Tonality Pro for awesome B/W images

We promised a while back that we'd tell you a bit more about converting your images to B/W. In a previous post we talked about one way to convert to B/W in Lightroom. Today we're gonna tell you a bit more about using a plugin like Tonality Pro or Silver Efex Pro

Before you get all carried away, do bear in mind that Tonality Pro is a product for MAC, not for Windows. Tonality can be used stand alone, or as plugin for Adobe and Apple products. It also supports RAW. 

It all starts with importing pictures into Lightroom. When your pictures are in Lightroom you have to decide which picture(s) you want to convert to B/W. Choose a picture you want to convert. Personally I always like to do some small adjustments in Lightroom before I transfer to Tonality. But that's entirely up to you as the artist. 

To transfer your picture, right click on the image and choose Edit in... > Tonality pro

Let's take this image for example: 

I just added some contrast, did the shadows and highlights and my black and whites in Lightroom.

Once you choose Edit in Tonality Pro, a screen appears where you can choose to work with a copy or just work with the original. I always work with a copy: 

Click on Edit and your picture appears in Tonality Pro and is converted to B/W:

You've really got tons of possibilities in Tonality Pro!

Presets

A lot of presets you can choose from, for example HDR Cold Silver

If you don't want the effect in the whole picture,  you can decide where to use it using the brush. It works the same as working with brushes in Photoshop, you can change the size, opacity and softness of the brush.

Just brush where you want to create the effect: 

And ofcourse you can also work with Selective Coloring by using presets like for instance Bleached Drama.

Layers

I really love that Tonality Pro has the possibility to work with layers. 

This gives you the possibility to have for example different presets on each layer as well as dodge and burn on every layer.

You can turn off a layer and reduce the Opacity. This works exactly the same as in Photoshop.

And you'll recognize the panel from Lightroom: a panel with items like Color Temperature, Tone, contrast etc.

I find the clarity and structure panel really helpful:

You can add clarity, structure and micro stucture to your global image or do it locally, using the brush. With the Erase Mask you can turn it off. Using the layer panel, you can check out where you'll see the effect is working. It works in a similar fashion as layer masks in Photoshop.

And when you're done with the processing in Tonality, just click on Apply and your picture will be reimported into Lightroom. If needed you can do some more processing there, that's all up to you.

I love Tonality Pro. I think it's a great product and really effective in making stunning B/W images. 

If you wanna have a go, just download the trial version and play around with it. The guys from Macphun are really awesome in their Youtube films if you wanna find out more about the product. 

The best way to learn ofcourse is just do it yourself. Don't be afraid to try! 

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