Instant High Contrast Black and White Photos in Photoshop

Learn how to instantly create high contrast black and white images in Photoshop using Gradient Maps, and the secret to why Gradient Maps give black and white images such a high contrast look. Photoshop has lots of ways to convert photos to black and white, but Gradient Maps are one of the best because they are so fast and simple to use, and they give us great results. I show you how to add a Gradient Map and why your image instantly turns to black and white. We compare the result to what we get by simply removing the color using Photoshop’s Desaturate command. And at the end, we look at a little-known option in the Gradient Editor that’s the secret to why black and white images created with Gradient Maps have such high contrast. ► Video chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:41 - Opening the image 0:45 - Removing the color with Desaturate 1:59 - Resetting the Foreground and Background colors 2:26 - Converting to black & white with a Gradient Map 2:49 - Comparing Desaturate to the Gradient Map 3:11 - How Gradient Maps turn photos to B&W 4:05 - Why Gradient Maps create high contrast B&W 6:25 - Summary ► My related videos: 1. How to COLOR GRADE Images with Gradient Maps: 2. Photoshop’s HIDDEN Color Grading Presets: ► My complete text version of this tutorial: ► Get Adobe Photoshop: ► Main image used in this tutorial: ► Images used in the intro: 1: 2: 3: 4: ► Help me create more videos! To support this channel, please consider joining my Photoshop Essentials website. You’ll get all of my tutorials as PDFs, plus exclusive content! Learn more: #photoshoptutorial #photoshop #blackandwhitephotography