Easily Create Beautiful Black and White Images in Affinity Photo

[@AbiNomac]

This video was clearly explained and by someone skilled. Thank you and God bless.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thank you! Glad you found it helpful.

[@alfredogcastillo6408]

Thanks for your full and comprehensive explanation on the tools to use!!!!

[@JohnMagnoski]

You’re welcome, Alfredo!

[@jacqueslauzon]

I started to do B&W photos and it's the first time I see a video to realized them so easy. Thank you John!

[@JohnMagnoski]

You’re welcome! Glad it was helpful to you.

[@UnknownSageMaster]

Even though it's a B&W tutorial, I appreciate how you managed to drop general Affinity Photo workflow tips as well. Great tutorial

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thank you. 👍

[@davidellinsworth22]

Very nice video. One thing that could be added is that 32bit precision is also available in the photo Persona. Before loading your raw file, go to the Assistant>Develop Assistant and in drop box that says raw output format select 32bit HDR. When you go from Develop into Photo you will still be working in 32bit, and because it's unbounded nothing is clipped when moving between personas

[@aussiegoosebumps]

Thanks for sharing this great tutorial John. Dig it.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks Robert!

[@aussiegoosebumps]

@@JohnMagnoski I have many B+W negs from the 80's. Would I edit using this method after scanning them.?

[@JohnMagnoski]

I haven’t scanned negatives for a while now, but when I did I used a program called Silverfast and then simply work the image (then in photoshop) using levels and curves. Since there isn’t any color information in the B&W negatives, there’s no need to mess with the black and white channel sliders. 😉

[@aussiegoosebumps]

@@JohnMagnoski Thanks John for taking the time to answer my question.

[@JohnMagnoski]

No problem! Hope it was helpful. 😉

[@smorris1464]

Thank you this is very helpful. Though my eyes fail to discern the subtle workings of split toning on the mountain image, I can make it work with others.

[@riff-Nfk]

Nice tutorial dude.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks!

[@mauricestevens2477]

Great tutorial John, thanks for doing it. New to both black and white edits and Affinity Photo - followed the steps and learned a lot.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks for the feedback, Maurice! Glad I could help. 😉

[@chrisstubbs5742]

Hi John from South Africa. New to Affinity, a very informative video looking forward to more

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thank you, Chris! More to come...

[@colemyst]

Thank you this is really helpful.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Happy to help! 👍

[@rejeancouture6016]

Thank you very much for explaining so well and so clearly. I use to speak french and many tutorials comes from UK, I have to be concentrated to learn all the tips, but you explained so well, :)

[@JohnMagnoski]

You're very welcome! Glad I could be of help. : )

[@Branditsch]

Wow, i think Affinity Photo is cool tool

[@Patricksstrategy]

Excellent set of expositions. So many of us who use B&W sparingly will really appreciate the depth of your tutorial, especially the portraits. So Thank you so much.

[@sdhute]

Very good especially the stone arch bridge pic in the background of that jpg

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thank you!

[@EddieBrown-su9vv]

Hi John thanks for this video been all over youtube trying to grasp this topic till I thought my head was going to explode lol.... came across your video just the job

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks so much! Glad it was helpful. 👍

[@sightlink]

Thank you for making this video, I found it very helpful. I like your calm, clear way of explaining things. The audio quality was excellent, as was the graphic and lighting values. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your other work. Best wishes!

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks for the kind comment, David! I really appreciate the feedback.

[@nancywebb25]

Hi John, I just found you on Instagram. I'm really glad you use Affinity Photo because that is all I have. I've been using it about three or four years. I've never had any formal training unless you call watching KZbin videos formal. I enjoyed the video. I learned several things I didn't know. I noticed when you had an adjustment panel open and you made an adjustment, when you were finished, you clicked the red circle in the upper left of the box. I have always clicked merge. Is there a difference and should I be using the red circle instead?

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks, Nancy! I love Affinity Photo and feel it is a great program. When I click the red circle, I am simply closing the adjustment panel. This allows me a way to go back and tweak if necessary. It's a non-destructive form of editing. By clicking on the MERGE button, you're merging that adjustment layer to your underlying layer(s), permanently committing those adjustments to your layers below. It's destructive in that you cannot readjust those settings after merging. Hope this helps!

[@nancywebb25]

@@JohnMagnoski thanks so much for explaining. I appreciate it. I understand. So when I know I'm finished editing a photo, how do I make it permanent? I may already know the answer, I just don't know I know the answer. LOL! Do i just save and export?

[@JohnMagnoski]

@@nancywebb25 You’re welcome! When you save the file, you will have to save it as a .afphoto file. Think of it like a photoshop file that can be accessed and re-edited later. If you want to safe a jpg, tiff, etc. you’ll want to use the Export menu item (file > export) then choose your desired file type.

[@nancywebb25]

@@JohnMagnoski Got it! Thanks again so much for the help.

[@nancywebb25]

@@JohnMagnoski Sorry to bother you again, but i finally had a chance to sit down and edit a photo after doing a lot of Christmas stuff. I noticed that when I open up a new layer panel, there is no red circle in the upper left corner like I saw in yours. Do you have any idea why and if so how can I get it to show up?

[@marvinspates924]

Great video!!! I love bnw too!!! New subscriber!!!

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks Marvin!

[@tomaswilde5481]

Very nice, very interesting and useful. I learned a lot . It would be interesting that you highlight your mouse pointer; that will help following you. Thank you very much, from Bogota, Colombia.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thank you, Thomas.

[@phlotographer]

@@JohnMagnoski a nice option to use as Tomas suggests. Wish more creators would do that. Also, rather than saying "here" say exactly where you are choosing an option as sometimes folks with eyesight issues can't always see exactly where you are. You are much better than many and some folks end up with videos that are really OOF or blurry and it is impossible to really follow well.

[@phlotographer]

enjoyed this tutorial. Not sure about the landscape as at least on my monitor, the sky looked pure black other than the clouds and not what I would expect for a sky even in B/W. I was really interested in how you did the darkening of the chair and the subject's R thigh. Have not seen that done before. I was sitting and watching and thinking "I wonder what he will do with the thigh area of which the exposure there was equal to the mask of the face". Good method for sure. Because I did not know it, I likely would have tried a "burn" or masking in an increase in exposure but you did it quite simply. TY For the last one of your friend, I found the bright sky to be distracting and with the full face facial view, there was a bit of ear on the R side of his face that could have been cloned out. Also a bit too little space, well really no space at the top of the subjects head. The last couple comments are the types of things we so often see with folk's images or those "borrowed" from the internet when doing image editing tutorials and some like bad facial views, shooting up into nostrils, amputated hands and feet as well as limbs are things that no matter what is done with any program the basic issue will remain although sometimes things can be salvaged with cropping and changing the angle of the subject on the canvas. I will keep an eye for more of you videos as I have a huge collection of videos from every creator for AP and other programs and yours has been added under B/W and Portrait. Oh, just thought about one more thing. Via preferences one can make shortcut adjustments and one I have done for doing an export is to use Shift + A which is easy to do with the L ring finger and L middle finger as one press.

[@imzaazmi]

Great tutorial 👍👍

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks!

[@The80sBoy]

Hi John, I've just purchased this software and your video was very helpful. I'm looking forward to finding out more that I can do with it. Thanks again.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Glad it was helpful! Hope you got the latest version that was released today (v1.9)!

[@gossedejong9248]

very helpful, thank you!!

[@franciscoruiz3646]

Nice and easy, thank you John

[@KathleenRenninger]

Thank you ; this has been very helpful! New subbie.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thank you, Kathleen! Glad it was helpful.

[@fleetwood6659]

This is a terrific tutorial! I use affinity on an ipad and look forward to learning how to do this in that format.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks! I enjoy using the iPad version of Affinity for my iPhone photos , but have not for my professional work... yet. Thanks for the idea!

[@johnr.5475]

Superb. Thanks.

[@JohnMagnoski]

You’re welcome! Thank you for watching.

[@SmartPhotoVault]

Nicely done. Well presented. Thumbs up from me.

[@apollodesign6350]

Very good tutorial! Well done, John! Thank you and keep up the good work!

[@mathieumorel448]

Hey! C1 is dealing with RAWs and the library/file management, right? But all you've done in Affinity could have been done in C1 either, no? What's you thoughts on DXO's Photolab or the Nik Collection? Thanks.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Of course! As you can see on my channel, I use C1 to process my raw files. But this video was to show what a person can do within Affinity Photo. : ) I'm not a huge fan of DXO when processing raw files, especially Fuji X-Trans files. And I used to use NIK exclusively when making B&W. But don't use it anymore now that I use C1 & Affinity Photo.

[@mathieumorel448]

@@JohnMagnoski many thanks for your answer!

[@pedroacerbi]

Hi John, I'm Brazilian and I'm watching your video on black and white photos, I loved this edition, but I have a doubt; here in Brazil we use Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop a lot to edit photos. Is there a lot of difference between these two for Affinity Photo and Capture One? Thank you!!

[@JohnMagnoski]

Hi Pedro! Thanks for the compliment. I personally believe that Capture One + Affinity Photo is a more powerful set of editing software than LR & PS. Also, you can do the vast majority of your raw editing within C1. The only thing you can't do (easily) with C1 is pano stitching and HDR merging. Everyone's needs are different, along with how they are used to working. My suggestion is to use the links I have in the description and download free trials of each program and give them a try. Only you will be able to know if the differences are too great. 👍

[@neurojitsu]

Thanks, great tutorial - new sub.

I haven't seen anybody make the B&W adjustments in the Develop Persona before (RAW files). Apparently you must feel there are advantages with your method compared to converting it to B&W in the Photo Persona. Could you please comment on this?

[@JohnMagnoski]

My goal with this video was to show how one could process black and white photos in Affinity using either persona (Develop or Photo). The advantages to processing black and white from raw (in any program) is greater control of highlight and shadow detail, sharpness, clarity, etc. In my professional workflow, I use Capture One to process my raw files and Affinity to finish them - treating AP like Photoshop + Lightroom.

[@AI-Hallucination]

Is your monitor calibrated for print

[@JohnMagnoski]

It is

[@worldinmyeyes9807]

Nice tutorial... One question, why do you do the bw-adjustments in the Develop Persona, and not in the editing mode? Because in this way, once it is developed BW cannot be adjusted anymore resp. brought back to colour if necessary

[@JohnMagnoski]

Affinity photo doesn’t overwrite your raw files. By default you have to edit in the develop persona when opening raw files. You can always open your raw and process for color and then apply a B&W adjustment layer. But if your intent is black and white, then process it that way from the start. If you want a color version later, you can always open your original raw file and develop it to taste.

[@mikearst2940]

Back in the darkroom days, did you ever work with Agfa's Portriga-Rapid paper? That was an unusual paper. Toned in selenium toner, it took on an even more interesting look. If that rings a bell at all - how might someone do the split-toning to produce that kind of effect in Affinity Photo? It would be strong in the dark quarter tones and shadows, less intense in the midtones, and hardly noticeable in the highlights (which had a cream color to them - but not distinctly yellowish). The overall effect was very rich.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Mike, I only used Ilford papers so without seeing a print in person it would be hard for me to make a suggestion. But this paper sounds awesome, do you have any prints you could photograph and forward to me? I would think that, based on your description, a more saturated grayish-brown tone in the shadows and a very subtle warm tone in the highlights may do the trick - properly balanced in the split toning. I would use an adjustment layer so I could brush in or out the effect to taste. Perhaps then printing on a glossy fine art baryta paper might mimic the look/feel of that Agfa paper. Although I’m not sure of the surface finish, texture or tooth of the Agfa. Would be fun to play with from what I read online. 😉

[@JohnMagnoski]

I just remembered a fine art printer in AZ that may be of help: www.hiddenlightllc.com/

[@mikearst2940]

@@JohnMagnoski The Agfa papers were a world apart but the Portriga-Rapid was in a world of its own even within that "pantheon" :) ...I'll think about whether it'd be possible to convey the look of the prints in a photo of one of them (I do have a few left in storage). Yes, a baryta inkjet paper might do the trick - I love that stuff because it actually smells like darkroom paper, only you can view it in daylight. :) Agfa's Brovira and Portriga papers could be air-dried to a semi-gloss finish with a very slight tooth and that was how we processed them (I suppose they could have been ferrotyped, but ugh!). They'd be fun to play with but, that I know of, they're long gone and won't be returning.

[@mikearst2940]

Thanks. That bit about the platinum reminds me...I have a friend who was very inventive during his days as a professional photographer. He learned woodworking so that he could make his own view cameras and also invented his own "take" on platinum printing. His platinum prints were gorgeous. He had to give it up because the costs of the materials rose too much and he couldn't afford to do it any longer.

[@JohnMagnoski]

From what I’ve read online it sounds awesome. Personally I love the Hahnemühle baryta papers. And yes, it definitely smells like darkroom paper.

[@GoogleUser-it3xq]

I'm a painter/artist. I own Affinity Photo but I'm unable to find out how to create a 4 or 5 value black and white photo from my original color image. That feature was in Adobe PhotoShop when I owned a copy. I hope.you can help me. Thanks so much.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Without knowing your original workflow in detail I am afraid I am not sure how to help you. Have you given this video a look: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXi9aIiMZq5jrrc It may help you. If not, reach out to me via my website and provide me with more information as to what your workflow was like in PS. Thanks!

[@blobby482002]

Great help thank you!!

[@JohnMagnoski]

You’re very welcome.

[@samuele5327]

Thankfully you showed us how to change the colour profile at the start but sadly you didn’t show us what steps we need to take with the colour profiles before we print it out at home. Can you please explain. Thanks

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks for the comment, Samuel. This video was all about editing your images within Affinity Photo, not printing from Affinity. The profiles for printing are handled by your printer, depending on the paper you are printing on. When my busy season slows down I will be creating more video tutorials, and printing from Affinity Photo is one of them. 😉

[@samuele5327]

John Magnoski thank you for your reply & I completely understand but several people have suggested that we change the colour profile to a wider range but so far not a single person has taken us all the way through to printing & shown us exactly what & what not to do. Hopefully you’ll get in there first 😉 until then kindly consider the Gauntlet thrown down. 🤔

[@JohnMagnoski]

Haha! Your patience will be rewarded. The reason many of us skip the self printing portion has to do with a multitude of reasons. 1. Your personal setup 2. Your printer and papers 3. Your calibration setup 4. The profiles specifically designed for your paper and ink. If you’re really in a hurry, I’m open to scheduling a one-on-one training call with you. Email me if you’re interested. 😉

[@samuele5327]

@@JohnMagnoski I don't think we need to go to a one on one as that sounds not only expensive but a tad extreme 😳 So, I'll try and boil it down to the point where I'm stuck at. I have a raw image ~ I change the colour profile (as suggested by just about every one) ~ then, I tweak various sliders until happy ~ I move the image into the Photo Persona & tweak more sliders until totally satisfied. ~ Then, being the good little boy that I am…I want to print it ~ (and this is the bit where everyone seems to fall down) but they all say that because I've changed the colour Profile at the start before I print it out; on my cute little Canon IP8750 printer & using Canon's Gloss II photo paper, I have to change it back… but change it back to what?… &… when do I do this? Normally before printing, when I soft proof it I can select the paper but like I say where or when do I select and change the colour profile? its just this missing link that I need to know otherwise I'm gonna have to keep on using the same old sRGB 1E C61966-2.1

[@JohnMagnoski]

@@samuele5327 I only charge $175 for up to two hours. Not too expensive. ; ) Printing is complex, but once you have everything setup correctly, you won't have any issues. You need to make sure that your paper profiles are installed. This is done outside of Affinity, and how to do that is different if you are on Windows or Mac. Once installed, you need to soft proof (as you say you were doing), you then select your paper profile and edit UNDERNEATH that Soft Proof layer to make sure the image looks the way you want it to when printing. You may have already seen this, but here is a great resource that should help you find that missing link: lenscraft.co.uk/photo-editing-tutorials/affinity-photo-printing-for-photographers/

[@elgatoremendado1115]

What edition is your software?

[@JohnMagnoski]

When I recorded this video it was the previous version than what was just recently released.

[@elgatoremendado1115]

@@JohnMagnoski this is so motivating to find it. I’m getting this for sure, recently I been disappointed with “Lightroom Photoshop” about licensing, but I think this Platform is way better and surprising. Thanks for your great review and feedback! Kudos.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Glad I could be helpful! Affinity Photo is a great program, and it’s worth triple what they charge in my opinion. 👍

[@Moodboard39]

Good

[@danielzurakowski6358]

I find the soft light blending mode to be an awesome way for boosting contrast (used carefully) by setting duplicate layer of the photo and playing around with opacity and tonal range of the blended layer ;) I have a question regarding exporting to jpg (or whatever else) of images that have heavy gradients - how do you save/export such images to prevent banding (loosing quality)? I love adding vignette, as it draws more attention to certain areas of an image, but the wider spread of tones, the more crap it looks after saving to jpg :( Any suggestions from your side on that issue?

[@JohnMagnoski]

I like using soft light blend for so many things, never tried it as a way of boosting contrast. Nice tip! For your question: I try not to push things too far and make sure when I export I am exporting at the higher quality settings. So far I haven’t had banding issues like I used to in PS. Feel free to drop me an email via my website with a few examples so I can see more specifically what you’re dealing with. 👍

[@HumbertoHernandez-ii3eo]

Thanks John When you decide to make tutorial for Affinity Photo Udemy or other place let me know , I love B&W, and the way you conduct your videos. Humberto Sunny Puerto Rico

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thank you! I’ve considered creating more in-depth tutorials for various online teaching sites.

[@bronekjelonek3323]

A m a z i n g

[@shdala111]

Do you prefer converting an image to B&W than in Affinity Photo? What's your usual B&W C1 + Affinity editing workflow?

[@JohnMagnoski]

I prefer working in Capture One over Affinity Photo for the following reasons: 1) Affinity Photo lacks an image browser (like Adobe Bridge) or DAM. 2) You are only able to work on one image at a time in Affinity. 3) There is currently no support for Fuji film simulations in Affinity. /// Check out my other tutorial videos where I show my B&W workflow in C1 and also my general C1 > AP round-trip workflows.

[@mikearst2940]

I didn't realize you have a Capture One-to-Affinity Photo workflow. I'll definitely look for your videos about that. Back to the Portriga-Rapid toning obsession for a moment :) ... I thought it might be possible to get the toning effect within Capture One itself, but the problem is, its layers don't provide blending modes. So combining a brownish layer (via the advanced color balance tool) _mixed_ with a slight purplish layer (also via the c.b. tool) and mixing them "just so" seems pretty difficult. Layers like that do blend, sort of-but, definitely not like having blending modes. If there's a way to pinpoint a _specific_ hue in that tool, I don't know what it is. Like...what _is_ "brown," anyway? How do you make "brown" in an RGB system like that? Programs like Exposure X5 have color-mixing patches making it pretty easy. No such thing in Capture One, unfortunately.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Haha! I would say that using the split toning in Affinity Photo may work more to your liking. It can be done in C1, just a bit less intuitive. But I must thank you as you’ve given me another set of tutorials I can create. 👍

[@mikearst2940]

​@@JohnMagnoski Good. :) Split-toning via the Capture One sliders is an interesting challenge. The sliders are so, well, crude. Not as easy with the color balance tool-but MUCH more control.

[@alcedo_kf]

🥴

[@JohnMagnoski]

😆

[@gregderozier3846]

This is pretty pathetic.

[@JohnMagnoski]

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I thrive on feedback, both positive and negative, and would appreciate more detail as to why you think “this” is pathetic. It would benefit all who read the comments. 👍 Thanks again and God Bless!