I spend a fair bit of time thinking about color. While I can’t say that I was considering making this image into a black and white when I shot it, oftentimes original photo files that have quite a pop or contrast of color before they’ve even been edited, make nice black and whites.
The original image is an example of that:
I did create a color version of this image, but I was only somewhat satisfied with it. I thought maybe a black and white would work so I made a version with that treatment as well. I liked it but I guess I was still thinking about color. I decided my next step was going to be trying split toning. Because split toning changes the color tones of the image, it is most often used in editing color images. It’s a really powerful tool, and can have some nice applications in black and white as well.
But first here is a screenshot of the image without split toning:
Luminar AI calls this edit “toning”. Split toning is the way I’ve always seen it referred to in other software, and I think is a more accurate label. What I have done here is made the color tones in the highlights warmer and the shadows cooler, hence the idea of “split”. In the edit below, the highlight slider is moved towards yellow and the shadows toward blue.
With toning:
Final Version:
I’ll be honest, I like both the toning edit and the one without it. The one with toning definitely has a warmer feel to it, so I think which you prefer might have a lot to do with how you feel about that particular element. Feel free to leave a comment or question below.
Cheers!
Added to Lens-Arts, From Forgettable to Favourite.