Image Copyright ©2003 Keith Cooper

Curves and H/S layer

This page is part of the 'Converting Colour to Black and White' feature at Northlight Images

A variation on using a H/S layer to do the conversion. First suggested to me by Brian Price.

Hue/Saturation layer, set saturation to zero
Curves layer, adjust to approximate density/contrast
Go back into Hue/Saturation layer. If you want to make, say, the sky darker set the drop-down menu to 'Blues' and reduce theLightness by the required amount. If you want to make foliage lighter, choose 'Greens' and increase the lightness, etc.
When you are in one of the channels the cursor becomes an eyedropper and you can fine-tune the colour range you are adjusting.
Finally, tweak on the Curves layer if necessary.

Gives good direct control over the tones. In the example the lightness of the 'Blues' was reduced to darken the sky, and the 'Greens' increased to lighten the foreground. The curve layer is used to set the overall contrast of the image, and would probably be included with most conversion techniques.