Painting the Web

It's Black and White and Not Red All Over

Sometimes when I look at photos online, I think the first control most people use to modify their photos is the saturation control. First, middle, and last tool used, really.

Skies are so blue they look made of crushed sapphires, along with ruby red lips, painfully bright yellow sunflowers, and green so rich it makes your teeth hurt. I didn't know that nature supported such brilliant colors. I hope to someday visit the planet that spawns such images.

I love color, as do most people. However, there is such a thing as too much color, and thanks to digital photography, we're pushing the limit of what is too much color all the time. Even without the "help" of the saturation controls, photographs embedded into web pages are fighting for eyeballs with garish ads, overly cute sidebar icons, and whatever other graphic the page owners have decided the page must have.

Converting color photographs to black and white (B&W) isn't just for the artistic elite or those wanting to create their own noir effect. B&W photos can enhance structure and shape—helpful if the photo is used to illustrate a story related to the subject of the photo. A B&W photo can also stand out more than a photo with weak or uninteresting coloring.

Converting a photo to B&W is easy: just use whatever saturation control the tool has and turn off all the color. You'll end up with a B&W photo, true, but you won't end up with the best B&W photo. To do that, you have to work with the B&W ...