While it's relatively straight forward to convert an image to black and white in either Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop (or Aperture, but I use Lightroom and Photoshop), there's a level of creative simplicity that is lent to the conversion process through using a plugin. I regularly use several plugins for black and white conversion but in this review I'm going to confine myself to topaz B&W Effects 2.1 – released by topaz Labs on April 11, 2013. Regularly priced at $59.99, it was released as a free upgrade to customers who licensed B&W Effects. You can get a 15% discount on your purchase by using coupon code rdavisphoto at checkout from the Topaz Labs Store.
Why use a plugin?
Easier, faster, cheaper, guaranteed – we're all conditioned to seek solutions that meet these criteria. Let's face it, however we define value, we'd all like the solution to be easier than harder, deliver the result sooner rather than later, be cheaper rather than more expensive and be guaranteed rather than uncertain. And that, in a nutshell, is the answer to the question, ‘Why use a plugin?'.
Topaz Labs' photoFXlab ($79.99 at time of writing) as a host – and also as a plugin. Yes, it gets confusing but you can buy topaz photoFXlab and then use that to host your Topaz B&W Effects 2.1 and other Topaz products. Note that to host in Lightroom, Aperture or iPhoto you also need either the free Topaz Fusion Express add-on of photoFXlab.
Although I have all the Topaz Labs products, I most often use them as a filter applied to layers in Adobe Photoshop and only occasionally as a direct plugin to Adobe Lightroom. While each version of Lightroom gets better, I personally prefer the flexibility and control provided by layers within Photoshop to the multiple adjustment brushes in Lightroom. I also tend to arrive at my destination and then destroy the layered master such that each of my images is unique – if I went back to the original RAW source, I wouldn't be able to reproduce the same result. That's just me. I prefer to travel new roads than drive one road till it's become rutted and monotonous.
- Cleaner, more useable user interface to improve workflow
- Larger, floating effect preview
- Preset Quicklook View – a grid that shows the presets in a collection at the same time
- Zone System Mode with 11 distinct zones to allow for better exposure adjustments
- Border Enhancements – 24 darkroom inspired border presets
- Grain Enhancements for more realistic grain
- Color Filter and Sensitivity Enhancements in both strength and quality
- Quick Tools to enhance contract, brightness and adaptive exposure
- Loupe to quickly see a portion of the image at 100%
- Viewing Enhancements to easily change the main preview background color and hide the side panels.
User Interface
Below is a look at the new user interface.
You can think of the UI as five distinct panels. On the left you have panel 1, the Presets/Effects panel. The effects in the lower section of this panel change as you select the preset group in the upper section of the panel.
Panel 2, the Preview window, is the largest panel and displays the preview of the original and the adjusted image.
Above panel two is a strip of Viewing Tools to control zoom and other viewing options. This is panel 3.
In the top right is panel 4, the Preview Navigator. This displays the region of the image you are currently focused on.
Below panel 4 on the right is panel 5, the Settings and Parameters panel with the quick buttons and sliders to adjust the various effects.
My Workflow
In Lightroom, I'll follow the menu path Photo > Edit In > Fusion Express 2 and choose Edit a copy with Lightroom Adjustments to launch the Topaz package and then I'll select B&W Effects 2 and click on the Run button. As mentioned above, Fusion Express is a free utility from TopazLabs that allows you to integrate any of the Topaz Labs plugins with Lightroom, Aperture or iPhoto.
In Photoshop, I'll first duplicate the layer, then follow the menu path Filter > Topaz Labs > B&W Effects 2 to launch the plugin.
I might quickly spin through several of the collections to get a starting point and then look through each of the presets.
After a while you start to develop favorites and Topaz have provided a collection called ‘Favorites' that you can save your favorites in. To add a preset to your favourites you select the preset than click on the star icon in the tool separator between the collections and the presets (see image on the right).
The + icon in this tool bar allows you to save something you come up with as your own preset and you also get to indicate the type of images you consider it useful for – so having worked up a group of settings with high detail you might want to save that for Architecture but not for portraits. (Truth be told, I haven't yet found out how to leverage this feature.)
The waste basket is how you delete a preset – not sure why you'd want to unless you saved one of your own by mistake. You can also export and import presets so if you're collaborating with another artist and they've developed presets, they can share them with you and you can import and use them, and vice versa.
The camera icon is a neat feature for creating snaphots. As you work on an image you can save snapshots. This allows you to save your settings at any point in your editing process and then return there if you end up disappearing down a rabbit hole. I use it like the History in Lightroom or Photoshop if I get an idea to fork my process and experiment in a different direction or from a different starting point. This is a great time saver!
Having selected a Collection as a starting point, I'll usually run my mouse down the list of presets within the collection and look at the preview for a better idea of what it's going to do to the image.
You can also click on the preset to have it adjust the image. Unless you click on the Apply button on the right hand tool bar or click on the OK button in the lower right corner the effect is not applied so you can simply select a different preset. But then, you can always click on the Undo button to undo the ‘apply'.
When I'm happy that I have a good base on which to work, I'll then switch my attention to the right side tool panel. 
In the top right corner is the preview navigator. This area also serves as the Loupe if you want to see a part of your image at 100% without zooming the whole image. Or, if you do zoom the whole image, it serves as a navigator and you just have to drag the zoom frame to a different area of the image to have that new section of the image in the main window.
The colored dots are your filter selectors. These buttons allow you to simulate the effect of placing a colored filter in front of your lens when using black and white film to capture the image. The grey button at the end removes the filter effect.
Below this you have four quick tools to allow you to rapidly increase or decrease contrast, exposure, adaptive exposure, all of which are global adjustments. The fourth pair of buttons is a dodge and burn brush which are local exposure adjustments and get their names from the darkroom where you'd block (dodge) the light, decreasing the exposure or increase (burn) the light, increasing the exposure in that particular area. Dodging and burning are used to guide the viewer's eye to where you want them to look – the eye typically goes to the brightest part of an image so you may want to burn some areas if you have bright areas that are not the focal zone of your image. Personally, I do this with layers in Photoshop in my color version of the image and usually use my final color image as my black and white starting point so I rarely use these dodge and bur tools but they are handy to have depending on how the color version has converted and what the preset has produced.
The row of teardrops is your toning palette. Clicking on one of these opens up the finishing touches panel to give you finer control. Word of caution here – if you're printing at home and you want a toned image, make sure you have a color managed workflow. In your print, the whiteness of the white is determined by the brightness of the paper you are printing on. As with color prints, you'll need to make test prints and adjust the amount of tone based on the paper and test print rather than what you are seeing on the screen.
Below the teardrop tone tools is another row of tools. The Corporal's Stripes close the sliders and parameters panels below. The Apply button, applies the effect. Next you have undo and redo buttons. The Wrench closes the Quicktools panel and the NATO icon closes the Navigator. (I guess it's really a compass rose but then, so is the NATO symbol.)
I typically work through the next four adjustments in order if I'm going to apply them.
Conversion
This tab is home to five global conversions – Basic Exposure, Adaptive Exposure, Color Sensitivity, Color Filter and Curve Too. Basic Exposure and Adaptive Exposure are the same as when initiated from the Quicktools, above. To select the effect, click in the box then click on the arrow to open up the toolbox to give access to the sliders for fine adjustments.
Creative Effects
This tab with four global adjustments – Simplify, Diffusion, Posterize and Camera Shake. I find Camera Shake counter intuitive as I'm mostly looking for sharp images and often lug a heavy tripod with me. Adding camera shake seems kind of weird but I've not really explored it. If I were to use it, I'd likely tend to do so from a layered Photoshop image and, using layer masks in Photoshop, apply camera shake to just a part of an image.
Local Adjustments
This panel with five adjustments – Dodge, Burn, color, Detail, and Smooth. This is a brush-based adjustment and you have controls here to change the brush size, opacity, harness and degree of edge awareness – a type if quick mask. For example, I might brush in smoothness to a sky but leave sharpness in the other elements and the edge aware tool helps me do this quickly without needing multiple layers and layer masks in Photoshop.
Finishing Touches
This panel includes – Silver and Paper Tone, Quad Tone, Film Grain, Border, Edge Exposure, Vignette and Transparency.
There are a number of tools on the top of the screen that help you manage your creative process. Top left you have a split screen button that gives you the base conversion on the left and the current state of adjustments on the right.
An alternative to the split screen is the button next to it that toggles from the original to the process preview and back. Sometimes it's easier to check a particular part of an image by repeatedly toggling while focusing on the area of interest.
In the middle at the top are the zoom in and out buttons but my favorite set are on the top right.
Okay, so it's not really a Zorro button but the ‘Z' does have an embellished form and, like Zorro, its mission is to save you from harm, in this case from a bland, mushy, grey-and-grey image. Clicking on the Zorro button opens up the new Zone functionality which gives you a whole new way to analyze your image for the range of tonality represented.
The system divides the image into 11 tone zones. As you click on the tone zone number under the histogram in the top right corner, the areas of your image that are in that zone are colored in the main window.
This quickly allows you to ensure you have blacks and whites and a range in between. Black and white images that don't have black blacks and white whites simply don't work. You can then adjust exposure and contrast or use the curve tool if you find either end of the spectrum missing. Not that there's any ideal ratio of zones, it all depends on what you want to show. There just does have to be some black and some white.
The target button next to the Zorro button switches the navigator to the Loupe. Your cursor then takes on the shape of some cross hairs that you place over the area of interest in your main window and click to get a 100% view in the Loupe. Useful if there's a small area of critical detail but I normally zoom the whole image to 100% and navigate around the image.
The button next to that with the cross shape toggles through hiding the left, right and both side panels to give you the maximum real estate for viewing your image. So, for example, having chosen your preset, you can then hide the left panel while you work on the settings in the right panel.
Finally the square button on the top right toggles you through five different background shades from black to white, depending on how you like to view your image.
When I'm done with my adjustments, I click on the OK button in the lower right corner and that saves my adjustments and returns me back to my host – Photoshop or Lightroom.
Summary
As I said at the outset, in any tool I'm looking for easier, faster, cheaper and guaranteed and Topaz B&W Effects 2.1 scores highly across all four areas. I find it easy to use, quick to get to a result I like, great value and reliable in the results it delivers.
On the value side, at time of writing it's regular retail is $59.99 but you can save 15% by using coupon code rdavisphoto when you buy through this link.
Like all Topaz Labs products, there's a 30-day Free Trial of the full functionality. more than enough time to give it a thorough test drive so you can buy with confidence. Topaz even offers a double guarantee because if you change your mind within 30 days after your purchase, they'll give you a complete refund!
I have to say, I downloaded the trial version
Topaz B&W Effects 2.1 – Coming Soon!
Daily Photo – Lippo Center and Admiralty
Daily Photo – Bank of China Tower
Daily Photo – More of the Bank of China Tower
Daily Photo – Lippo Center Tower 2
Daily Photo – Mandarin Oriental
Daily Photo – Bank of China Facade Detail
Daily Photo – East from Tower Bridge
Daily Photo – West from Tower Bridge
Daily Photo – North-West from Tower Bridge
Daily Photo – North-West from Tower Bridge (again)
Daily Photo – 925 Years of Construction
Get a 15% discount on your purchase or upgrade of any Topaz product when you enter discount code rdavisphoto at checkout. Click on the banner below for this offer.
