Good+Grayscale

Getting good grayscale out of Photoshop By James Dempsey

Ask a group of Photoshop users for the best method to convert a color image to grayscale and you’re likely to get a debate as long-winded as the QuarkXPress vs. Adobe InDesign argument. Heck, many of us can’t even agree on whether it’s grAyscale or grEyscale!

In 2005, I wrote about a conversion method used by fellow blogger, Jim Barthman. Looking back, that method seems almost obscene in its complexity compared to what I’m going to share with you today.

To begin, I chose a sample image (shown below, on the left) with decent contrast to illustrate the methods used here more clearly, but the results should be similar on almost any image that you choose to work with.

The easiest method is to simply select Mode -> Grayscale from Photoshop’s Image menu. If you do that, you end up with something like sample image 1 shown below.

The results in this “generic” conversion aren’t too bad, but to my eyes, the image is lacking in depth, contrast and character. So I’ll duplicate the image onto another layer by pressing Command + J, and will set the layer method to Overlay with an amount of 65%. This will deepen the shadows and give the image a lot of contrast—probably more than I would like, but it makes the image more interesting (sample image 2, below on the left). The background is almost completely black, and the sunglasses have darkened to the point where the reflection is nearly gone. The fur in coat’s collar is also a little more dramatic.

Now I’ll tone it down a bit by duplicating the newly created layer and changing the layer method from Overlay to Linear Dodge and the amount to 20%. As you can see in sample image 3 (above, on the right), the image now has more tolerable mid-tones, lighter shadows, brighter highlights and many of the subtle details have returned. But when you compare this to the generic convert to grayscale version described above, you’ll notice a much more interesting image.