Black and white photography. Photo editor. How to make a photo in black and white

Many photographers agree that the old black and white photos have such an attractive charm and charm that their modern digital counterparts lacking a kind of "soul" are not suitable for them. Of course, black and white photography does not involve old photographic films, solvents and developers ... To do it, you just need a modern digital camera.

What are the advantages of such pictures?

Of course, not all are creative people, who subtly feel the style and nature of the picture. Do black and white photos have any real advantages that an experienced photographer can use? Yes, and there are many of them.

The fact is that black and white photography not only stirs the audience's nostalgia, but also accentuates their attention on the picture itself. This is especially valuable for portraits: you never wondered why military correspondents prefer this format of pictures? The fact is that they allow you to focus on the foreground, making all that is behind the person unimportant. In addition, such an image allows you to process objects in the photo at no extra cost.

In addition, black and white photography is indispensable when decorating a room in a vintage style, when you want to set a certain background. This method is often used even by venerable designers, so you can also try yourself in this field.

How to do it?

Most modern digital cameras have a mode for automatic shooting in this mode. Should I use the mentioned program? No no and one more time no! It is more reasonable to shoot in the usual mode, "discoloring" pictures in application programs. In this case, you can adjust dozens of parameters that the camera simply "cuts". In addition, with the help of the same "Photoshop" you can restore the old beautiful black and white photos, scanned them and improved the color balance.

First we'll look at the extremely popular Photoshop, and then we'll talk about a couple of other image editors.

A quick way to convert a snapshot into black and white

First open any photo you need to convert. Go to the "Image" menu, go to "Correction", where you click on the "Desaturate" command. It should be noted that this algorithm will make any photo black and white in just a couple of seconds, but hardly the result will strongly inspire you to further research ... This is how a black and white photo in Photoshop is made, if the user is too lazy to spend time on it.

The photo turns out flat and zamylennaja. In a word, it's better to use automatic modes on a "soap box" ...

Correction layers "Black and White"

It is much better to use the "Black and White" layer. This method is not only simple, but also reversible. The thing is that when saving in PNG format, the program makes changes to the second layer, not to the original image, which gives an opportunity for wide creative experiments. In addition, such a black and white picture turns out to be really voluminous and beautiful.

Transform the image

First you need to open the photo you want to remake. Double-click the "Background" tab if it was previously inactive. To create a black and white layer, you have to perform a few simple steps.

First, you need to open the "Correction" panel (go along the path "Window / Correction"), then click the left mouse button on the icon of the layer "Black and White", which visually resembles a rectangle divided by a diagonal line into two halves. Immediately after this, a layer with a discolored image will be created, after which several dialog windows with sliders will appear, with which you can set the exact color gradation.

And how to make a black and white photo, but still maintain the maximum contrast between different zones in the image? To get the most contrast image, just move the sliders until the quality suits you. When you drag the knobs to the right side, the colors will become lighter, if you remove it to the left, they will become darker.

At the top of the palette is a drop-down list: experiment with its points. Perhaps you will get some interesting effect. If you click on the "Auto" button, the photo editor will display the parameters of the "ideal" image in the gray scale on the monitor. This button can also be used if your experiments on discoloration of images have gone somewhere wrong.

Sepia effect

Do you remember comparatively recent photographs of the late USSR, where there were not only black and white colors, but also a shade of brown? Do you know how to achieve such an attractive effect in a modern picture? Nothing is easier!

At the top of the palette, there is also a "Tint" checkbox. If you mark it and click "OK", the program will automatically add a brown tint (sepia effect), this is applicable to all elements of the image. To the right of the flag there is an icon in the form of a colored square: click on it if you want to add some other shades to the picture. So you can do so-called false two-tone photos.

Here's how to make a black and white photo.

GIMP

All of the above is true with respect to the program Photoshop. No doubt, this application is a recognized world leader. But will not there be some other photo editor that's free and just as functional? There is such. It is called GIMP and has long been positioned as an alternative to its paid competitor.

For the sake of justice, it should be noted that not all such replacements will be adequate, but for the discoloration of the photos of the mentioned program will suffice with interest.

Use the corrective layers in "Mixing channels"

Just note that this photo program uses layers the same way, so that almost all the techniques that can be used in the case of "Photoshop" are quite relevant here. First, just make sure that "Background" is open on the open image, click the left mouse button on the icon with the crossed-off diagonal of the two-color circle at the bottom of the palette, and then in the appeared context menu select the option "Mixing channels".

After that, the "Correction" dialog box will open immediately, in the top part, select the "Monochrome" checkbox, and then select one of the options for clarification offered by the program in the dropdown list that is located here. This method will make it possible to receive beautiful black and white photographs, each of the elements in which is edited individually.

Important! If you want to make a picture with a print quality (which can then be printed), it is advisable to use a calibrated monitor for this purpose in a special way. Otherwise, you are likely to be disappointed by the mismatch in the brightness of colors and shades.

Use "Brightness"

What is the purpose of the channel Lightness? In it, the application stores all the illumination parameters of the image, which form all visible contours of the image too. Thus, if you take it apart from all other settings of the picture, you get a normal black and white photo.

Open the "Image" menu, select "Mode" there, then click on the "Channel" option. A palette of the same name will appear, on which you need to select the "Brightness" item. If you do not like the result, go back to the "Mode" item, select the option "Grayscale" there. Click the "OK" button with the left mouse button, after which GIMP will automatically delete all available information about the colors.

Additional gradation of parameters

The picture will turn black and white. If you need more detailed and detailed processing of black and white photographs, try to "play" with the parameters, achieving the ideal display of color, brightness and contrast of the image. It should be noted that in many cases this method gives an unnecessarily bright, but pale, figure. However, in such gradations, colors can be played, it is interesting to wash out the background.

By the way, do you remember that we talked about the methods of professional photographers at the very beginning of the article? Yes, it is with the help of this method that they create an amazing effect when the person in the photo literally lives his own life. This "miracle" owes its existence to the usual psychological features of a person: firstly, in pictures in color, we constantly pay attention to the background, even if unconsciously. Secondly, black and white photographs in themselves make it necessary to focus on the central figure. Given that the background is already blurred, the brain involuntarily focuses on the foreground, snatching out more and more details.

Use the external Camera Raw plug-in

If you are a professional photographer and work with the RAW format, we recommend using the Camera Raw plug-in to convert the photos. It can be used with equal success not only in GIMP, but also in Photoshop. Download the module from the official site, after which you can start creating and experimenting.

Correct application of the module

In the main Camera Raw window, open the HSL / Grayscale window. To do this, you can click on the button with the same name. Set the checkbox "Convert to grayscale". In the right part of the working window, a panel with a set of sliders appears immediately. To add a contrast image, you simply lighten any of the areas in the image by moving the slider to the right. However, exactly the same thing we said at the top of our article, so you can see the relevant recommendations there.

Then you need to open the "Basic" panel, then "play" the slider "Exposure", detailing all the parameters of the black and white image. Try to "play" with the settings, after which you yourself will marvel at what an irresistible impression can be produced by the "ordinary" black and white photo!

PaintNet

If you are not an experienced user, you probably already had time to doubt your abilities to master the capabilities of the programs described above. That, however, is not surprising, since they have a fairly complex interface. Because of this, novice users do not want to install application data just to convert several photos to black and white.

Therefore, not too confident and "fledgling" artists, we would recommend installing a completely free program PaintNet from Microsoft on your computer. Despite its compact size, it is very functional and can be successfully used for our purposes. However, almost all free programs for photos that exist at the present time can be described in exactly the same way.

Working with layers

Since this application also uses layers, the main stages of our work will be similar in many respects to the methods described above, but it will be much more pleasant for you to work. This is largely due to the fact that the interface is simplified as much as possible. First, copy the layer that will contain the copy of the color image. Go to the "Layers" menu, and then select "Make a copy of the layer". As you can see, everything is as simple and accessible as possible.

However, you can copy the desired piece of image directly from the "Layers" window. We will need it later. After this procedure, you have two layers, each of which contains exactly the same image fragment. In the same "Layers" menu, turn off the top part of the picture by clicking on it with the left mouse button on the corresponding item.

Go to the "Corrections" menu, then select the item with the characteristic name "Make it black and white." After that, the image is completely discolored. It should be noted that the quality of the picture in this case may not be too stunning. Keep in mind that scanned old black and white photographs to process in this way is strongly discouraged, as their quality can be seriously affected.

Is it possible to colorize a monochrome image?

Having spent so much time describing the transformation of color images into monochrome images, it's time to start the opposite process. We will make from an ancient grandmother's picture a colorful collage, as if recently filmed on a modern camera. Is this real? Yes, but you will have to be patient.

First, you need to take the Brush tool, and then start to paint the fragments of the photo neatly and consistently. Once you're done with some area of the image, it's time to change the blending mode for a particular layer. You can stop at "Darkening" or "Soft Light". By the way, in this way black and white photos of flowers are perfectly colored. Just note that this requires a graphic tablet, since you can hardly achieve the accuracy you need with a mouse.

By combining different algorithms in different parts of the photo, you can achieve the desired effect. We deliberately do not say the word "easy", because the whole process takes a lot of time from you. Yes, it's long, monotonous and even a bit boring, but the result is worth it! Here's how to colorize black and white photos. If you do not want to give indiscreet amounts for tidying up photos from your family archives, you can try to do it yourself.

Bear in mind that for such events, patience and perseverance are needed, so we advise them to stock up. Good luck!