple, Click the Auto button in the adjustment panel, and Boost the Clarity to a point were you are happy, we can also tweak the Contrast at this point as well.

Step 4:

Now for the real fun. Click the HLS/Greyscale tab and then click Convert to Greyscale.

Step 5:

Now as i said before there are other methods of creating Black and White images and some involve getting into the Colour Chanel’s in Photoshop. Since editing a Raw file is nondestructive meaning we can never hurt the file and can always go back to the originally shot file. We can now start to play with the colour sliders to bring in detail as well as changing the look of the image completely.

This tomato was made to be almost completely black with some specks that were hard to see before. This process of playing with the different colour sliders also helped bring in detail in the stem.

Conclusion

All i did after this step was click open image and then set my white point using the levels (Ctrl + L) to give it the pure white back ground.

We are now left with a stunning Black and White version of what i like to call a Fine Art Tomato. Try this method on all sorts of images, i find that the images that fail to be acceptable as colour will often be usable in Black and White.

No Responses to “ Raw - Black and White Conversion Process ”

Leave a Reply