How to Convert Colored Photos to Analog Style Black and White Pictures in Photoshop


It is very easy to convert colored photos to black and white ones with the channel mixer or the Gradient Map in Adobe’s image editing program, Photoshop. However, they somehow look too digital. You can lend your photos an analog feel by adding a Noise Filter. This analog style will give your photos a special look which will make them look like real old photos. You can use Photoshop to convert and touch up colored photos to grayscale. Use the following steps.

  • Convert the image to Grayscale.
  • Go to ‘Filter > Noise > Add noise’ and vary the intensity of the effect in the dialog using the bar. Granulation thus created reminds you of the visible silver grain of analog films.

convert color photos to analog style black and white

  • There is another way to add noise to the picture: go to ‘Filter > Texture > Grain’. Set the ‘Grain Type’ to ‘Regular’. In the dialog box that opens up, experiment with the ‘Intensity’ and ‘Contrast’ bars till you come across the desired setting that makes it look similar to analog.

Note: In case you have converted the black and white picture through ‘Adjustments > Gradient Map’, the grains are very colorful, this is quite unwanted. The reason for this is because the file is not originally a grayscale image and still contains all the color information and the filter converts this into noise. You should try and avoid this scenario by using the specified steps.

Filed under: Coding and Design
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August 24, 2009 by: Prasanth Chandra

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