Desaturate and Grayscale

The desaturate and grayscale commands in Photoshop and Elements are the easiest and fastest way to convert a color photograph into and black and white photograph.

The results are quite similar and there are no adjustments you can make during or after the conversion except to bring back color in one or more parts of the image.

Before you apply either conversion make sure you make a back up copy of your original picture so you don't permanantly change the original. Do this by hitting Ctrl-J (Windows) or Cmd-J (MAC) or Layer > Duplicate Layer .... This simply creates a new layer of your original image.

To Desaturate a color photo - Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Photoshop only)

To make an image Grayscale - Image > Mode > Grayscale (Photoshop and Elements) Here is the original color shot of the Canary Restaurant.

Orignal Colored Picture

The following two pictures are the result of applying Desaturate and Grayscale. The biggest difference is that the Grayscale picture has some areas that are almost totally black just above the sign.

Desaturate	Grayscale

You can make the image much more interesting if you use the History Brush and bring back one of the colors from the original photo into your black and white print. This is where your Graphire comes into play. It is much easier to zoom in and bring back color accurately in the fine edges with a pen and tablet than it is with a mouse.

If you would like to bring back the color in one part of the picture this is how you do it ...

If you are using Photoshop and selected the Desaturate command then you simply select the History Brush and paint back the color of the object you want colorized.

It really is easy to do because even though the photograph is now black and white, it still is an RGB picture and contains all of the original color information. In addition, you can choose how the History Brush behaves by going to the Brushes Palette and having your brush change either Size or Opacity depending on your pen pressure.

Color	Colorized

If you are an Elements user and selected the Grayscale command you will need to change the mode of the photo before using the History Brush. That is simply because the picture was changed to Grayscale and there is no color in Grayscale.

To do that - Image > Mode > RGB. The picture will not change back to color but the color information in now available with the History Brush which allows you go back in time.

Now take the History Brush and bring back the color (like in the red rose above). History Brush

You can make some very dramatic pictures with this technique!

Return to the Black and White main page from the Desaturate page.