How to make image black and white and back

Black and white photos: Give images new vitality

The monochromatic world presents a unique perspective that allows us to perceive tones, textures, and light in completely new ways. Black and white photos, especially portraits, are often considered more impactful because the lack of color eliminates interference, making the viewer more focused on the movements and emotions displayed in the photos. In design, grayscale images are said to improve composition and make information easier to communicate to the audience.

Whether you are a photographer who wants to try a new style, a blogger who wants to keep up with the trend, or just want to create a retro atmosphere for your album, mastering the black and white conversion techniques of image are very practical.

This article will introduce some easy and convenient ways to help you convert images to black and white, selectively change the colors in your photos, and even color your old family photos.

Quickly convert black and white images on Mac

Digitally converting color images into black and white images gives you complete control over the final effect. For best results during the editing phase, shoot in RAW format first and output the image as a 16-bit TIFF file. This way, you will have more information to process and get a higher quality conversion effect.

While most digital cameras have black and white mode that convert images to black and white when shooting, this will also make your photos look dull. Therefore, it is best to avoid using the camera's built-in black and white mode and try the following post-production techniques:

1. Convert to grayscale. Grayscale images contain only grays of different shades. This is the easiest way, but it doesn't give you control over the conversion process.
2. Lab color. This technique converts an image from RGB color mode to Lab color mode, which records brightness and color values ​​respectively. It will produce more precise mathematical transformations, but whether it is visually satisfactory depends on the photo itself.
3. Hue and Saturation Tool. Hue refers to the basic color in the color wheel, while saturation describes the intensity of the color. This method can be applied as a tuning layer and is also relatively fast, but again, it has little control over how colors are converted to black and white.
4. Gradient mapping. This tool maps black and white gradients to the brightness value of the photo: the dark area changes to black or dark gray, and the bright area changes to white or light gray. Gradient mapping can be added as a tuning layer, but you have limited control over the conversion results.
5. Channel mixer. The channel mixer allows you to adjust the proportions between the main color channels of the photo (red, green, and blue). This tool really starts to take advantage of the full potential of information contained in color photos and gives you a high degree of control over black and white conversion.
6. Black and white adjustment. This method combines control capabilities of the channel mixer and hue/saturation tool to produce intuitive and accurate black and white conversions. This is the most flexible way to make black and white effects in images, but it is only available in Photoshop CS3 and later.

Remember that some methods are destructive, which means the results cannot be readjusted. The only way to change it is to undo the conversion and start over. The conversion to grayscale and Lab color methods are destructive, while adjusting hue and saturation, using gradient maps, channel mixers, or black and white adjustments are non-destructive.

Customize photo colors and create stunning black and white images

With over 240 apps on Setapp, you can convert photos to black and white, edit, enhance, and batch coloring.

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Whether you want to create a stunning series of grayscale images or just need to quickly convert images to black and white, there are powerful AI-driven applications that can simplify the editing process to just a few clicks, giving you unexpectedly great results.

Luminar Neo is such an app – it can be used as a photo editing plugin and offers photo enhancements at any time.

To create a black and white image using Luminar Neo, just:

1. Launch the application and open the image you want to convert (File > Edit Single Image)
2. Then click on the Edit tab at the top of the image
3. In the right sidebar, click "Black and White" > "Convert to Black and White"
4. When you are satisfied with the grayscale image, click "File" ➙ "Export".

The "front and back" curtains in this app make it easy for you to compare original photos with modified photos.

Sometimes it may not be necessary to fine-tune, you just want to add a high-quality filter to convert the image to black and white. At this time, photo processing applications like Squash come in handy! The biggest advantage of this app is that it is able to apply changes in batches, so if you want to create a black and white photo series, you can easily apply the same filter to multiple photos.

Using Squash is very fast:

1. Launch the application and import your files
2. Click "Effect" in the right panel
3. Select the "Dark Night", "Ink Black" or "Movie Noir" filter to convert the image to black and white

Get it done! Export and enjoy the converted high-quality grayscale images.

Photographers who have always wanted to have a powerful, intuitive and easy-to-use image editor can try CameraBag Pro and end up ecstatic. Quick processing, quick batch changes, professional filters – these are just some of the options available. CameraBag Pro also offers something for those casual photographers—the app comes with a variety of preset effects that can add a "wow" effect to your photos before you post online.

To convert an image to black and white, start CameraBag Pro and follow these steps:

1. Drag a photo or album into the application window
2. Go to "Adjust" ➙ "Filter Black and White"
3. Use the slider at the bottom of the screen to adjust the Quantity and Filter Hue values

You can also select one of the presets under the Filter Black and White tab. When you are satisfied with the results, save or export the image.

With the help of a lot of features added by these apps, it's easier than ever to impress your friends and colleagues.

How to convert an image to black and white in preview

Each Mac comes with a preview, which is the default application to open and view image files in JPG, JPEG, PNG and other formats. It's often overlooked, but with some tips, even an app as simple as preview can help you create dramatic black and white images.

To start the black and white conversion process in preview:

1. Double-click to open a photo in the preview application
2. Select Tools ➙ "Adjust Color" in the top menu bar
3. Slide the Saturation slider completely to the left to remove all colors from the picture and convert them to black and white
4. Click "Save" or "Export" black and white image

If you want to further polish the black and white effect, you can do it by adjusting exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and color levels.

How to desaturate photos in the Photos app for Mac

Another useful built-in app on your Mac is Photos. In addition to basic tools like cropping and rotation, you can also use various "adjust" tools to improve your photo editing. By dragging various sliders, Photos allows you to adjust light, color, and black and white images. "Photo" is not the default application to open images on your Mac, to open in "Photo":

1. Right-click the image and select "Open with" ➙ "Photo"
2. Click "Edit" in the upper right corner
3. Select Color and drag the Saturation slider completely to the left to make the image black and white

Start here, fine-tune and customize your transformation by clicking on “Options” under each adjustment tool to show more details.

How to use black and white options in the Photos app

Alternatively, if you edit in Photos, select Black and White to adjust to create a grayscale image. Start here and modify the following slider:

1. Strength: Adjust the intensity of black and white tones
2. Neutral color: Change the gray area in the image
3. Tone: Give photos a higher or lower contrast appearance
4. Granules: Adjust the amount of film particles in the photo

During the customization process, press and hold the Option key to expand the range of available values ​​for each slider. Double-click the slider to undo the changes.

Use the filters in Photos to convert photos to black and white

Filters are one of the most effective ways to edit photos. The Photos app on your Mac comes with a variety of filters that you can quickly select and apply:

1. Switch from Adjust to Filters tab in Photos
2. Select Monochrome, Movie Noir, or Silver Tone to easily convert images to black and white

The "monochrome" filter converts the color directly to grayscale. "Silver Tone" is similar, but has a lower contrast ratio, while "Movie Noir" offers a higher contrast version of the original image.

Please read also:

• Take a photo on your Mac
• How to merge Jpg files into a Pdf file
• Best photo editing software for Mac
• Organize all photos on your Mac

How to batch color photos

This used to be magic that could not be achieved, but now, using machine learning and artificial intelligence technology, black and white photos can be colored in seconds.

PhotosRevive is an app for Mac and iOS designed to color black and white photos. Thanks to some excellent AI technologies, it can be called the best automatic picture shader in the field. PhotosRevive has a built-in scanner that allows you to color old family photos in the easiest way.

Get amazing colors with just a few clicks:

1. Start the application
2. Import your photos with simple drag and drop or browse and select photos stored in the Finder or Photos library
3. Click "Color" to start the automatic process

You can complete this step. However, if you want to adjust the color of your photo, you can manually adjust it after the automatic coloring process is over. Color Adjustment and Color Indicator will allow you to precisely customize colors and control rendering effects.

Or, CameraBag Pro is another great app for batch custom photo colors. Whether subtle or bold, there will certainly be a transformation that will suit your image best.

To apply color enhancement to multiple images in batches:

1. Start CameraBag Pro
2. Press ⌘ B and select the folder you want to batch process
3. Go to the Adjustments tab to manually adjust different aspects of the image
4. If you prefer to use ready-made conversions, click "Presets"

How to apply changes to specific colors in Photos on Mac

Back to the Mac default editor - Photos, you can use selective color adjustment and other adjustment tools to customize the color of the image. This option allows you to select and change the hue, saturation, and brightness of up to six different colors in your photo.

The following steps will walk you through the process of changing a specific color in Photos:

1. Open an image in Photos
2. Go to Edit ➙ Adjustment in the toolbar
3. Click the arrow next to "Selective Color"
4. Choose a color from the color well
5. Use the straw tool to select a color from the photo you want to change
6. After selecting a color, drag the Hue, Saturation, Brightness, and Range sliders to make changes

Another way to apply specific tone changes to the entire image or only part of the image is to use the Curve Adjustment Tool. To automatically correct the curve of the image, click "Auto". If you want to customize the color manually, add an anchor point on the diagonal and bend the line up to brighten the pixels, or down to darken the pixels.

Easily convert images to black and white or color them in black and white photos

With all these tips and knowledge you can create amazing black and white images or create amazing colors – whatever you think. Most importantly, you now have the best software that can help you. If you want to enhance your photos, use Luminar Neo; Squash will give you the best filters and effects; CameraBag Pro will become your new favorite photo editing app; PhotosRevive is the best picture shader at present.

Good news! All four apps – Luminar Neo, Squash, CameraBag Pro and PhotosRevive – are available immediately for free with a seven-day free trial of Setapp, a platform with over 240 best-in-class macOS and iOS apps that can help simplify any process and allow you to make exciting creative choices rather than exhausting technical choices. Try any Setapp application today and you will never regret it!

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