Quick Tip; What To Do First When Converting From Color To Black And White

Black and white conversion from a color RAW file (click to enlarge)

Fuji X-T1, 10-24mm f/4 lens @ 15.9mm; 1/1000th sec. @ f/8; ISO 640

Are you a digital photographer?

Do you primarily shoot color?

Do you sometimes like to convert one or more of your images to black and white?

Do you use Lightroom, Camera Raw or another editor to convert color digital RAW files to black and white using the software's conversion option?

Do you sometimes find converting doesn't give you the results that you want or you just can't get the tonalities you want?

If so, here is the first thing I suggest you do before you convert:  White balance your image in color before converting.  

Believe it or not, your image's white balance can make the difference between an easy conversion, with very little work on your part to suit your vision or a difficult conversion requiring lots of adjustments of individual colors before getting the image the way you want it.

The blue/yellow white balance slider as well as the green/magenta slider both will act very similar to filters placed over the camera lens on black and white film.  The white balance will also affect luminance (overall image brightness) and contrast.  Typically, as you move a slider more toward the yellow end of the spectrum, your image will get brighter.  When I printed color negative film for many years, the first thing I did was get the white balance correct before trying to set the luminance of the image.  If you first got your print to the correct brightness, then color corrected, the brightness of the image would change.

I suggest you experiment for yourself.  Take several of your color RAW images and convert them with a white balance way out of whack.  Then white balance the same image and see if the difference in gray tones may be more pleasing to you.  You may find it that is all you need to do to have a pleasing conversion without having to go into the individual color sliders to manipulate individual tones.  In some images the difference is greater and in others not so much.  But a correct white balance will get you started on the right track.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

All content on this blog is © 2013-2016 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.