Converting Colour images to Monochrome

Levels and Curves adjustments are generally best done prior to conversion.

Method 1 - Greyscale

●   Image - mode - greyscale

Method 2 - Hue and Saturation

●   Use hue/saturation control to desaturate to 100%

Method 3 - Double Hue and Saturation Layers

●   Open a file and two hue/saturation adjustment layers .

●   Desaturate the second (top) hue/saturation layer to minus 100%.

●   Change the first hue/saturation layer to colour mode, and ●   adjust the hue and saturation to give the required tonal balance.

Method 4 - Channel Mixing

●   Use the adjust/channel mixing control.

●   tick the monochrome box.

●   adjust the colour channels to change the tones (the total of three channel percentages should usually be 100%).

Method 5 - Lightness Channel

●   Open a file - image - mode - lab colour.

●   Choose channels - select lightness channel.

●   Image - greyscale - discard colour channels.

●   Copy background layer - select blend (screen for dark image or multiply for light image) - adjust the opacity to achieve the required tone.

Method 6 - Selective Colour 

●   Open a file.

●   Open new layer - fill with 50% grey - colour blend.

●   Select the background layer - open selective colour adjustment layer - adjust the different colours to get right tonal balance.

Method 7 - Selective Colour 

●   Open a file

●   Flatten the image.

●   Create a new hue/saturation adjustment layer using saturation mode, hue = -180, saturation = -100 and lightness = +100

●   Convert to LAB color and choose the flatten option if it is available.

●   Open the channels window and delete channels A and B.

●   Convert to greyscale.