Why not just remove the colour?

Removing colour treats a red jumper and a green hedge of the same brightness as the same grey. A channel mixer decides how much each colour contributes, which is how black-and-white photographers have always controlled skies, skin and foliage.

What do the colour filters do?

They copy the glass filters used with black-and-white film. Red darkens blue skies dramatically and smooths skin; orange is a gentler version; yellow is subtle; green lightens foliage; blue darkens warm tones and brings out haze.

Yes. Move the Red, Green and Blue sliders; the preset switches to Custom. The three are normalised to add up to 100%, so the picture keeps its overall brightness whatever you set.

Where are the ready-made black-and-white looks?

On the strip under B&W: Silver, Noir, Selenium and Sepia Print. The mixer is for when you want to decide the mix yourself.

Does it keep my photo's size?

Yes. The saved file is your photo's full size, with no EXIF or location data copied across.

Make Photo Black and White — B&W Filter

A look: your photo, a different colour

This is a look: your photograph stays exactly as it is and only its colour becomes grey. How each colour becomes grey is the whole craft, so instead of one fixed formula there is a channel mixer: the weight red, green and blue each carry into the grey.

The presets are the photographic contrast filters. The ready-made B&W looks (Silver, Noir, Selenium, Sepia Print) stay on the strip; for a brown or blue-toned print, the sepia filter is the better door.

The controls

Contrast filter: Neutral, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green or Blue channel weights, or Custom.
Red, green and blue: Each channel's weight in percent, normalised to sum to 100% so exposure holds.
Contrast: An S-curve about mid-grey after the mix.
Fade: Lifts the black point for a matte print.
Strength, tone, grain: The lab's strength mixes back toward colour; grain is under Texture.

Where it falls short

A photo that is already grey gives the mixer nothing to separate.
Strong red-filter mixes can make skin chalky and lips pale; ease the red weight back for portraits.
It cannot recover detail lost in blown highlights or crushed shadows.

The strip, the preview and the saved file run the same code on the same settings, with every size a fraction of the picture, so the file you download is the frame you approved.

Nothing is uploaded

There's no upload step on this page — your picture is decoded in the tab, drawn to a canvas, and gone the moment you close it. The filter runs in this tab, on your device, and the file is written here too.

Questions

Why not just remove the colour?: Removing colour treats a red jumper and a green hedge of the same brightness as the same grey. A channel mixer decides how much each colour contributes, which is how black-and-white photographers have always controlled skies, skin and foliage.
What do the colour filters do?: They copy the glass filters used with black-and-white film. Red darkens blue skies dramatically and smooths skin; orange is a gentler version; yellow is subtle; green lightens foliage; blue darkens warm tones and brings out haze.
Can I mix my own?: Yes. Move the Red, Green and Blue sliders; the preset switches to Custom. The three are normalised to add up to 100%, so the picture keeps its overall brightness whatever you set.
Where are the ready-made black-and-white looks?: On the strip under B&W: Silver, Noir, Selenium and Sepia Print. The mixer is for when you want to decide the mix yourself.
Does it keep my photo's size?: Yes. The saved file is your photo's full size, with no EXIF or location data copied across.

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