Color to Black & White on Photoshop Elements 2

What is the best way to transfor color photos to Black and White using
Photoshop Elements; I know how to use the Remove Color command, but somehow
the resulting image looks weak and pale.

Jimmy

 

The best way that I have found is to use the Channel Mixer tool in its monochrome mode. This tool, which comes from the full Photoshop, and many other useful tools for Elements is available through http://hiddenelements.com . Richard Lynch's book is tough going, but if you put the effort in you will know more about tone and color than just about everybody else. Not to mention being able to covert to awesome B&W, duotone, or whatever.
jhb

 

Hi

I was looking at this myself for the first time only the other day. This is
the solution I found although I'm not saying for one minute it's the 'right'
way of doing it.

Open the image, then from the drop down menus choose
Image/Adjustments/Gradient Map. In the box 'Gradient used for grayscale
mapping' choose the 3rd from the left on the top line 'Black,White' and
click OK. Then choose Enhance from the drop down menus and go to Adust
Brightness/Contrast then Brightness/Contrast...... and move the sliders to
get the effect you want.

I know it's obvious, and apologies if you already know this, but don't
forget to 'save' the original image before you start playing with it.

Hope that makes sense, email me if it doesn't. I'm relatively new to
Elements 2 myself.

Regards

Mike

 

Here's a link to an Adobe PDF file describing a method of color to b&w
conversion which I use from time to time:

www.adobe.com/tips/phs8colorbw/pdfs/phs8colorbw.pdf


Simple de-saturation often yields less than satisfactory results.