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Black and white image editing- A Step by step guide

Ever wondered how to convert your colour images into high quality back and white? Here's a step by step guide to how I edit mine.

(Image before editing)

Images © Sophie Whale

(Image after editing)

Images © Sophie Whale

Step 1.

Make as many adjustments in Camera Raw as possible, this allows you to have more editing options later.

Step 2.

Once you have done everything you want to in Camera Raw go to the open image button and click it whilst holding the shift key on your keyboard, this opens the image in photoshop as a smart object. Meaning you can go back an edit in Camera Raw again.

Step 3.

Create a new layer.

Step 4.

When on the new layer go to the edit menu and click fill

Step 5.

This extra menu box should pop up. From the top list, select 50% gray and change the blending mode to colour

Step 6.

From the layer palette on the right hand side select the new gray layer and click the box that says "normal"

Step 7.

This drop down box should appear, select "colour" from this list

Step 8.

The image should then change from colour to black and white

Step 9.

Click the original layer from the layer palette

Step 10.

Whilst on the original layer, click the layer menu from the top menu bar, scroll down to "new adjustment layer", then click "selective colour"

Step 11.

You can then rename the layer if you wish to, leave all the other settings as they are and click ok

Step 12.

From the menu you can select various colours from the colour drop down and adjust the tones within those colours to change selective parts of the image. You can create as many selective colour adjustment layers as you wish until you are happy with the final image.

Ta dah!

If you follow the steps above, you should end up with something that looks a little bit like this!

Anchor 1

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