It’s sometimes said that digital photography struggles to capture the ‘feel’ of black & white film. Recreate a classic black & white film look: DxO FilmPack 6 Now we can paint with white over the image to reveal local contrast changes in the areas that need it. Here we add a Curves layer and plot an S-shaped curve to boost contrast just as in step 3, but then we hit Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert the mask on the curves layer and hide the effect.

Once done, we can check our dodging and burning by toggling the layer on and off, or lower layer opacity to tone it down if we need to.Īdjustment Layers are ideal for making local adjustments. The Dodge tool works best when the range is set to Midtones or Highlights. Next we can switch to the Dodge tool (or hold Alt to temporarily switch) and paint to lighten areas. First we set the Range to Shadows or Midtones and strength to 20%, then paint to darken areas of the image. The Dodge and Burn tools let you lighten or darken tones. Open the image into Photoshop for dodging and burning, then duplicate your layer with Cmd/Ctrl+J. The more pronounced the S-shape, the greater the contrast. The top point controls the highlights, the bottom point sets the depth of the shadows, and the midpoint controls the midtone brightness. Go to the Tone Curve panel and plot three points along the diagonal curve line then drag them to make a shallow S-shape. Go to the Profile Browser in Camera Raw/Lightroom and try out the range of black & white profiles. These one-click effects can transform your image in seconds, and also make for useful starting points for further edits. If you want quick and easy black & white treatments then try using Profiles. Open the image into Camera Raw then click the B&W button in the Basic Panel to begin the conversion process. These are the best tools for converting to mono in Photoshop. Photoshop’s Camera Raw and Lightroom both offer identical black & white tools. Not only is this more intuitive, it also allows you to affect several sliders at once, which leads to more-natural-looking shifts in brightness.

You can use the sliders, but it’s easier to grab the target tool and then drag left/right over parts of the image. We can use these to, for example, darken down the blues to make a sky more dramatic, or lift reds and oranges to make skin tones brighter. The Black and White Mixer panel has eight sliders that let you control the brightness of different colour ranges.

But this raft of options doesn’t necessarily translate to superior black & white conversions.Įven though we’re removing the colour, it can still play a vital role in the look of our monochrome image.

For 1TB cloud storage the price is $19.99 / £19.97 monthly and $239.88 / £238.47 annually.įor black & white conversions alone there are at least six methods (Camera Raw B&W Panel, Black and White Layer, Desaturate command, Gradient Map Adjustment, Channel Mixer, and LAB Color technique). The Photography package costs $9.98 / £9.98 a month or $119.88 / £119.21 annually and for that you get Photoshop, Lightroom and 20GB of cloud storage. The software is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud, a subscription-based service. Below, we’ll explore the key features of three of the best black & white editors – here we’ll look at Adobe Photoshop, then delve into DxO FilmPack 6 and Nik Silver Efex (formerly Silver Efex Pro).ĭon’t miss our complete guide to black and white photography too, and how to take better black and white building shots The best software for black & white all-rounder: Adobe PhotoshopĪs the best all-round image-editor, Photoshop has a depth of features that no other program can match. When it comes to converting your images to black & white, there are some excellent image-editing software options out there. We show you the best software for black & white editing, using Adobe Photoshop, DxO Film Pack and Nik Silver Efex

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