One of the “secrets” of adding a great-looking color tint to a photo is starting with a great black and white image. Thanks to the new Black & White command in the Photoshop CS3 Beta, it’s very simple to create a great black and white image–and add a color tint.

Step One
Although you can apply the Black & White command from the Image>Adjustments menu, I highly recommend using an Adjustment Layer instead (you’ll see why a little later). From the Layers palette popup menu, choose Black & White from the Adjustment Layer menu. Here’s the result without changing any settings:

Step Two
It doesn’t hurt to experiment with a variety of settings, so first click the Auto button and see what you get.

Step Three
To further adjust the image, drag the individual sliders: drag to the right to increase the value, lightening the image. If a color isn’t evident in the photo, the equivalent slider will have little or no effect. In our example the green slider has a limited affect until you push the values pretty far. It’s also possible to edit the sliders directly from the photo itself. Simply click and hold on an area of the photo until the cursor changes to a “scrubby slider.” Drag to the left or right, and the appropriate color slider will shift. Here I clicked on the face of one of the models, which affected the Red slider.

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