How to convert a color image to black and white in Photoshop CS6 (Non Destructive)

There are  various ways of converting an image from colored to Black and White.Here we shall discuss the method that is non destructive which means that the method does not make any changes to the image.Photoshop uses a separate Black and White adjustment layer to apply the adjustments.

                                                                Before             After

1) Opening the image in the Photoshop window

Open the colored image in Photoshop CS6 by using the menu File > Open or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + O.This will open a dialog box.Select the image by clicking on its name and click on Open button.


  
















This will open the image as a Background layer in the Layers Panel.

2) Selecting the Black & White... option

After we see the image in Photoshop window we need to open the Black & White properties window.For this we need to select the  Black & White option.There are two ways of selecting the  Black & White option.

a) Select menu Layer > New Adjustment Layer >  Black & White... 

 We can see a dialog box asking the name of the new adjustment layer.By default Photoshop names it  Black & White1.If we want we can type in any other name or we can leave it as  Black & White 1. Click on OK button after naming the layer.

b) The other way to get the  Black & White option is by clicking on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon (half colored circle) in the bottom of the layers panel and selecting  Black & White... option.

3) Black & White Properties panel

Now we can see a  Black & White Properties panel with sliders for Reds,Yellows,Greens,Cyans,
Blues and Magentas. We can observe that the color of the image is black and white.
If we are satisfied with the look of the image we can exit out of the Properties panel and save the image.

If we press on Auto button on top in the properties panel Photoshop brings the sliders to different values it thinks to be best and sets the color of the image to black and white .

If we want to make further adjustments to the image we need to experiment with the color sliders. If we drag the  sliders towards the right the respective color becomes lighter and if we drag the slider towards the left the respective color becomes darker.

4)Closing the Properties Panel
To hide the Black & White Properties panel click on the double pointing arrow on the top right of the properties panel.To exit out of the Black and White Properties panel click on the cross mark on the top right corner of the properties panel or click on the down pointing arrow at the top right corner of the properties panel and select close.

We can see a new layer with a half colored rectangle added just above the image layer in the layers panel on the right side of the photoshop window.

5)Saving the image

After we are satisfied with the adjustments we will save the image by selecting the menu File > Save or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S.This will open a dialog box where we can write the name of the image.After typing a name click on Save button.

The advantage of using an adjustment layer is that we can double click on the Black & White adjustment layer  anytime and change the adjustments again if we are not satisfied with the previous adjustments.