I have a very average image that I am wanting to convert to black and white, however I want a bit more stength to the image that just a grey image can any of you gurus out there offer me some advice.

Thanks in advance

Personally I use the black to white gradient map and adjust the gradient sliders until I'm happy.

If you can post the image I'm sure you will get many suggestions - we all have our own preferences.

Christine

To convert your image to B&W, you can get a lot of control over the conversion using the Channel Mixer (monochrome option selected).

Leah has a tutorial on this site pertaining to the conversion of colour images to B&W: Leah's B&W conversion Tutorial (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=92) .

Thanks very much Xaran and fpellerin, I will have a look at the tutorial, I am not sure about posting the picture as it is not very good hence the reason i am trying to hide some of the problems with it in black and white lol

1- HUE/SATURATION in COLOR mode (Don't do nothing with it yet)

2- HUE/SATURATION in NORMAL mode (Desaturate the image Saturation -100)

3- In the first Adjustment Layer turn the saturation +/-5 (This is for intensity) Then play with the HUE (Focus on the subjet) until you're almost happy. Then, if you don't like something in the background:

4- Another Adjustment Layer HUE/SATURATION in NORMAL mode selec red (Any 'cause PS will select the right one for you) and then with the eyedrop copy the tone you want to change in the original picture (you can complete the tone with the eyedrop+). Now you can play again with the HUE and Luuminosity untill you get the "Perfect Picture"

English is not my native lenguaje, so PLEASE excuse me if I didn't make my self clear.

Thanks very much God Mother, now I know how Cinderella felt, it worked a treat a nice little technique to use in the future, many thanks as for your English perfect far better than mine and I am from the UK :-)

many thanks

Don't be daunted by posting your image... just look through the restoration, retouch challenges (hehe... the original images) and some of the help threads on this site... you've got nothing to lose... :wink:

personally I like putting some work into it - probably not appropriate for a number of images you want done, or to get it done quickly, but my general method is to desaturate and then dodge/burn where I want more depth or lightness to the colours.

But that will take some time so you need to feel like it - usually I do it when I just want *something* to do lol.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=17082710

This yields some interesting results...

http://www.gormanphotography.com/bw_conversion.pdf

Another thing you can do is create a layer over the top of your colour image, set the blend mode to color. Then on the colour layer, use image->adjustments->selective color to adjust the strength/balance of individual colour ranges - whilst still being able to see the final B&W image.

Hi, noticed your black and white....concern....

If you're willing to e-mail me a copy,,,I'd like to try something?

Mary Heinz
Familyties Photography
http://www.pics-ties.com

Everyone I can not thank you enough for all your feedback on this post, I am looking into a few of the options.

I guess I will post the image if all fails, but I am not a photographer LOL I am a web designer but wanting to work more with images ratehr than just front end design.

Thanks everyone for all your offers of help I will take you up on it if all my attemps fail