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Black and White

Black and White
Color

Converts color images to grayscale with per-hue channel sliders and film-style presets, mapping each color range to a custom gray intensity.

Black and White turns a color image into grayscale, but instead of a single formula it gives you independent control over six hue ranges: Reds, Yellows, Greens, Cyans, Blues, and Magentas. Pushing Reds to +200% makes red skin tones bright; pulling Blues to -100% makes a blue sky nearly black. This is the same approach Photoshop uses, via HSV hexagon hue-sextant decomposition rather than a simple RGB weighted sum.

Thirteen built-in presets cover classic black-and-white photography looks, including Red Filter (bright skin, darker skies), Blue Filter (the opposite), Infrared (bright foliage), and High Contrast variants. Editing any slider automatically switches the preset to Custom. The Auto button analyzes the connected image and computes slider values that equalize the grayscale output across all six hue sextants.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”

Preset

PresetChoice
Default: 1 Range: 0–13

Slider preset: Custom/Default/Blue Filter/Darker/Green Filter/High Contrast Blue Filter/High Contrast Red Filter/Infrared/Lighter/Maximum Black/Maximum White/Neutral Density/Red Filter/Yellow Filter

Channels

Reds %Number
Default: 40 Range: -200–300

Red hue gray contribution

Yellows %Number
Default: 60 Range: -200–300

Yellow hue gray contribution

Greens %Number
Default: 40 Range: -200–300

Green hue gray contribution

Cyans %Number
Default: 60 Range: -200–300

Cyan hue gray contribution

Blues %Number
Default: 20 Range: -200–300

Blue hue gray contribution

Magentas %Number
Default: 80 Range: -200–300

Magenta hue gray contribution

Mask

Mask FitChoice
Default: None

Mask sizing

  • NoneCenter the mask at its native size — no resizing. Unmasked regions are unaffected.
  • StretchStretch the mask to exactly match the image dimensions. May distort the mask shape.
  • FitScale the mask to fit inside the image, preserving aspect ratio. Letterboxes where needed.
  • FillScale the mask to fill the image, preserving aspect ratio. Crops edges if aspect ratios differ.
Notes

Editing any slider switches Preset to 0 (Custom). The Auto button computes slider values from the connected image by equalizing the grayscale output across the six hue sextants; disabled until an image is connected. Uses HSV hexagon hue-sextant decomposition (Photoshop-style), not a simple RGB weighted sum.

Pins: image (required), mask (optional). When mask is connected, the effect is blended with the original using the mask (white = full effect, black = original).

Usage Tips

Section titled “Usage Tips”
  • Start from a preset close to the look you want, then fine-tune individual channels.
  • Red Filter (default) is the classic portrait look: bright skin, dramatic darker skies.
  • Pull Blues and Cyans down hard when converting landscape photos with sky to create punchy, dramatic monochrome.
  • Connect a mask to localize the conversion so only part of the image becomes grayscale.
  • Click Auto on a new image to get a balanced starting point before tweaking.
Section titled “Related Nodes”