Black And White Adjustment Layer

Photoshop CS3 now features a Black And White adjustment command and adjustment layer. You can use either to convert color images to black-and-white or to apply a tint effect. Using the adjustment layer instead of the Image --> Adjustment --> Black And White command offers more flexibility and control, because it allows you to make changes to the adjustment at any time after it is applied. This is a much better grayscale conversion method than those listed earlier, simply because it offers you more flexibility  and control. The Black And White adjustment layer dialog box contains a series of sliders that allow you to modify the influence of red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta in the resulting black-and-white image.

You can use these sliders to lighten or darken any areas that you’d like to emphasize in your black-and-white print image. For example choosing Image --> Mode --> Grayscale resulted in a flat black-and-white image with not enough contrast between the foreground and background. Notice how the model’s hair practically blends in with the trees in the background. By instead applying a Black And White adjustment layer, the background was lightened by increasing the yellow and green values. The red value was lowered to compensate for the blown-out highlights that appeared in the model’s skin as a result of the background adjustment.

When you are finished adjusting the image, make sure that you make a flattened duplicate by choosing Image --> Duplicate. Then enable the Duplicate Merged Layers Only option in the dialog box. Doing so retains the original image with the Black And White adjustment layer. To complete the grayscale conversion on the flattened duplicate image, choose Image --> Mode --> Grayscale.