Description

BWStyler is a tool for performing impressive black and white conversions, creating traditional b&w effects and visually styling b&w photos. BWStyler is available as a Photoshop-compatible plugin for Windows and MacOS X as well as a standalone application and Lightroom external editor for Windows. The plugin works in dozens of graphics applications, including Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo-Paint, PhotoImpact and IrfanView. All versions support batch processing and process RGB images with 8-bit and 16-bit/channel. The BWStyler standalone application supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PSD, Camera Raw and DNG image formats among others.

Overview

BWStyler simulates the whole workflow of B/W photography from shooting a photo to processing it in the lab and framing the end result. It recreates the look of films, lens filters, lab effects and photo papers that are popular in traditional black and white photography, but it even goes beyond that. Starting with a color photo BWStyler lets you produce stunning B/W images that are not possible with B/W film. BWStyler uses the whole contrast range of color photos to achieve dramatic b&w images. BWStyler can transform dull color photos into interesting B/W pictures. Additionally you can enrich the b&w images by colorizing them, manipulating brightness and contrast, masking certain image areas, adding soft focus and glow effects, simulating film grain, adding special effects and framing the image.

For Beginners as well as Experts

BWStyler contains modes for inexperienced, intermediate and advanced users. All modes of BWStyler are connected and work together, so you can gradually add more effects and style your b&w image by switching from one mode to the other.

As a start Photographer's Mode lets you choose between a lot of presets in one compact dialog, e.g. b&w film type, ISO rating, lens filters, lab development strategy, paper type, color toner, special lab effects and more. These effects can then be adjusted in ten simple modes, each of which concentrates only on one aspect. Additionally there are five special effect modes for doing special b&w conversions, selective b&w, split color, vignette blur and mist effects.

More advanced users can also use the B/W Quick Mode for doing sophisticated b&w conversions with the help of 16 different controls. Finally, you can fine-tune your image in Expert Mode with the help of dozens of effect features, more than one hundred controls and almost two hundred local presets.

Why BWStyler Is Different

BWStyler offers the whole range of b&w tools and related effects in a single plugin. So you don't need to waste your time switching between different filters all the time. BWStyler provides six different techniques for b&w conversion while most other tools offer only one or two. One of these b&w conversion methods (Split B/W) is not available with any other tool.

Additionally BWStyler uses the color contrast of photos effectively to achieve more distinctive b&w photos. Other tools try to simulate the look of b&w films with only a few color sliders whereas BWStyler gives you detailed control over the whole color spectrum. Additionally if you switch your 24bit color image to 16bit per channel before running BWStyler, it will produce higher quality b&w conversions, which will be retained even after you switch back to 8bit per channel.

Unlike other tools BWStyler also supplies a wide range of masking features for selectively addressing certain parts of an image. It features three different types of modes for beginners, advanced people and experts, so users can become more experienced without the need to switch to another tool. Best of all, BWStyler is available at an affordable price. It offers more features and possibilities than other tools in the same price range.