14 Alternative Digital Photography
Figure 1.21 The image is now open in
the Lightroom Develop module.
Figure 1.22 The image is now con-
verted to grayscale by clicking on
Grayscale in a panel on the right.
Creating Black and White from Color 15
and closed as shown. Adjust Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, Black, and Punch as nec-
essary to have an overall visually pleasing image.
Now for the fun part. You have a large number of sliders (eight in Lightroom 1.1) in
the HSL/Color/Grayscale panel. Moving those back and forth (or typing in numbers
on the right) does the same thing as the Channel Mixer in Lesson 1.5 except that you
can control things with much great precision in Lightroom. In Figure 1.23 we moved
the yellow slider all the way to the right, and the value changes to -100. Notice the
effect on the yellow flowers on the right. They have changed from nearly white to
almost black with only small changes in tone in the rest of the image. You can use all
of the sliders to tweak your image until it looks just as you would like.
Figure 1.23 The yellow slider is
moved to –100, changing the yellow
flowers on the right to nearly black.
Once you are finished, you can export the image so you can send it to your lab, edit it
further in Photoshop, make a slide show, print it, or create a website all from
Lightroom. For detailed instructions on any of these features, see Appendix B,
“Resource List,” for books to help you with that. If you like the mix that you created,
you can save it as a preset by going to the top menu and selecting Develop > New
Preset and checking the boxes in the pop-up menu to select the controls and
functions that you want your preset to save. Then with future images you can just
select the preset.
16 Alternative Digital Photography
Lesson 1.7—Creating Black and White
with Aperture
If you have a Macintosh computer, you have your choice of using Lightroom or
Aperture as a workflow tool. If you are on a PC, this will not work for you, and you
can skip this lesson.
Like Lightroom, Aperture offers a free trial version at Apple’s website. In Aperture, in a
way similar to the previous lesson, you begin by importing your image. Figure 1.24
shows the proper steps: File > Import > Images. Next open the Inspector by clicking
on Window > Show Inspectors (or just hit the i key) as shown in Figure 1.25. Then
open the Monochrome Mixer and click on the checkbox. If the Monochrome Mixer is
not shown, go up to the top bar called Adjustments and click on the plus (+) sign. In
the pop-up menu, select Monochrome Mixer. You can also press Ctrl+M. The image
changes to a grayscale (or monochrome or black-and-white) image. See Figure 1.26
for the example. The Monochrome Mixer’s default preset is shown.
Figure 1.24 Importing an image into
the Aperture Library so it can be
worked on.
Creating Black and White from Color 17
Figure 1.25 Open the Inspector in
Aperture.
Figure 1.26 The Monochrome Mixer
in Aperture. Checking the checkbox
turns it on.
There are a few other built-in presets to simulate the effect of using color filters with
black-and-white film. Figure 1.27 shows how to find the built-in presets. Figures 1.28
through 1.32 show the results of each filter preset.
Figure 1.27 Open the available presets
by clicking on the double arrows next to
the Presets section.
18 Alternative Digital Photography
Figure 1.28 The image with a red
filter preset applied.
Figure 1.29 The image with an
orange filter preset applied.
Creating Black and White from Color 19
Figure 1.30 The image with a yellow
filter preset applied.
Figure 1.31 The image with a green
filter preset applied.
20 Alternative Digital Photography
Figure 1.32 The image with a blue
filter preset applied.
Using the Monochrome Mixer in Aperture is very similar to using the Channel Mixer
in Photoshop (see Lesson 1.5). The same rules apply. It will usually produce a better
result if the numbers total about 100 in the Monochrome Mixer as well as
Photoshop’s Channel Mixer. If you create a black-and-white (grayscale/monochrome)
style that you like, you can save it in Aperture as a preset. Once you have it set, click
on the little gear to the right of the Monochrome Mixer title and choose Save as Preset
from the pop-up menu that appears.
Comparison of Different Conversion
Techniques
To make it easier to see some of the different conversion techniques all in one place,
we have gathered together many of them on these two pages.
Creating Black and White from Color 21
Figure 1.33 The original
color image.
Figure 1.34 Photoshop Grayscale. Figure 1.35 Photoshop Desaturate. Figure 1.36 Photoshop Lab Color.
Figure 1.37 Photoshop Red Channel. Figure 1.38 Photoshop Green Channel. Figure 1.39 Photoshop Blue Channel.
22 Alternative Digital Photography
Figure 1.40 Lightroom Grayscale. Figure 1.41 Aperture Monochrome.
Figure 1.42 Aperture Monochrome with red filter. Figure 1.43 Aperture Monochrome with orange Figure 1.44 Aperture Monochrome with yellow
filter. filter.
Figure 1.45 Aperture Monochrome with green Figure 1.46 Aperture Monochrome with blue filter.
filter.
Creating Black and White from Color 23
Gallery of Black-and-White Images
24 Alternative Digital Photography
Creating Black and White from Color 25
Chapter 2
Creating Sepia from Black-
and-White or Color Images
A sepia or brown-toned image is often
used for artistic effect or to simulate an old-time look for an image. These types of
images are easy to create. You can start with a color image or a black-and-white
(grayscale) one.
We will start with a color digital image of three colors of tulips against a black back-
ground as shown in Figure 2.1. This is the same image that was used in Chapter 1, so
you will be able to compare the black-and-white (grayscale) versions in Chapter 1 with
the sepia ones in this chapter. This will help to make the differences between sepia ver-
sions stand out more clearly. None of the methods is inherently better than the others.
These are just a few of the many ways to create a sepia-toned image. Besides the other
methods, there are plug-ins available for Photoshop that will also easily create sepia
images.
28 Alternative Digital Photography
Figure 2.1 This is the color image we
are starting with for the series of lessons
in this chapter.
Lesson 2.1—Creating Sepia with Photoshop,
Method 1
This is one of the easiest lessons. Simply open the image in Photoshop and then select
Image > Mode > Grayscale. See Figure 1.2 in Chapter 1 for more detail on changing
the color image to grayscale. Once you have thrown away the color information by
answering Yes to the pop-up box in the previous step, go back up to Mode in the top
menu and select RGB (see Figure 2.2). If you skip this step, you will not be able to
change the color of a grayscale image.
Figure 2.2 After converting a color
image into a black-and-white or
grayscale image in Photoshop CS, make
sure to set the mode back to RGB so you
can add the sepia color.
Creating Sepia from Black-and-White or Color Images 29
Next create a new Color Balance layer for your image in Photoshop. If you have
Photoshop Elements and not Photoshop (CS/CS2/CS3), move down to Lesson 2.3 to
learn how to create sepia without using a Color Balance layer. To create a new layer in
Photoshop, go to the main menu Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance. If
Color Balance is grayed out in your menu, it usually means you forgot to change the
image back to RGB from Grayscale in the previous step. To create your new layer, you
can also use the Layers Palette. If you don’t normally work with the Layers Palette
open, go to the top menu and click on Windows > Layers to make it show up. Now
click on the black-and-white circle in the bottom of the palette and select Color
Balance to create a new Color Balance layer (see Figure 2.3).
Now that you have your new layer, play with the controls to get a pleasing sepia rendi-
tion as shown in Figure 2.4. Sepia usually is made up of red and yellow. As a starting
point, try setting Shadows to (+20, 0, -5) in the Color Levels boxes in the Color
Balance pop-up menu. Then click on Midtones and select (+30, 0, -25). Finally, set
Highlights to (+10, 0, -5). Feel free to change the values to your liking. Save your
image as a Photoshop (PSD) or TIFF file (with the layers). This will allow you to go
Figure 2.3 Add a Color Balance layer back and change them if you like. Figure 2.5 shows the resulting image.
in Photoshop.
Figure 2.4 Add the sepia color by
using the Color Balance layer in
Photoshop.
30 Alternative Digital Photography
Figure 2.5 The resulting sepia-toned
image.
Before you close your file, reduce the size of the image to about 200 by 300 pixels (the
exact size doesn’t matter). Save another copy to your desktop as a Photoshop file
(PSD). Now whenever you want to create a sepia-toned image with this color in the
future, follow these steps:
n Open your image.
n Convert to grayscale.
n Change mode back to RGB.
n Open your sepia sample image on your desktop and make sure the Layers
Palette is open.
n Drag the Color Balance layer from your sample (just click on it in the Layers
Palette and drag it) and drop it onto your new image. Presto! The new image
is now sepia toned.
n Adjust the intensity of the sepia tone by changing the layer opacity if needed
(see Figures 2.6 and 2.7).
Creating Sepia from Black-and-White or Color Images 31
Figure 2.6 Adjusting the opacity
of the sepia image to change its
intensity to 50%.
Figure 2.7 The final image with the
opacity of the sepia image changed to
50%.
The really cool thing is that you can create several files—a regular sepia tone, a reddish
sepia tone, and a more yellow sepia tone—and keep the small sample files on your
desktop. You don’t have to remember the exact settings or play with them each time. It
will provide a fast workflow and a consistent result. Move on to Lesson 2.2 for another
technique that produces a similar result.
32 Alternative Digital Photography
Lesson 2.2—Creating Sepia with Photoshop,
Method 2
As with all things Photoshop, there is more than one way to accomplish the same
thing. This lesson is a variation on Lesson 2.1. In this lesson, simply open the image in
Photoshop and then select Image > Adjustments > Desaturate as shown in Figure 1.5
(in Chapter 1).
Now repeat the same steps as shown in Lesson 2.1. Since the image was not converted
to grayscale, it is still in RGB mode. There is no need to convert the mode back as
there was in Lesson 2.1. Add a Color Balance layer just as in Lesson 2.1 and play with
the settings to get the flavor of sepia that appeals to you. The reason to use a layer
instead of the Color Balance command (Image > Adjustments > Color Balance) is that
it is easy to revisit the color and amount of sepia tone later without having to undo
other adjustments you may have made. See Figure 2.8 for the sepia image created with
Desaturate and compare it to Figure 2.5, created with Grayscale mode.
In fact, this lesson can be done with any black-and-white image that is in RGB mode.
Changing the mode to Grayscale or desaturating the image is a quick way to get black
and white, but using the Channel Mixer first (see Lesson 1.5) to create the black-and-
white image will give you the most control. See Figure 2.9 to see the sepia image cre-
ated with the Channel Mixer method with red set to 50%, green set to 25%, and blue
Figure 2.8 This is the resulting sepia
image when the image is converted to
black and white first by using the
Desaturate command.
Creating Sepia from Black-and-White or Color Images 33
Figure 2.9 This is the resulting sepia
image when the image is converted to
black and white first by using the
Channel Mixer method outlined in
Lesson 1.5.
set to 25%. Of course, with the Channel Mixer there are many possible results. Since
you used the Channel Mixer in a layer, you can go back and adjust the mix even after
you have changed the image to sepia.
Lesson 2.3—Creating Sepia with
Photoshop Elements
Since Photoshop Elements does not have the Color Balance layer available, this lesson
is the way to accomplish the same thing. This lesson is a variation on Lesson 2.2. In
this lesson, simply open the image in Elements and then select Enhance > Adjust
Color > Remove Color as shown in Figure 1.5 (in Chapter 1). Now create an
Adjustment layer by choosing Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.
Since the image was not converted to grayscale, it is still in RGB mode. When the
Hue/Saturation box appears as shown in Figure 2.10, click on Colorize in the lower
right and select a hue. A good starting point is 25. When you click on Colorize, it
moves the Saturation slider to 25 as well. Figure 2.11 shows the final image. As in
Lesson 2.1, save the image as a Photoshop file (PSD) with the layer intact so you can
make adjustments later.
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