Tonal Project: Black and White Conversion
November 9, 2008 in Digital Darkroom by Richard

This video tutorial is the first in my series on the tips techniques and theory applied behind tonal editing in photoshop. This first video covers a very well proven technique of converting color photo’s to black and white. Its a 10 minute quick video so go ahead and open up photoshop and follow along.

Alright, enough rambling. This video covers a technique which was first introduced by a digital artist named Russel Preston Brown. and has been proven to be one of the more effective techniques.

There are many different varieties of converting images to black and white, channel mixer being the most popular technique. The use of the channel mixer can be a complex procedure for those who wish to create a monochrome version. Essentially if used improperly it can destroy tonal information that is essential to making a photo a masterpiece.

Enjoy the video, any comments or questions, leave them after the jump.

Runtime:10 Minutes

Download Full Quicktime version here

Black and White Conversion Tutorial from Richard Eichele on Vimeo.

Disclaimer: Remember this an essentials video, which means it is the basics and you should tweak it to your liking, this is not the guide. Feel free to look up Russel Brown for a more in depth tutorial.