I have encountered many designers and art directors who aren’t aware that there is another way to convert images from color to black and white in Photoshop. Most people simply go to Image > Mode > Grayscale and call it done. There is a better way! It only takes two minutes using adjustment layers, and you’ll see a noticeable difference in the sharpness and quality of your black and white images.

Step 1. Open your image, and bring up the layers palette. Click the adjustment layer button at the bottom of the layers palette (circle shape half white/half black). Select Hue/Saturation from the dropdown.

Leave the settings as is, for now.

Step 2. Click the adjustment layer button again, to add a second adjustment layer. This time, with the top layer selected, you will go to the Adjustments palette, and drag the saturation slider all the way to the left (-100).

Step 3. Now, select the first adjustment layer you created (it will be the middle layer in your document). Click the layer blending mode at the top of the layers palette (by default, it will say normal). Select “color”.

Step 4. In the Adjustments palette, drag the Hue slider back and forth until the image looks good to you.

That’s it! Let’s compare the results:

Original image:

Grayscale:

Converted with adjustment layers:

I’ve had the pleasure recently to do work for Sharespost, a startup in Santa Monica that tracks pre-IPO startups like Facebook, Twitter, Tesla Motors, and Zynga. This week, we built the world’s first Dow-like tracker for pre-IPO startups, which is getting no shortage of press:

AP: Dow industrials for startups? Pre-IPO index opens

Forbes: SharesPost Launches Index

Bloomberg: Facebook Valued at $11.5 Billion in SharesPost Index

And the other day, we received the drawing in the mail: