Photoshop in black and white
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Select the first Hue Saturation layer that you created and double-click the layer thumbnail to reopen the Hue/Saturation dialog box. Move the Hue slider in this dialog box to the left. Observe the changes to the tonality of the image as you move the slider. Blues will be darkest when the slider is moved to a position around –150. Click OK. The drama of the image will probably have been improved quite dramatically already but we can take this further with some dodging and burning.
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Click the New Layer icon in the Layers palette. Set the blending mode of the layer to Overlay. Set the default Foreground and Background colors in the tools palette and then select the Gradient tool. In the options bar select the Foreground (Black) To Transparent and Linear gradient options and then lower the opacity to 50%.
Set the blending mode to Overlay
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Drag one gradient from the base of the image to the horizon line, and a second from the top of the image window to the horizon line. This will have the effect of drawing the viewer into the image and create an increased sense of drama. Lowering the opacity of the layer if the effect is too strong.
Step 5
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Press the Alt (Windows) or Alt/Option (Mac OS X) key and click the New Layer icon. In the New Layer dialog box, set the blending mode to Overlay and select the Fill With Overlay-Neutral Color (50% Gray) checkbox. Select the Paintbrush tool and select a soft edged brush from the options bar and lower the opacity to 10%. A layer that is 50% Gray in Overlay mode is invisible. This Gray layer will be used to dodge and burn your image nondestructively, i.e. you are not working on the actual pixels of your image. If any mistakes are made they can either be corrected or the layer can be discarded. Paint onto the Gray layer with Black selected as the foreground color to burn (darken) the image in localized areas or switch to white to dodge (lighten) localized areas. In the project image the cliffs and the surf were dodged to highlight them.
Set the blending mode of the new layer to Overlay and select Fill With Overlay-Neutral Color (50% Gray)
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Try experimenting with the introduction of some of the original color. Duplicate the background layer by dragging it to the new layer icon. Then drag the background copy further up the layers stack to a position just below the Levels adjustment layer. Reduce the opacity of this layer to let the Black and White version introduce the drama once more.
Step 7
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Select the top layer and then create a Levels adjustment layer (one adjustment layer to rule them all) to sit above all of the other layers. Make sure the histogram extends all the way between the black and white sliders. Move the sliders in to meet the histogram if this is not the case.
Move the sliders to meet the histogram
Set the Saturation slider to -100
