How to Change a Color Photo into a Black and White Photo Using Photoshop

Want to turn that color photo into a black and white photo without setting your camera to a black and white setting? It is easy to turn your color photo into a black and white photo but you cannot change an already black and white photo into a color photo! So, always shoot in color and change it with Photoshop later!

1) Open your photo in photoshop by going to File->Open.

2) Select Image->Mode->Lab Color. This will not open a window it will just put your photo in that mode.

3) At the top of the layers menu are three tabs. Click on the "Channels" tab.

4) Select the "Lightness" layer by clicking it once. Then go back up to the menu and click Image->Mode->Greyscale.

5) If it asks you to flatten layers, click OK.

6) Click OK to discard other channels.

7) You now have a black and white image. If this is too bright which it most likely will be, follow these next steps.

8) Click back to the "Layers" tab to the left of the "Channels" tab.

9) Duplicate the photo layer by either clicking the icon at the bottom of the layers box next to the trash icon or use a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+J for PC's and Cmd+J for Mac's.

10) In the layer window, select the duplicated photo layer. Change the blending mode from NORMAL to MULTIPLY. You will find this as a drop-down directly under the "Layers" tab title.

11) You can adjust the Opacity slider to any percent you like. You will find this to the right of the blending mode drop-down that you used in #10.

12) If you image is still not dark enough and you have the slider all the way to 100%, duplicate another layer (refer back to #9-11)

Et Voilà! You now have turned your color photo into a black and white one!