Enhancing black and white photos

I have some old washed out black and white photos that I would like to improve. What are the best steps to use with Elements 10 that will sharpen and enhance my old black and white photos?
Thanks,
DMDJ

As hatstead mentioned, you can go about it with a levels adjustment.
Here is a faded b&w where I invoked a levels adjustment. The "rule of thumb" for enhancing many pictures is to move the left & right sliders to where the histogram starts to rise. Then move the middle slider to darken or lighten the overall picture.
After moving the sliders:
If you then invoke levels again to see the result, it is the optimal bell-shaped curve:
You can so the same simply by invoking Auto Levels. Here is what the histogram looks like after Auto Levels on the original picture. Again, you can then fine-tune the result via the middle slider.

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How do I get a black and white photo in Photoshop Elements 11?

I have a very old version of Photoshop, release 6 I believe. In that release, I am able to use enhance/brightness and contrast, and when I slide the contrast to 100%, I get a pure black and white image of my photo. I Photoshop 11, which I just purchased today, I am unable to get a pure black and white image, only grayscale. I cut pictures out of wood, and it's fundamentally necessary that I can contrast pictures into pure black and white. How do I do that in Photoshop 11? The first screenshot is what I need in Photoshop 11, the second screen shot is the limitation I'm seeing in Photoshop 11. How do I get a black and white photo??

(I edited this reply because I originally couldn't see the screen shots.)
There was a change made a few versions ago where Brightness and Contrast were improved so that they did not clip values so quickly. This was intended to improve how Brightness and Contrast worked for photographs, but it makes it work less well for purposes such as channel manipulations or printmaking.
In Photoshop there is a Legacy check box in Brightness/Contrast to make it work the "old" way when that is desired. It looks like that check box isn't in Photoshop Elements, which is what you're actually using. I'm not sure if there is a way to get the Legacy behavior in Elements, so you'll want to ask over in the Photoshop Elements forum.

How do i colorize a black and white photo?

I have an old black and white photo of a family member I would like to colorize. how is this done? ? I am new to photoshop.

Is this a scanned image? If you have a grayscale image you have to do it manually using a brush tool and choosing colors with the color picker.
If the image was originally RGB and converted to B&W then it’s possible to use:
Enhance >> Adjust Color >> Hue/Saturation
There is a colorize checkbox and you can simply adjust the sliders for an overall color change.

Black and white photo with color

how do I leave color in a black and white photo ?

There are several ways, here is one:
Open picture file
Duplicate the background layer
On the background copy layer, remove the color (Enhance>convert to black and white)
Apply a mask to the background copy layer
Paint with a black brush where you want to reveal the color. If you go too far, correct with a white brush.

How to determine actual colors in a black and white photo?

I'm not sure if I'm in the right section, but I'm wondering if it's possible to use an Adobe program to restore actual colors in a black and white photo? I don't want add color by imagining or guessing; I need to determine the real colors. This might not even be possible, but if it is, please tell me what I can use.
Thank you.

That's where the artistry comes into play when they colorize old movies.
A lady wears a nice dress: is it greeen or purple? It looks gray.
A baby comes home from the hospital cute new baby clothes: pink or blue? They look light gray.
That's a nice school tie that guy's wearing: use the wrong colors on the stripes, and he's at a different school. But they're nothing more than varying shades of gray.
If there's one thing missing in a B&W photograph, it's any vestige of color information. All you have is gray scale. You may NEED to determine the real colors, but without a color photograph to use as a reference image, you're out of luck.

PSE 8: Color Tinting from Black and White Photo

Basically, the title says it all. Can someone tell me how to add areas of color in a black and white photo for PSE 8?
I really appreciate it.

Using Hue Saturation won't colorize my whole picture? What if I just want to color a hat? I mean, I know about hue/saturation and I know how to colorize. But, how do you do it for something specific within that picture and leaving the rest black and white?
Select what you want to colorize and then apply the colorization methods. You might want to first feather the selection 1 or 2 px to get a soft edge. As to Barbara's first method (painting on a blank layer with Color blend mode), the color tends to be washed out. If you want a deeper color, duplicate the layer and set its blend mode to Multiply; if the result is too dark then lower the duplicate layer's Opacity.

Why do some black-and-white photos disappear in Mac Preview and Safari?

I sent a PDF to a colleague recently only to discover that he uses Mac Preview to view PDFs and not Adobe Reader. The unfortunate part is that, although full-color photos all appeared, small black-and-whites were inconsistent: some appeared and others did not.
Moreover, the same problem turns up when using Safari, though Google Chrome displays the PDF perfectly.
One reference point is that a full version of the PDF appears just fine in Preview and Safari. It's when the original is reduced or optimized that some of the small black-and-white photos disappear. Of course all photos appear in Reader, even when they PDF is reduced or optimized.
I have examined the small photos and have been unable to find any consistent trait among those that appear and among those that do not. I have experimented with them: layered and flat, with and without alpha channels, with and without profiles, as RGB and grayscale, with byte order for IBM PC and Mac, as TIFFs and JPEGs — in other words in every variation I could think of. I have used both Acrobat Pro 8.3.1 and Acrobat XI. Nothing I have tried has varied the outcome.
The obvious solution is to avoid Mac Preview and Safari, but I am planning to distribute a complicated project to a large audience and can't control what viewers they use.
Does anyone know what the problem is?

As I reported and you confirm, the things I tried had no effect.
You point to the compression and image settings, but that leaves the question why some photos and not others showed up: presumably they were all subjected to the same compression and image settings.
There are a great many possible permutations of compression and image settings, and I'm on deadline. Is there perhpas a combination of compression and image settings you recommend?
Thanks!

Edit view changes black and white photos to "negative" effec

I'm having a strange problem with certain black and white photos. In thumbnails, they look fine. But when I view them in Edit mode, or double click one to see the detail, it switches over so that it looks like a negative.
Anyone have any idea what the cause of this is, and how to fix it?
Thanks much,
S

You can't take black and white photos with a digital camera. They all have an RGB sensor, so they all shoot full colour. What happens is that your camera tags the photo with a label > show me in B%W. iPhoto doesn't know about this label, so it shows you the image as it is.
Going forward, you'll probably be able to render better versions of B&W on your computer than with your camera. You'll have more control.

Hp photsmart 309a black and white photos print purple

When I print black and white photos they have a very purple tint. Any suggestions?

If Photoshop manages color, you need to pick the correct profile for the printer/paper. The profile will be called something like e.g. <printer name> Epson Premium Glossy, if that's the paper you're using.

Coloring in Black and White photos

How do you color in a black and white photo?

Actually you can very easily add color to a B&W picture using the Adjustment Brush with the 'Color' option set to the color you want to paint on the image area. You may also find using the 'Auto Mask' setting helps to confine the brush strokes to the area you are trying to fill. If you accidentally paint outside an area hold down the ALT key, which puts a in the brush allowing you to remove the color.
You can also use this in reverse with a color image by first painting over the entire image using a large Adjustment Brush with Saturation set to -100. Next hold down the ALT key and paint (i.e. remove) in the area you want to reveal the original color. Optionally you can set a new Adjustment brush using the Color picker as detailed above for a B&W image to paint in a different color.
You actually have three different options for painting inside LR and maybe even more if you think outside the box!

Reprinting black and white photos

I'm using an HP Photosmart Premium C309g All-in-One Printer. When I reprinted an old black and white photo, it came out perfect. However, on subsequent black and white reprints, some photos had orange tints and others had purplish tints. Is there a way of correcting this problem.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Sounds like your ink is running out.
Pete
Kubuntu 14.04LTS / Photosmart D5460 / Deskjet 3070A / Officejet 4630 / LibreOffice Version: 4.2.7.2 Build ID: 420m0(Build:2) / Netgear WNR2200 / Virgin Media SuperHub 2

Black and white photo prints with purple cast

I used Photoshop to convert the digital photos to black and white before placing them in Indesign CS3. On the monitor the photo looks great, but when I print the newsletter, each photo has a purple tint. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

Polly,
your black and white photos are probably 'Grayscales'.
The print has a tint because it is printed by rich black
CMYK instead of K-only, and the printer is not perfectly
calibrated or not calibrated at all.
a)It is a PostScript printer and it was chosen
Output=CompositeRGB instead of CompositeCMYK or
CompositeGray (CompositeCMYK is necessary if the
doc contains Grayscales and color images).
Composite### doesn't mean the source but the printer.
PostScript toner printers and inkjets are CMYK devices.
Desktop printers are often considered as RGB devices.
b)The Grayscale was converted back to RGB (still gray though).
c)The Grayscale was converted to CMYK, which delivers in
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Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

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I have a HP 7520 Photosmart all in one printer. Has been printing fine until today. I was trying to print an old black and white photo. It came out sort of pink. Have tried all the tips I could find. What is wrong?

The black ink is pigmented and not compatible with photo paper so when printing on photo paper only the color and photo inks are used. A pinkish result would indicate that cyan is not printing properly. The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve the issue.
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
If your problem is solved please click the "Accept as Solution" button ------------V
If my answer was helpful please click the "Thumbs Up" to say "Thank You"--V

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I am doing a video with all black and white photo's with a black background. The black background does not show up black when projected on a screen. I used a black border on the photo's and the border shows up black. How do I get the background to show up black?
Thanks,

The black background does not show up black when projected on a screen
What does it show as? Did you try using a black color matte on a track below the images?
-DH

Black and white photo shows up as a colour photo in iPhoto

Hi all,
Can someone please solve this mystery for me?
I took a black and white photo with my Nikon D40. It appears as black and white when I play it back in the camera.
When I transferred this black and white photo, along with other colour photos, to iPhoto, it showed up as a colour photo on my computer.
Why is this?
Thanks for any insight...

Lutetia
You didn't take a black and white photograph. Your D40 can't take a black and white photo, it can only take full colour. To make the photo look black and white the D40 set a flag on the file. This flag is an instruction: display me a certain way. iPhoto is not aware of the flag and so shows you the full colour pic.
Regards
TD

Enhancing black and white photos

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