Do more with Black & White

Photoshop's Black & White Adjustment Layer is a powerful tool for generating a range of creative mono and colour effects

- James Abbott

Adjustment Layers are one of the most useful aspects of Photoshop for photographers. Each has its own set of controls and effects, but when combined with other controls, such as Blending modes, Layer Opacity, other layers and even the Presets within the Adjustment Layer dialogue, you can expand the creative possibilities.

The Black & White Adjustment Layer, on the surface, appears to do one thing: convert images to mono with control over how different colour channels convert to greyscale. This in itself offers almost endless possibilities, but we’re going to push what’s possible even further by exploring more of what this seemingly simple Adjustment Layer is capable of. We won’t be able to cover everything that can be achieved with it, but with the breadth of the creative techniques we’ll cover, you’ll undoubtedly develop a greater understanding of how versatile this Adjustment Layer can be.

1. Quick-fix Presets