The topic of conversion of color images to B&W in Photoshop is a long, and complex one, that I do not feel is well handled by a simple Action. You can quickly type ctrl-1, or ctrl-2, or ctrl-3 ( cmd-1,2,3 on the Mac) {commands are different in CS4 and can be found here - http://morris-photographics.com/phot...rtcuts_Mac.pdf } and see the individual red, green or blue channels, and this will give you a start at looking at the individual color channels and their contribution to contrast in the image. Or you can switch to LAB color space, and look at the Lightness channel with ctrl-1.

B&W is ultimately about contrast and shape, since color disappears with conversion.

The reason that an Action doesn't work well, is that color images vary so widely. When you convert from color to B&W, the colors that were present in the original image need to be handled properly in the conversion, or you will get the very same gray tones from markedly different colors. The different colors in color images need to be seen in differing gray tones or the image will lose a lot of its punch.

I Googled -- "B&W conversion technique : dgrin.com"

And found these threads for a start.

Why you need to pay atention to colors when converting to B&W from color by John Ruttenberg - read this!! It is well worth your time.
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1134301

A list of the Sticky URLs at the top of Finishing School above
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=56678

A tute on B&W conversion by Andy Williams the head mod and all around good guy
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1126557

Another by Andy
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=217438

A simple way is to shoot B&W and save as a RAW+jpg - not everyone favors this technique, but I wrote a little thread about it here
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=3605

Some motorcycle engines in B&W ( sorry - sometimes I can't help myself )
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=20909

My review of Chapter 7 - Keeping the Color in B&W from D Margulis "Professional Photoshop"
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=52724

In all previous versions of Photoshop, most folks agreed that Channel Mixer was the mode most folks who were serious about the B&W conversion tended to use. Since the advent of Photoshop CS3, the new B&W conversion tool found via Image>Adjustments>B&W has really taken over.

I still examine each of my images quickly with cmd-1, cmd-2, and cmd-3 ( cmd-3, cmd-4, cmd-5 for CS4 ) to see just where I have contrast or where I need contrast.

Hang around here awhile, and I am sure there will be another thread on B&W conversion.


Here is one I missed that rutt has offered us This is a very interesting technique worthy of more discussion.

B&W conversion is great fun, and as really come into its own since the digital age.

Here is an Action to convert digital color to Tri-X B&W by dgrin's Artist in Residence B.D. Colen

__________________
Pathfinder

Originally Posted by pathfinder This is a repeat of a post I made previously about the conversion of images from color to B&W in Dec 2007 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++ The topic of conversion of color images to B&W in Photoshop is a long, and complex one, that I do not feel is well handled by a simple Action. You can quickly type ctrl-1, or ctrl-2, or ctrl-3 ( cmd-1,2,3 on the Mac) {commands are different in CS4 and can be found here - http://morris-photographics.com/phot...rtcuts_Mac.pdf } and see the individual red, green or blue channels, and this will give you a start at looking at the individual color channels and their contribution to contrast in the image. Or you can switch to LAB color space, and look at the Lightness channel with ctrl-1. B&W is ultimately about contrast and shape, since color disappears with conversion. The reason that an Action doesn't work well, is that color images vary so widely. When you convert from color to B&W, the colors that were present in the original image need to be handled properly in the conversion, or you will get the very same gray tones from markedly different colors. The different colors in color images need to be seen in differing gray tones or the image will lose a lot of its punch. I Googled -- "B&W conversion technique : dgrin.com" And found these threads for a start. Why you need to pay atention to colors when converting to B&W from color by John Ruttenberg - read this!! It is well worth your time. http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1134301 A list of the Sticky URLs at the top of Finishing School above http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=56678 A tute on B&W conversion by Andy Williams the head mod and all around good guy http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1126557 Another by Andy http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=217438 A simple way is to shoot B&W and save as a RAW+jpg - not everyone favors this technique, but I wrote a little thread about it here http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=3605 Some motorcycle engines in B&W ( sorry - sometimes I can't help myself ) http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=20909 My review of Chapter 7 - Keeping the Color in B&W from D Margulis "Professional Photoshop" http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=52724 In all previous versions of Photoshop, most folks agreed that Channel Mixer was the mode most folks who were serious about the B&W conversion tended to use. Since the advent of Photoshop CS3, the new B&W conversion tool found via Image>Adjustments>B&W has really taken over. I still examine each of my images quickly with cmd-1, cmd-2, and cmd-3 ( cmd-3, cmd-4, cmd-5 for CS4 ) to see just where I have contrast or where I need contrast. Hang around here awhile, and I am sure there will be another thread on B&W conversion. B&W conversion is great fun, and as really come into its own since the digital age. __________________ Pathfinder

Okay so the timing for this post could not have been more perfect...I was just loggin in to post the question to this answer...thank you so much! I've been noticing that that my coversions look really grey... I will try some of your links and play with RBG. Thanks again!

Something else that's kind of fun to try is virtualPhotographer, a filtering plugin to PS. It's a free download, and gives some very interesting B&W results with just a click.

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/virtualPhotographer.asp

Thanks a million for compiling these resources all together in one place! I'm making tutorial videos for my website, and will "video-fy" some of this information where that works well as a presentation method. I'll keep you all posted as that project progresses.

I've just improved upon an action I had made for a friend at a non-profit who needed to convert several color photos of flowers and plants to B&W for their printed newsletter (plain paper, lots of dot gain...) that helped her a lot and will hopefully help folks beset with this problem also!

It creates six varieties of conversion that can be tiled and examined on a single page to select which method gave the most desirable starting point, then you can simply close the other five and work with that one (or combine these by dragging them into layers for opacity blending as normal or other blending modes)

You can find this action at my site.
http://terrybritton.com/terrys-color-to-bw-pick-six-photoshop-action

I ask that you sign up to receive it so I can send any updates along. I'm using a double-opt-in via Aweber, so a confirmation email will be sent that requires you to click on the link therein to verify you are human and actually wanted to do this! I won't be spamming anyone, I promise you, so go get it! :-)

I've made a quick video that explains installing it and how to use it. This was created using Photoshop CS, but reportedly works in later versions.

The six varieties of image the action presents are:

1. Conversion to grayscale mode
2. Desaturation using Hue-Saturation adjustment layer
3. Image from the Green channel in RGB
4. Image from the Lightness channel in L*A*B
5. Channel Mixer adjustment layer in RGB
6. Channel Mixer adjustment layer in CMYK

Let me know here or by email how you like this and what you would do, if anything, to improve on it!

Terry

Originally Posted by StarrToDowler Something else that's kind of fun to try is virtualPhotographer, a filtering plugin to PS. It's a free download, and gives some very interesting B&W results with just a click. http://www.optikvervelabs.com/virtualPhotographer.asp

Thanks for that. Realizing not everyone owns Photoshop or wants to learn to do things themselves, I wrote a blog post sharing this, thanks to your suggestion. BTW, I don't know if you realized this or not, but they also give away a free stand-alone software item at the same website that will apply not only their virtualPhotographer plugin (Included) but also any other .8bf Photoshop plugins one can find.

My blog entry is at:

http://terrybritton.com/i-dont-want-to-learn-photoshop

Of course, we love doing this stuff ourselves, but not everyone enjoys that.

Thanks again for the link!

Terry

For those that DO have photoshop:

Just to add a link to my favourite BW conversion site/forum

This is where I definitely learned to go beyond the Channel Mixer and started to get the results I hankered after

Originally Posted by I Simonius For those that DO have photoshop: Just to add a link to my favourite BW conversion site/forum This is where I definitely learned to go beyond the Channel Mixer and started to get the results I hankered after

Thanks for posting this link. Martin has posted some outstanding images on Dgrin. I never saw his site before, and it looks like I'm going to be spending some time there.