Converting to Black and White

One of my favorite features in Elements is its black-and-white conversion tool. Well, it’s not really a tool, it’s more like a dialog where you decide how you want your color photo converted into black and white. It’s a very visual way to make the jump from color to black and white, and if you can point-and-click, you can do it. Here’s how it’s done:

Step One:

Open the color photo you want to convert to black and white (yes, you need to start with a color photo), and then go under the Enhance menu and choose Convert to Black and White (as shown here).

Step Two:

When you choose Convert to Black and White, a dialog appears and your photo (behind the dialog) is converted to black and white on the spot (in other words, you get a live preview of your changes). At the top of the dialog is a before and after, showing your color photo on the left, and your black-and-white conversion on the right, which honestly is of little help, especially since you can see your full-sized photo behind the dialog. Anyway, your first step is to choose which style of photo you’re converting from the list of styles on the lower-left side of the dialog. These styles are really just preset starting points that are fairly well-suited to each type of photo. The default setting is Scenic Landscape, which is a fairly non-excitin....