Converting Color To
Black and White Using
Hue and Saturation Layers

The Hue and Saturation Layers method of converting from color to black and white is more involved than the other techniques and it produces excellent results.

This is the picture we are going to convert to black and white.

There is nothing really wrong with it and nothing particularly striking about it either. It is a nice picture and maybe it would look better in black and white. Rather than use Desaturate or Grayscale, we are going to use two Hue and Saturation Layers to create a black and white photograph.

Here we go ...

1. Open your photograph in Photoshop or Elements and create a new Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer by either clicking the adjustment layer icon in the layer palette or Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation. Set the Blending Mode to Color.
   

2. Create a second Hue and Saturation Layer and slide the Saturation slider all the way to the left (ie: to -100). Click OK. Now you have a desaturated picture.
   
   

3. Select the first Hue and Saturation layer by clicking on it and then adjust the Hue slider up and down and watch what happens. You will see a lot of changes as you make adjustments. I selected -150 because it provided the most dramatic change.
   

   At this point the conversion should be coming along nicely with a dramatic black and white photograph.

4. Now here comes the fun part. Create a new layer by selecting the New Layer Icon in the layers palette or Layer > New Layer and set the blending mode to Overlay. It will show up in the layers palette between the two Hue and Saturation layers.

   What we are going to do now is add a Gradient to the new layer.

5. Set the Default Colors to Black and White by pressing the "D" Key once and then the "X" key until black is on top - this makes black the foreground color.
   

   Select the Gradient Tool. The Gradient tool lives with the Paint Bucket Tool and the Keyboard Shortcut is "G". If the Paint Bucket is on top then click the little arrow on the bottom right of the icon and select Gradient.
   

   

   Make the Gradient Foreground Color to Transparent. This means your gradient will start with the foreground color (clck in this case) and gradually become transparent.

   You do this by dropping down the second box from the left and the second gradient from the left on the top line is Foreground to Transparent. Make sure the linear gradient box is selected (immediately to the right of the drop down menu).

   

   Now that all of that is done here is what you do with your Gradient. Make sure that Layer 1 is selected and place the cursor at the top middle of the screen, press the shift key (to keep your cursor going straight up and down) and drag the cursor to about the middle of the picture.

   You will see the top of the picture get darker.

   Now do the same thing to Layer 1 from the bottom middle and drag up about half way. The bottom half of the picture will get darker.

Sit back and have a look. Do you like it? Is it the masterpiece you imagined?

If it is too dark simply lower the Opacity of Layer 1 with the opacity slider at the top of the layers palette. The purpose of the Gradient is to draw your attention to the portion of the photograph your want your viewers to concentrate on.

Here is my finished product. I think it is a tad more dramatic than the original color shot.

Color	Monochrome

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