Black and White

The Black & White command lets you convert a color image to grayscale while maintaining full control over how individual colors are converted. You can also tint the grayscale by applying a color tone to the image, for example to create a sepia effect. Black & White functions like the Channel Mixer, which also converts color images to monochrome while allowing you to adjust color channel input.

For a video on converting color images to black & white, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0017.

1. Choose Image > Adjustments > Black & White. Photoshop performs a default grayscale conversion based on the color mix in the image.
2. Manually adjust the conversion using the color sliders, apply an Auto conversion, or select a previously saved custom mix.

   Preset

   Select a predefined grayscale mix or a previously saved mix. To save a mix, choose Save Preset from the palette menu.

   Auto

   Sets a grayscale mix based on the image’s color values, maximizing the distribution of gray values. The Auto mix often produces excellent results, or can be used as the starting point for tweaking gray values using the color sliders.

   Color Sliders

   Adjust the gray tones of specific colors in an image. Drag a slider left to darken or right to lighten the gray tones of an image’s original color.

   • The grayscale ramps show how dark a color component will become in the grayscale conversion.

   • The mouse pointer changes to an eyedropper as you move it over the image. Click and hold on an image area to highlight the color chip for the predominant color at that location. Click and drag to shift the color slider for that color, making it darker or brighter in the image. Click and release to highlight the text box for the selected slider.

   • Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a color chip to reset an individual slider to its initial setting. Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to turn the Cancel button to Reset, which resets all color sliders.

   Preview

   Deselect to view the image in its original color mode.

3. To apply a color tone to the grayscale, select the Tint option and adjust the Hue and Saturation sliders as needed. The Hue slider changes the tint color, the Saturation slider makes the color more or less concentrated. Click the color chip to open the Color Picker and further fine tune the tint color.