I accidentally found a versatile and easy way to convert color photos to black & white, and those are two words we like to see together. I have tried out many methods of converting photos to black & white, some incredibly versatile and powerful, but difficult to use, and some very simple, but with no customization. Google’s free image editing and organizing software, Picasa, comes through again.
I just found this feature recently. I knew it had black & white conversion, but had not actually used it. If you look under the “Effects” tab when viewing a photo, you will see several (you guessed it) effects which you can apply to your photos. The first one is black & white…but not the one you want.
That first one is the I-just-want-an-easy-black-and-white button. If you look down to the bottom row of the list, you will see “filtered black & white”. That is a beautiful button!
Film photographers have long used color filters on the end of their lenses when shooting black & white. Different colors work well for different situations, but genrally, adding a green filter usually is the color of choice when dealing with skin tones.
If you select the filtered black & white effect, you will see a little multi-colored graph to pick your filter color. If you click the graph and hold down the button (do not release the click), you can drag the mouse across the graph while you see the effect of that particular color on your image. Basically, this simple, real-time preview of color filters helps you effectively find which color you want for your photos. Superb…and again…FREE!
But wait, there’s more! I shot a photo a few days ago at night on the street at ISO 800. It had some grain to it. Well, as I moved around the different color filters in Picasa, I realized that some colors decreased the grain and others accentuated it. So, there it is: you can use filters to manipulate grain in your images. Bonus.
Would you have any idea if this is similar to levels in Photoshop? Anyways, this post inspired me to send you some of my black and white experiments, so check your photo email!
How Picasa actually applies this filter is really of little concern. They probably do use a filter of some sort, but it really does not matter much. What matters is the extremely easy and versatile use of the black & white tool.
If using a more powerful software, like Photoshop or GIMP, there are several ways to convert to black & white, but most people just want to make a quick change. This was so easy, though, I now use Picasa if I want to do a black & white conversion instead of my beloved GIMP.