Photo Enhancing: Creamier Chocolate B&W

1721. That was what my cell flash at me, when I finally gave up rolling in back to sleep. Dunno what had me knocked out. I slept literally thru the day. Frustrated my mum over waking me up. Even my lil bro call me champion after him. Get it? Champion at sleeping in. Flattering, I guess.

Now, as I had fueled in of sleep, I'm determine to do some research on post production. Especially on black and white. I know there's tons of way to do a simple B&W pictures, there's even a simple one click solution. But, what I want is instead of black and white, I want a chocolate one, haha, well like mocha, much more creamier than dull and boring B&W.

So here's some way to convert color pictures to B&W in photoshop;

1. Image => Adjustments => Desaturate
2. Image => Adjustments => Gradient Map
3. Channel Mixer Layer.
   In Layers Palette, fourth from the left, there is a little circle that's half black and half white. Click it and click on Channel Mixer.Then just click the the monochrome option on the bottom left.
   
4. Image => Adjustments => Hue/Saturation.
   Move the Saturation slider to zero.
5. Fill a new layer with black and then set it to Color. After that play with Brightness/Contrast.

The picture I'm using is another friend of mine, Izz.

This is enhanced picture in lightroom. Tips: tune down the clarity slider a bit to make skin look soft. Ooohhh :)

This is the SOOC. I know. Bleghh!

This is my trial on B&W. I tried the number 5 option. Instead of filling it with black, I picked brown/chocolate.

I still didn't get the kind of end result I aiming for but this will do.I'm making a progress, that is. I'll keep on trying then.

On the side note; mad_ping: I haven't repent yet, the shade say it all. But atleast it's not me. Haha