Alpha Photography Blog

The fantastic thing about digital is that it’s so flexible. If you’ve taken all your photos in colour and decide that some might look better in black and white - that’s very easy to change. All you need is a little know-how and some practice.

Well, in this example, this photo is going to become black & white with just a few mouse clicks!

Those of you who use Photoshop will know that there are multiple ways of doing the same thing. The results are a little varied, but ultimately, it’s the same outcome.

Here are a few of the easier ways to turn a colour image into a special black & white photo.

1. Channel Mixer

To find this tool, go to Image - Adjustments - Channel Mixer:

• Now, check the Monochrome box;
• Adjust the Red, Green, and Blue dials - this is where it becomes a matter of personal aesthetic choice. Below are the adjustments I made to my colour image. I could continue to tweek the dials, but for now, this is the example of using Channel Mixer to create a black & white image from colour:

2. Desaturate

This tool can be found in Photoshop by going to Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation.

With this tool, the outcome is more straightforward, and less open to subjective interpretation.

To completely turn the photo into black & white, slide the dial below Saturation completely to the left. This is then the result:

To achieve a slightly sepia result, slide the Saturation dial half way to the left, and move the Hue dial to the left - see how this looks. Notice also that I’ve checked the “Colorize” box - this gives a more even colour result:

The possibilities are endless, and you can really transform portraits. This photo is of my dog, who was doing a lot of ’silent’ communication when I took this photo. She had been staring at me for about an hour, wanting to be taken home, so I had to capture her pouty expression on camera.

It’s fun to take a photo and transform it into anything you want. Have a play with the functions I’ve gone through briefly above - see what creations you can come up with!

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