The steps I’ll describe relate to Adobe Photoshop CS3 – though they’re very similar with Elements. 

Step 1:  Open your picture in Photoshop

As a technique, I never, ever modify the file from the camera. 

All my editing is non-destructive by adding Layers to the original. 

That way if something happens I don’t like, I just delete the Layer I’ve added and revert to the start position.

Step 2:  Add a Channel Mixer Layer

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer

Tick the ‘Monochrome’ box in the bottom left hand corner of the dialogue box. 

As a starter, try putting the sliders to +40% red, +40% green and +20% blue.

By playing with the sliders, you can change the effect of the Layer quite dramatically. 

I start out with the values above because they have the effect of darkening the sky slightly.  And in mono, a dark, dramatic sky is almost always good.

If you want the effect more extreme, try +60% red, +60% green and -20% blue. 

The only caution is you should aim for the values of the three sliders to add up to 100%.  Note Mr Adobe thoughtfully provides a ‘Total’ to save you the mental arithmetic.

Sure there are other ways of turning a colour picture into monochrome, but in my view the Channel Mixer is the most flexible and most effective.  It also maintains the file as an RGB colour file – and that’s important for the next step.

Step 3:  Warm it up a bit

Step 2 will create a pure monochrome image, but in practice its better if its slightly ‘warm’. 

This effect needs to be very slight, just enough to soften the harshness of pure black and white. 

I do that by adding another Layer, this time a Colour Balance Layer.

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Colour Balance

Try using the values of +2 on the Cyan to Red scale, and -2 on the Yellow to Blue scale. 

Remember to do it for the Shadows, Mid Tones and Highlights.

This should warm the image up just a touch - in my opinion a very important touch to get a really good monochrome picture.

Step 4:  Add a Vignette

This step makes a big difference to our final picture. 

A vignette is a slight darkening around the edges of the picture. 

It makes the sky that little bit more dramatic, and it helps the viewer’s eye focus on the primary content without drifting off the edges.

Start by making an elliptical selection of the main subject matter of the picture using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, with the feather set to its maximum of 250 pixels. 

When you’re happy with your selection, Select > Inverse. 

You end up with the edges of your picture outside of the main subject being selected with a nice gentle edge to the selection as a result of the feather.

Now we need to slightly darken the selected area. 

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. 

With the dialogue box open, move the centre slider to about 0.8. 

Not too much, or the effect of the Layer becomes too marked.

Step 5:  Bump the contrast up a bit

Good monochrome pictures depend on a full range of tones from black to white. 

There’s several ways of accomplishing this with both Levels and Curves. 

Assuming we’re starting with a picture with a reasonable range of tones, Levels will probably work best.

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels

Drag the left hand slider in a bit – try 10 as a start position. 

Drag the right hand slider in a bit – try 245 as a start position. 

The theory says both sliders should just touch the edges of the histogram – so this is definitely on to play with until you get the effect you like.

In summary

Sounds complicated, in fact very simple and very effective. 

All the values suggested above are just that – stepping off points for you to experiment to get the result you like.