Use Preview To Make Your Photos More Black And White Artsy [OS X Tips]

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Don't eat this one, ever.
Don't eat this one, ever.

If you want to get all Ansel Adams and start exploring black and white photography, you could go out and buy a fancy photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop, you could go see if anyone still makes film cameras with black and white film, or you could go the super easy and cheap route and just use Preview, an app that’s already on your Mac.

Your call, of course, but here’s how to get Preview to make your photos all arty and stuff.

First up, grab a nice photo you’ve taken with your camera, whether it’s a point and shoot or a digital SLR camera. Or, heck, grab a photo you took with your iPhone–they usually turn out pretty well.

Open the photo in Preview by right-clicking on it and choosing “Open In Preview” from the contextual menu that shows up. Now, head up to the Tools menu, and choose “Adjust Color.”

You’ll get a whole host of options, one of which is the Auto Levels button. Hit that for a good middle of the road overall picture enhancement. Now, find the Saturation slider, and drag it all the way to the left. All the color will drain from your photo, leaving it in nice black and white.

Next, mess with the three sliders under the levels curve at the top to balance out the dark, white, and mid tones in your photo, to make it look extra great.

Once you’re done with all the adjusting, go ahead and save your photo. Post it to Flickr or something, ’cause it looks cool!

Via: OS X Daily

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