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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneF" data-source="post: 352765" data-attributes="member: 12496">Re: Better B&W Conversion Using Multiple Hue/Saturation Layers in Photoshop & Element"most basic might mean "simplest quickie kludge" (I think that was your point), but I would argue if the definition of "most basic" was intended as "normal and usual".Without exceptional reasons why not, the correct tool (color to grayscale conversion) is the menu called Grayscale. It does exactly the right thing. It uses the television NTSC specifications that say grayscale tone (Luminosity) is:   Red x 0.3 + Green x 0.59 + Blue x 0.11.   Every pixel is computed this way.  This is how B&W television was created.  It is how B&W film works.This makes the difference so that blue sky and red lipstick brightness come out in grayscale about the way the human eye distinguishes them.  And the way that B&W film will reproduce them.   There is very much science in the simple Grayscale menu.  It is not the simple way, it is instead the one correct complex scientific way.Desaturate just dumps the color.  Does not weight green greater than red, and red greater than blue (not like our eyes see it).Or Channel Mixer offers much choice in how to modify the colors before grayscale, which is then creative editing, far from a normal "correct" conversion.Grayscale menu does Luminosity =   Red x 0.3 + Green x 0.59 + Blue x 0.11  (studied for years in B&W television). The three coefficients add to 1.0.Here's a picture from my wifes little compact camera.  Chosen here in a quick search to find something with all three colors.<img src="http://www.scantips.com/g2/img_0118.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Original color<img src="http://www.scantips.com/g2/img_0118copy1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Desaturate (Photoshop CS6)<img src="http://www.scantips.com/g2/img_0118copy2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Grayscale menu (Photoshop CS6)Just looking doesn't show a lot, so next here is an animated gif of the last two (2 second intervals):   Click it.<img src="http://www.scantips.com/g2/img_0118.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Not a great example, but for example, in the color version, the red roofs and blue water seem about the same brightness.  Not so in the Desaturate version, not the way our eyes see color.Frankly, I prefer the color verson.  <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />There are creative ways to make modifications to edit the color reproduction.  If you want to be creative, have at it, its your picture.But the Grayscale menu is the ONE CORRECT WAY to do it.  That is what it is for.</blockquote>

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