Question about Editing Photos to Black and White

[fowweezer]

I accidentally shot color film yesterday when I meant to shoot black and white. I don't do my own developing, I take my film to a camera shop in town.

I usually scan all my photos into my computer with my scanner at the highest resolution possible (not that it matters). My question is this:
If I scan the photos into Adobe Photoshop Elements or PhotoDeluxe, and edit the color scheme into black and white (or grayscale or something else) will it have the exact same effect as taking a black and white picture on black and white negative/film in the first place? Or is it a poor substitute? What are the differences? Thanks.

 

[Meysha]

If you just change the 'mode' to greyscale you'll get a pretty crappy - but useable result.

I dunno the software you lsited, I only have Photoshop CS and CS2 and Gimp, In these you can use something called a Channel Mixer to change it to Black and White whilst controlling the tones very very accurately. Jump down to the tutorials section and do a search for Channel Mixer or black and white conversions and it'll come up with heaps of stuff.

Good luck!

 

[Artemis]

If you want some help converting to Black and White, I think ive gotten alright at it now, and if you have c.s. I have some actions I made that will convert images to Black and White in different ways for you...but try not to use Greyscale if you can help it...

 

[fowweezer]

okay, thanks guys. I did it once in Photoshop Elements it seemed alright, but I never printed it, I just uploaded it to a website. I'll probably be back in this thread seeking advice on exactly how to do it right with the various photo editors out there? Any recommendations for someone who is moderately-technically inclined but who wants an easy to use photo editing software (preferably one I can download for free)? Thanks

 

[Big Mike]

Adobe Elements is a fantastic program. It will do just about anything you would need it to do. It can do almost everything that the full version of Photoshop can do, although the methods may be slightly different. You shouldn't need a new program.

 

[Artemis]

okay, thanks guys. I did it once in Photoshop Elements it seemed alright, but I never printed it, I just uploaded it to a website. I'll probably be back in this thread seeking advice on exactly how to do it right with the various photo editors out there? Any recommendations for someone who is moderately-technically inclined but who wants an easy to use photo editing software (preferably one I can download for free)? Thanks

Ive heard great things about a program called GIMP...infact I may download it later, and its free

 

[darin3200]

GIMP is a great program, it has quite a few features.
And its free!

 

[Diarmuid]

There really isn't any point to overloading your system (and brain) with all the different photo editing packages. All do pretty much the same thing but most likely in a different manner. Photoshop Elements is a good program and all you would need for still photography.

You can get good results in converting color to black & white with Elements. You can desaturate the color completely (Remove Color) or convert to Grayscale. However b&w images do tend to look murky when converted from color images. Contrast should be increased and the best method of doing this in Elements is through using Levels.

If you want to learn all there is to know about getting top quality images from Photoshop Elements try the School of Photography Digital Photography Course. http://www.schoolofphotography.com/digital_photography_course.html