Operation Manual

Working with the Black & White Controls
You use the Black & White adjustment controls when you want more control over
converting your image from color to black and white than simply desaturating it gives
you. The Black & White adjustment controls allow you to adjust tonal relationships and
contrast in an image by adjusting the red, green, and blue channels independently. The
effects of a Black & White adjustment are similar to the effects of attaching a color filter
to a camera lens and shooting black-and-white film.
Before Black & White adjustment After Black & White adjustment
The key to the successful use of the Black & White adjustment controls is to experiment
with changing values for the Red, Green, and Blue parameters until you are satisfied with
the effect on the image.
Note: A good rule of thumb is to keep the total percentage of the red, green, and blue
channels at or below 100 percent to prevent you from blowing out the highlights in your
image.
To convert a color image to black and white using the Black & White controls
1 Select an image.
2 If the Black & White controls are not shown in the Adjustments inspector or the
Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD, choose Black & White from the Adjustments
pop-up menu (or press Control-M).
3 Adjust the mixture of red, green, and blue channels by doing one of the following:
• Drag a color slider to the left to decrease the color’s percentage in the color mix, or
drag the slider to the right to increase the percentage.
• Click the left or right arrows in the value sliders to modify the percentages by single
increments, or drag in the value fields.
The left arrows decrease the percentage, and the right arrows increase it.
572 Chapter 17 Making Image Adjustments