Photoshop Elements 13: The Missing Manual

Chapter 10. Removing and Adding Color

A stunning black-and-white image is so much more than just a color photo without color. If you love classic black-and-white photography or yearn to be the next Ansel Adams, you’ll be over the moon with the high-quality black-and-white conversions Elements can do.

If, on the other hand, you can’t imagine why anyone would willingly abandon color, consider that, in a world crammed with eye-popping colors, black and white really stands out. Or say you need to have something printed where you can’t use color illustrations. And for artistic photography, there’s nothing like black and white, where tone and contrast make or break the photo, without colors to distract you from its underlying structure.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to turn a color photo black and white, and how to create images that are only partly in color. You’ll also learn how to reverse the process and colorize black-and-white images.

Tip

In addition to the methods described in this chapter, Elements 13 includes some excellent guided edits that make it easy to create popular black-and-white and single-color effects. Just click the word “Guided” at the top of the Editor’s window and then look in the Photo Effects section. Click the name of the edit you want to try, and Elements walks you through each step.

Making Color Photos Black and White

Generally, just removing the color from a photo produces an image that’s flat and uninteresting. A good black-and-white photo usually needs more ...