Black and white software and plug-ins – do you need them?

There are many different ways to create compelling black and white images in regular photo editors, but there are also software plug-ins dedicated to black and white effects and analog film simulations. So do you actually need them?

• Other articles in this black and white series
• Why photograph in black and white?
• How to shoot in black and white
• What are the best cameras for black and white photography?
• Converting color photographs to black and white: what’s the best method to use?
• Basic black and white adjustments in your digital darkroom
• Dodging and burning techniques, a key part of black and white imagery
• Black and white software and plug-ins – do you really need them?

Well, when you get really into black and white photography then you probably do, and that’s because dedicated plug-ins and applications add tools, effects and workflows that regular photo-editors don’t. And for this we need to talk about non-destructive editing, what it can do and what it can’t.

Adobe Lightroom and Capture One have popularized the idea and the advantages of non-destructive editing. They let you make tonal and color adjustments to your images – and more – that leave the original image unaltered and allow you to backtrack and make changes at any time in the future. This has obvious advantages, but disadvantages too. One is that these adjustments are ‘virtual’ processing instructions that only appear in the software that created them. More important in this case is that some effects can only be achieved by modifying the pixels in the photo directly. This, traditionally, is where you need ‘proper’ photo editors like Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

HOWEVER, there are some software applications that provide the best of both worlds, with non-destructive editing AND pixel-based effects. So let’s take a look at these and some other black and white tools that go further than Lightroom or Capture One can.

Silver Efex/Nik Collection

Silver Efex is one of the best known (and best) black and white plug-ins, and it’s part of the DxO Nik Collection plug-in suite. Actually, to call it a plug-in is only half right, since it can also be used as a standalone program in its own right. Nevertheless, it’s probably best known as a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, a tool that you use for detailed black and white editing from within these programs.

Using Silver Efex is very different to using black and white editing tools in regular photo editing programs. For a start, it comes with a wide range of very varied black and white presets, which take your images far further and in many different directions than a program like Lightroom, for example. Silver Efex offers unique adjustments such as ‘Soft Contrast’, ‘Amplify Blacks/Whites’, ‘Dynamic Brightness’ and a range of ‘Finishing Adjustments’ for darkening image edges individually or all together, applying rich and subtle toning effects and a whole lot more. It also offers local adjustment tools with DxO’s special Control Point, Control Line and other masking adjustments.

Most of all, Silver Efex speaks directly to photographers working in black and white and attempting to recreate the style, depth and richness of analog film and darkroom effects. It is spectacularly good at this, producing powerful monochrome imagery without requiring hours of work. It doesn’t just put excellent monochrome editing tools at your disposal, it shows just what they are capable of with its excellent and varied presets.

DxO has also pulled off a rather amazing trick with Silver Efex by offering a non-destructive editing workflow for a plug-in type that normally produces a processed image with effects permanently baked in. It does this with a special variation of the TIFF file format which incorporates both the start image and the end image and all the processing instructions in between. When you re-open the image in Silver Efex, you can backtrack and remove or alter any of these adjustments. The only downside is that these special TIFF files are twice the size of the ordinary sort.

If I had to pick just one dedicated black and white plug-in/application for all my monochrome work, I think this would be it.

Analog Efex/Nik Collection

Silver Efex is not the only plug-in in the Nik Collection that can produce black and white images – it’s also worth taking a look at what Analog Efex can do. Analog Efex is designed to recreate both the characteristic look and some of the imperfections of old analog images. It does this by offering a range of one-click preset effects and a ‘Camera Kit’ where you can combine effects to create analog looks of your own.

Analog Efex offers a very different experience to Silver Efex but can produce equally compelling monochrome images. It doesn’t have the technical focus of Silver Efex, but it does offer old-camera effects like light leaks, textures, ‘wet plate’ looks, double-exposures, multi-lens effects, bokeh effects and more. Its presets are called ‘Cameras’ and for a good reason, because this is a kind of analog playground where you can recreate the look not just of old darkroom and processing effects, but old cameras themselves.

More technically-minded monochrome photographers might find Analog Efex’s approach a little unscientific and might perhaps see it as more of a novelty than a serious tool, but actually it does deserve to be taken very seriously indeed, because it takes monochrome imagery far beyond the sometimes sterile world of histograms and sliders and into much more imaginative techniques and treatments. It provides the kind of excitement and inspiration that probably got many of us into photography in the first place.

DxO FilmPack

DxO FilmPack works both as a standalone application and as a plug-in. And if you have DxO PhotoLab installed, FilmPack’s tools are integrated into PhotoLab’s workspace and form part of this program’s non-destructive workflow.

In a way, FilmPack is a kind of parallel tool to the Nik Collection, developed and sold separately but offering a similar set of tools and results for black and white photographers who have a special interest in vintage films and darkroom effects.

FilmPack does take a very serious, historical approach to analog film simulation. Perhaps its central feature is its ‘Time Machine’ mode, which walks you through different periods and styles in photographic history and offers preset effects to mimic these looks with your own photographs. In fact, the Time Machine descriptions are interesting enough to read as a historical volume in their own right.

With FilmPack you can simulate the tonal response and grain of many classic black and white films and processes or apply one of the many preset black and white effects, including a number of professionally made ‘Designer’ presets. You do get a lot of control over how black and white images are rendered, though you can’t apply local adjustments in the same way you can in Silver Efex or Analog Efex.

DxO FilmPack is ideal for technically minded black and white photography historians who don’t necessarily want to carry out detailed dodging and burning and are happy to apply its effects to images that are already largely finished.

On1 Photo RAW/ON1 Effects

ON1 Photo RAW is a very interesting program that offers the image organizing and cataloguing tools like Lightroom and Capture One but offers creative filters and effects that these programs don’t have. Many of these, such as its borders and frames and blur effects would normally be associated with ‘destructive’ editing tools which directly modify image pixels, and yet ON1 Photo RAW can apply these as part of a fully non-destructive workflow – provided you use ON1 Photo RAW as your central digital organizing ‘hub’.

If your workflow is based around Lightroom Classic or Capture One, you can still use ON1 Photo RAW’s Effects module as a plug-in – and it’s ON1 Effects that provides this software’s powerful black and white filters and effects. In fact, you don’t have to buy the complete ON1 Photo RAW package, as ON1 Effects is also sold separately at a lower price.

ON1 may not have the serious reputation of Adobe, Capture One or DxO software and, indeed, many photographers may not be familiar with it at all, but the fact is that its effects are a real class act. You can use its black and white presets directly, and these are very good and very varied, or you can build your own effects by combining the software’s many different individual Filters.

If you use ON1 Effects as a plug-in you lose its non-destructive editing capabilities, but if your workflow is based around Lightroom Classic or Capture One and you don’t want to swap completely to the ON1 Photo RAW workflow, then it seems a small price to pay to get the best of both worlds – your existing workflow and excellent black and white tools.

CameraBag Pro

If ON1 Photo RAW is less well known, then CameraBag Pro is probably almost unheard-of in the broader photographic community. It’s an inexpensive external editor that can create a wide variety of black and white (and color) effects via presets or custom adjustments created by combining filter ‘tiles’.

The interface design is somewhat offbeat and it takes a little while to figure out what this program can do, but it’s absolutely worth the effort. CameraBag Pro is not very expensive to buy but capable of some very rich and atmospheric black and white effects that straddle both modern monochrome treatments and vintage analog looks.

What about ACDsee, PaintShop Pro and others?

I’ve picked out Silver Efex, Analog Efex, DxO FilmPack and CameraBag for this section because I think they bring very different, very important black and white tools into the editing mix. Better still, they don’t just provide tools and adjustments, they come with preset effects which can really fire the imagination and take your black and white photography into all sorts of new and exciting directions.

There are plenty of other photo-editors on the market that can cover all the black and white basics, such as tonal adjustments and filter effects, toning effects and dodging and burning, but they don’t go anywhere near as far as these four specialized black and white/analog applications. 

None of the five programs I’ve picked out above are essential for a black and white editing workflow, but they have huge value in extending the range of effects available and indeed your own ideas about what your photographs could look like.