Why Desaturating Is The Worst Color To Black & White Conversion Method

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1 – Full color

2 – Vibrance -100

3 – Saturation -100

4 – B&W Mixer with custom settings

 

Why is desaturating the worst color-to-black-and-white conversion method?

In short, it makes mud.

Here’s why.

When set to -100, Saturation changes different hues to similar neutral values; it loses tonal separation.

Vibrance is a worse choice; when set to -100, it retains some color.

Tools like Lightroom and Camera Raw’s B&W Mixer or Photoshop’s Black & White adjustment layer are much better because they allow you to retain tonal separation and adjust which hues become light or dark. They work very well for basic color to black-and-white conversions.

Photoshop offers even more control, first by allowing color to be adjusted before conversion and second by adding the ability to make local conversions so that the same color in different areas of an image can be converted differently.

So, when you’re making color to black-and-white conversions, stay away from Saturation and Vibrance and choose Lightroom/Camera Raw for basic global conversions, or when you need more, use Photoshop for the ultimate preview of possibilities and the most control.

Read more about B&W here.

Learn more in my workshop B&W Mastery.

The Best Way To Convert Your Images From Color To B&W Using Photoshop

Technique - B&W  Comment
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Full-color image

Global B&W conversion

B&W conversion locally optimized for foreground

The color transformation necessary to produce the results

 

With so much power available during Raw processing (with Lightroom or Camera Raw) when converting color to black-and-white, you’re right to ask, “Why use Photoshop?” It’s a question worth asking every time you make a black-and-white conversion. And there’s a simple answer – when you want to convert the same color in two separate areas of an image differently. (Note: this technique is not useful for semi-neutral images; an image has to have significant saturation in at least one color to benefit from this technique.)

Photoshop can localize black-and-white conversions with masks. Often, the masks you need to do this will be extremely simple. But, for the rare occasions when you need to make a more complex selection, Photoshops’s robust masking capabilities are there for you.

Here's how to do it.


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