This tutorial is going to be short and easy. Black and white edits are really easy and quick to do. Remember my last tutorial we worked with adjustment layers. We will be again, but with different adjustment layers. I will be using one of my recent photo edits as an example. There are different ways to do black and white edits, using different adjustment layer combinations, and this is just how I made this particular edit.

First here is the original picture:

Which I cropped from here → Kyo Magazine Scan

Remember that a good crop of the photo is a strong foundation for a good photo edit.So we are going to crop it first.

I have cropped it like so. It’s hard to describe what a good crop is, it really depends on the picture. For this one I chose a focal point and cropped it so that it was slightly off center.

Remember that the width should be 500 pixels, if you are posting on tumblr, the dashboard post size is 500 pixels and you want every one to see your edit in all it’s glory and not re-sized and blurred. 

Duplicate the layer. Were going to reduce the noise of the photo to make it sharper, and more clear, and smoother.

So go to Filter>Noise>reduce Noise and use the sliders to adjust the noise of the photo to your desire.

Now were going to add a new adjustment layer, Black and White.

Go to Create new fill or adjustment layer> Black & White. Use the color sliders to tweak the black and white effect.

But that’s not all don’t get excited just yet. There are a few more adjustment layers to make this black and white just a little bit more special.

Add a new adjustment layer like before, this time exposure.

Right now it looks a bit washed out, this is good though. But we want to darken the black a bit and the midtones and highlights. So we are going to adjust the curves.

Now the shadows and highlights are right where I want them to be, but the midtones are still a bit too dark. This can easily be brightened by adjusting the levels.

I’ve slid the middle grey slider slightly to the left to brighten it up just a bit. 

Now I am happy with every shade of grey, and the black and white in the photo.

I would suggest playing around with these layers and all their settings and the layer positions to get different bnw effects. 

I have more photoshop tutorials planned for other techniques. Please be patient for the next one.

So here it is from start to finish:

I have been contemplating making tutorials for a while now. Then Anon inquired about if I have or ever will make a tutorial. That kind of inspired me to go ahead with my idea and make some tutorials.

This tutorial will cover something I call “Simple Editing”. Simple editing is simple in the way that it is really only a step above a “remastered photo” and can have an artistic touch. 

I will begin by using one of my recent edits as an example and go through step by step how to recreate it. And hopefully you will learn and can make your own edits. Because I do see allot of you saying things such as “I wish I could edit like that” well hopefully this tutorial will help you with that wish. I am not very good at explaining things, but I will try my hardest.

Sense it will be lengthy please click read more to see the tutorial.
The read more thing is not working for me right now. Sorry.

First off I will show you the original. This is the starting image.

I love this picture of Ruki, so I decided to edit it. I thought it would be a neat idea to flip it and have the blood stream from his mouth meat. 

First place the photo on a canvas. I will use a canvas of 500 width, and 350 height. It is important to use a width of 500, because on tumblr this is how wide the tumblr posts are on your dashboard. So when you upload it and people view it on their dash they can see it in it’s full detailed HQ glory.

(note: were working in pixels)

Make sure you crop it well. A good crop is the foundation of a good edit. 

Once you have it placed, it’s time to copy the layer. Flip the duplicate layer, and put it flush against the one you started out with so that they match up.

Now flatten these two layers together for the next step we will make the image seem sharper and cleaner and crisper.

Click Filter> Noise> Reduce Noise. Adjust the sliders as needed. Each image is different and some are more noisy than others so try and use your best judgment on this part.

Next we are going to edit the colors. I want to bring out the red more, and the blue tints and change the green up a bit.

So click on create new adjustment layer and Curves. In Curves you can change the RGB Curves as a whole or, Red, Green, and Blue Curves as well, just click the Channel drop down menu to toggle between them. This is where you can get creative and do what you want with the colors. I would suggest not to go overboard here, be careful not to blow out the color or cause pixelation.

Now we will change the colors some more. Not with the Curves, but with the Selective Color. Go to Create New adjustment Layer again> selective Color.

You can change colors to other colors. Or you can simply make the color more vivid or darker or what ever you desire here. You can also edit the neutral, white, and black here as well.

Next will change the exposure. Here you can brighten the image, change the gamma, and the offset. Depending on the picture, you can play around with it until you come out with the desired effect.

So add a new Adjustment layer, select Exposure.

Finally we want to bring the black down a bit, it’s a bit light and washed out at the moment. Now we can adjust the Levels. So add a new adjustment layer and select Levels.

And there you go. It looks nice huh? 
I have a habit of creating multiple layers of the image itself each time I make a direct change to it (with out a layer over top) such as the Reduce Noise change that I made at the beginning. Just incase later the only thing I want to change is the noise I still have the original cropped layer to work with. 

So here it is from start to finish and if you look at my edits you can see the finish product.