MacFormat UK – June 2019

To ch a n g e th e

mood of a

monochrome

conversion,

we’ll also add

a little colour

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APPLE SKILLS Mac software

42 | MACFORMAT | JUNE 2019

Improve your mono pics

How to create a striking, high-contrast black and white print

IT WILL TAKE

10 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN

How to lighten or

darken tones, ensure

maximum contrast,

and add a subtle

wash of colour

YOU’LL NEED

Affinity Photo

By making a black and white

conversion of a colour image,

you can help the viewer focus

on contrasting shapes in a pic.

This works particularly well with the lines and

patterns produced by architectural subjects

such as our Scottish viaduct here.

A monochrome image harks back to the

days of analog film photography, adding a

touch of retro class and atmosphere to your

shot. Black and white images also stand out

from the colour crowd, which helps them get

noticed on social media platforms, such

as Twitter and Instagram.

While it’s a simple matter to desaturate

a colour shot using Affinity Photo, this can

simply result in a photo that suffers from a

muddy wash of greyscale tones. An effective

black and white conversion should have a

high contrast between the shadows and the

highlights to help key subjects stand out.

In the walkthrough, we’ll show you how to

use a Levels adjustment layer in Affinity Photo

to ensure the contrasting presence of some

pure white highlights and jet black shadows

in your mono makeovers.

Old-school techniques

In pre-digital days, black and white film

photographers could pop coloured filters over

their camera’s lens to selectively lighten or

darken specific areas in the monochrome

picture. For example, a red filter would darken

blue skies, enabling white clouds to stand out

more in contrast. Affinity Photo’s adjustment

layers provide similar tools that can help you

selectively lighten or darken greyscale tones

based on the scene’s original colours.

In our example monochrome conversion,

we’ve darkened the blue sky and lightened

the sunlit stone to help the viaduct stand

out. To change the mood of a monochrome

conversion, we’ll also show you how to add

a little colour. A cyanotype is a mono image

with a subtle wash of blue which creates a

chilly look. Alternatively, you can add a warm

wash of sepia for a more nostalgic vibe.

George Cairns