Easy black and white

I took the above shot about a year ago. The original looked a bit drab; but I stuck it into Topaz Black and White Effects, found a preset that made things pop, and the brought back the red lettering. Total time about five minutes.

There are certainly more competent black and white converters on the market, Nik Silver Efex Pro is an obvious contender; but it is 200 dollars and comes with a hefty learning curve; and if I wanted a learning curve I would be at college.

Topaz software is reasonably priced, easy to use, and produces pleasing enough images to my untrained and rapidly fading eyes.

And now, after a year or so, they have introduced version 2. The good news for those of us who bought version 1 is that we can upgrade at no cost; thank you Topaz. For everyone else, they are offering 30% off until the end of the month. If you don’t have it, now would be a good time; get it here.

Comments 🔗

2013-02-22 | Mike N says

I’ve just downloaded the new version, what preset did you use to get the red back in the top pic ?

2013-02-22 | Spike says

First, choose the B&W Effect you want for the overall image. Then go to Local Adjustments and click Color. Set Opacity and Edge Aware to 100% and choose a suitable brush size. Then brush over the colour you want to bring back. The Edge Aware is very good, so even with limited precision you can get just a single colour coming through. Change to Eraser if you make a mistake.

2013-02-22 | Spike says

The Transparency tool in the Finishing Touches panel is good too; you can use it to bring some of the original colour back into the entire photo, like in the jumping horse above.

2013-02-22 | Pete says

Is it ‘black and white’ if it’s got some colour in it?

2013-02-23 | Grant says

Yes Pete, it’s ‘blackandwhiteandcolour’… No, hang on, it can’t be ‘black and white’ any more if it’s got ‘colour’ in it… But black and white are colours too, and most black and white photographs are shades of grey, and grey’s a colour too, so it’s all colour photography! My brain hurts, can we have some more horses please? (Tints & hues entirely to your choice old chap…)

2013-02-26 | Mike N says

Ah-ha…got it now, thanks