Tag Archive for 'Black and white'

Silver Efex Pro (Nik Software)

SilverEfexPro

This is a plug-in for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture which recreates the style of classic black and white films and printing techniques in a highly realistic way.

Gradient Map

gradientmap-01

The Gradient Map is an interesting tool. What it does is to match the brightness values in the photo with the colours in the gradient you specify. There might not be too much you can do with this in colour [...]

Channel Mixer

channel-mixer-split

Photoshop’s Channel Mixer adjusts the relative strengths of the red, green and blue channels. It can be used for colour correction but is most often used when converting colour photos to black and white because it can simulate the effect [...]

Black and white

black-and-white

Black and white is traditional style of photography still popular today. ‘Black and white’ isn’t strictly black and white, of course. It’s actually, black, grey and white since there are lots of intermediate shades. Black and white may also be [...]

Yellow filter

Used in black and white photography to enhance landscape shots. It does this by darkening blues (skies) without affecting the yellows and greens of vegetation. Black and white film is ‘panchromatic’ – it’s sensitive to all colours – so if you [...]

Solarisation

solarisation03

This technique produces a photograph which is a curious blend of both positive and negative images. Darker areas of the scene come through as normal tones, while lighter areas are reversed. This was done in the darkrom by re-exposing the [...]

Sepia toning

sepia

Sepia toning is a popular treatment for black and white photos, producing a characteristic brown colour which evokes old prints and times gone by. In the days of film it was done using special chemicals during the print development process, but [...]

Red filter

redfilter

This is one of the so-called ‘contrast’ filters used in black and white photography. Although the pictures are black and white, the film (or sensor) is sensitive to all colours of light, and by blocking certain colours, it’s possible to [...]

Infra-red

infra-red-film

Infra-red is a part of the spectrum not visible to the naked eye, but visible to certain types of film and digital camera sensors. Indeed, digital cameras have infra-red filters to prevent them recording these wavelengths. However, infra-red light can produce [...]

Greyscale

greyscale

A mode where colour information is translated into shades of grey. It’s the quickest way to turn a colour image into a black and white photo, though not always the best. When you change the colour mode to greyscale, the red, [...]

Dodge

A technique for lightening parts of a photo. In the darkroom it’s done by shading areas of a print while it’s being exposed under the enlarger. It can also be done in Photoshop and other image-editing programs using a ‘Dodge’ [...]

Desaturate command

The Desaturate command in Photoshop takes all the colour out of an image but without converting the RGB image into a greyscale image. It’s the same as opening the Hue/Saturation dialog and reducing the Saturation level to zero.

Contrast filters

Used for tonal control in black and white photography. ‘Contrast’ filters are used in black and white photography to change the brightness of the different colours in the scene. For example, a ‘red’ filter will cut out much of the [...]