This one is for the photographers...

For sometime now I have been wanting to share some of my photography tips with other photographers. This is my first blog post in doing that. I have seen a lot of flat black and white photos from many photographers. I wanted to share a trick in Photoshop that I use to help give a little punch to my b/w photos. There are many different ways to change a color photo to b/w. I generally go to Desaturate under Image>Adjustments. However you choose to change your photo to b/w is up to you but the second part is the most important part known as the Gradient Map. This will add the punch to your b/w photo. Start by selecting the Adjustment Layer Menu (the black and white circle at the bottom of the Layers Palette) and select Gradient Map. The Gradient Map window will appear. Double click on the gradient box and make sure that the white to black gradient is chosen in your presets. After that, make sure that you have the Reverse box checked then click OK. You will see a big difference in your photo now and a Gradient Map Layer will appear in your Layers Palette. From here you can adjust the opacity on this layer to decrease the amount of punch you want applied to your photo. If you need more punch you can duplicate the layer. Look at the before and after photos below. On this particular photo I applied two Gradient Map Layers. One was 100% and the other one was 50%. Look at how the second photo really pops with the added contrast and punch from the Gradient Map. I hope that this helps you bring out the best in your black and white photos!




P.S. I will be putting together some actions for Photoshop that will apply this effect along with many others. I want to see how many photographers out there would be interested in receiving these actions. Please leave a comment if this post was helpful to you and if you would be interested in receiving more photography tips on this blog. Thanks!