how to convert photos to black and white using photoshop

Black and White Conversions from Adler Photo Workshops on Vimeo.

Mr. Mielke's advice on black and white photography

Mr. Mielke is a professional photographer with his own web site for his photography at timmielke.efoliomn2.com
He also teaches photography classes at Maranatha Baptist Bible College.

Mr Mielke gave this advice/opinion on black and white photography.

-"with black and white photos you want to make sure you have a good amount of contrast."

-having a camera with better sensor quality and a better lens is more important than high megapixels, for any photos but especially for black and white.

- "digital cameras with noise is highly unrecommended for B&W photos but grain from a film camera can add an artistic affect."

Mr. Mielke recommends these black and white photographers for some inspiration on B&W photos:
Ansel Adams - landscapes. and Dorothea Lange - people, emotion
In conclusion Mr. Mielke stated "Black and white photography has its place without some of the distractions of color, black and white works great for portraits and landscape."

samples of well done black and white photos

sample pictures of black and white photography

3 helpful black & white tips

Darren Rowse points out a few good tips for black and white photos. For starters, If your camera doesn’t allow you to shoot in RAW (or you choose not to) - shoot in color and do your conversion to black and white later on your computer.

While most digital cameras offer you the option to shoot in Black and White (and can produce some reasonable results) you have more control over your end results if you have the color data to work with in your conversion on your computer

Shoot with the lowest possible ISO possible. While this is something that most of us do in color photography it is particularly important when it comes to black and white where noise created by ISO can become even more obvious. If you’re after this ‘noise’ (or grain) you can always add it later in your post production - but it’s harder to go the other way and take noise out.

Most of the general tips on how to compose or frame a good shot apply just as well to black and white photography as they do when shooting in color - however the main obvious difference is that you’re unable to use color to lead the eye into or around your shot. This means you need to train yourself to look at shapes, tones and textures in your frame as points of interest. Pay particularly attention to shadows and highlights which will become a feature of your shot.