Photo Color Correction

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

Color to Black and White

There are at least three reasons to convert an image from color to black and white. It can:

1. Reduce file size.
2. Make the picture look better.
3. Fit the theme of your project.

Photoshop offers two ways to convert your image from color to black and white:

1. Image > Mode > Grayscale

This is the fastest way, but the changes are permanent.

2. Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation > Saturation -100

This is slower, but the changes are not permanent.

Certain color photographs may not look very good in the sense that the color does nothing for the picture. Even after color correction, it may still look flat or bland. Sometimes, but not always, converting the picture to black and white can help, making either a large difference, or a small improvement. In any event, you might not know until you try, and it doesn't take long to check.

Conversely, certain color photographs can look worse after they are converted to black and white. The tone looks weird. Experimenting with brightness, contrast, and levels doesn't always make any difference: the picture still looks better in color. Some of these differences may be subtle and take more experience to identify and appreciate.

If one image is in color and the rest of the images in a project or website are in b/w, it might make more sense to convert it and fit the context or a theme.

Convert copies of color photographs to b/w and compare the file sizes, both the .psd files, and the final format (e.g., .jpg). Using Internet Explorer, you can check the size of photos if you right click over the image and then choose Properties.