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Phuntography #3) It's in black & white

On to some fun stuff! We've discussed saving files for the web and resizing your pictures while keeping them nice and sharp. *yawwwwwwwwwn* Right, so on to some more interesting techniques. I promise the next couple of tutorials will involve more cussing and more colorful pictures. Er, right, um except for this one. I mean this fucking one, in which we discuss the beauty of GREY!!! Oooooooh, aaaaaaah.

When I'm looking at my pictures and deciding what to post, one of my favorite techniques is making the photo black and white. Black and white often adds a nice bit of drama and story to your image with a simple click of a button. But don't get me wrong - I lurve me some black and white but I am *not* a drama queen. Shush all you protesters, I just play one on TV. Personally I try not to over-do it with the desaturation process just because when I actually *do* take the time to make a photo black and white, I really want it to have an impact. It's a personal choice every budding photographer must make for themselves. Still, it's boatloads of fun and I highly suggest desaturating the beejeesies out of your own stuff, and not only because it's more fun than a barrel of pissed Englishmen. You know how that old saying goes.

This is the part where I tell you that my very best friend Keira wanted to make sure I added some very, very important information to this post. I.e., Be sure to check your digital camera for built-in effects so you don't have to go through all this post-process bullshit after-the-fact. For example, on my Canon Powershot A400 I can choose to take pictures in color, black and white, sepia, or any one of several other cool effects right out of the gate. That piece of shit Nikon D70 I bought doesn't have such coolness. Kidding. KIDDING!!! (but only sort of ;) Read the manual people. It's good for your constitution.

If I must repeat myself, and I must, please remember to save your new and improved files under *new* names so as not to overwrite the original. If you don't have Photoshop, I highly recommend Picasa as a free alternative. FREE FREE FREE! Just ask my sister. She's Picasa's newest bitch and isn't afraid to admit it. The following steps are for the esteemed Photoshop thief user.

Step 1 - Pick a photo. It'll take a while to start seeing what works better in black and white, but in general look for photos that have high-contrast zones. A bright, clear sky with a dark building underneath. Silhouettes. Drunken bar photos with dark backgrounds. Things like that, you know, the usual.

Step 2 - Under the "Image" menu, click on "Adjustments..." and then "Desaturate". Few people know that desaturate is actually the ancient egyptian word for "turn off all the lights and take off all your clothes, not necessarily in that order". Just making sure you're listening, natches.

Looks done, right? Welllllllllll.... maybe. It *could* be considered done to some people, but what most people don't know (and how could they?!, what with spending most of their time in bars taking drunken photos) is that the whole desaturation process often forces a loss of some clarity and richness the colors provided. Was that a 'duh' I heard somewhere? Kinda make sense when you think about it - still with me here? So I add 2 extra steps to this process to get back the integrity of my photo. This is why I'm cool, cuz I know stuff like this.

Step 3 - Click on the "Layer" menu, click on "New adjustment layer..." and then "Curves". For all intensive purposes, just click on the little line somewhere and drag it around - you'll see what happens as you start to play. Curves are useful when you want to even out the overall tone or balance of a picture, or (in this case) feather in some contrast and light. Cool, yeah?

Step 4 - Click on the "Layer" menu, click on "New adjustment layer..." and then "Levels". I'll talk more about levels later, but mostly you want the little histogram to look like the bell curve. You can drag the small arrows below the histogram to help achieve this fictional dream. Dragging the left arrow in will cause the image to darken, the right arrow causes it to lighten, while the middle arrow help sets overall tone. Just start dragging around to see what works for you while keeping the general guide of a bell-curve in mind.

And whoala! Beautiful black and white photos for your burgeoning collection of kickassedness.