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Chris Junker

Hi Doug,

I tried Mr. Gorman's BW conversion, and found it to be an overly complex route to a rather normal duotone. If that is the goal, it is far easier to simply use the Mode...Duotone or Tritone, and it gives you better control over the result and blending, contrast, etc. I have read about many different ways to convert to black and white (beyond the simple Mode...Grayscale), tried nearly all of them, and found that one technique (Channel Mixer) still works the best in almost all situations:
1. Open any color image
2. Select or make an Adjustment Layer, type: Channel Mixer
3. In the Channel Mixer Dialogue box, check the Monochrome option in the lower left corner
4. Then play with the Red, Green, and Blue sliders to achieve the effect that you want, but make sure that the 3 values together add up to 100.

There are several advantages to this technique: for B/W printers, it is similar to using filters on an enlarger, the technique is done on a separate layer (leaving your original intact), and the effect can be endlessly tweaked for print or web purposes, finally it gives you the most control over the tonal range & yields the truest (as true as digital photography gets) b/w print (in my humble opinion!)

- Chris

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