Creating black and white images.

[HeartBreaker]

I know how to convert images to just black and white so don't think im a total newbie.
But I use stencils to create paintings and and I usually use photo's. But I can never seem to get it right when im converting them to just plain black and white. It always seems to come out too dark or too light. Is there anyone who knows a good way to do this without losing any detail

Thanks

[LucasZ21]

You might want to try messing with the brightness and contrast, until you get what you like.

(brightness and contrast = little black and white circle on the bottom of your layers pallette)

[Medley]

Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation). Set the master saturation to 0. This removes all color. Now click on the drop-down menu, and go through the individual color channels, playing with the "lightness" slider. This allows you to control how grey the reds, greens, etc.. look, and gives you a huge amount of control to fine-tune your image.

Hope this helps.

-Medley.

[tombothetominator]

^ Medley's way works well, or you can also create a chanell mixer adjustment layer, select the monocrhome box, and then slide the sliders to adjust contrast levels.

[CopperDesk]

OR you can go to top menu:

Image> Calculations>

Choose "new document" from "result" drop down... click "ok"

Now you can adjust brightness/contrast whatever... as your choice.