STEP BY STEP BLACK-AND-WHITE PROFILES EXPLAINED

Learn how to use the B&W Profiles in Camera Raw and Lightroom, then make one of your own

01 OPEN INTO CAMERA RAW

Navigate to your image in Adobe Bridge, right-click and ‘Open in Camera Raw’ (or if you’re in Photoshop, go to Filter>camera Raw Filter). Go to the Basic panel and click the Profile Browser grid icon at the top right. This houses all the profiles in different sets.

02 CHOOSE A B&W PROFILE

Scroll down to the B&W Profile set and hover over the profiles to see how they affect your image. Each will affect colours and contrast in various ways. We’ve chosen the B&W Orange Filter profile, which makes the yellow grass bright, contrasting with the hippo.

03 ADJUST THE AMOUNT

Each profile effect has an amount slider that lets you control the strength (except the Adobe Raw and Camera Matching sets, which are only available for Raws). Play with the amount (we chose 160). Once done, double-click the profile to close the browser.

04 FINE-TUNE THE LOOK

Your conversion might look done, but you can also go on to adjust any other settings to compliment the effect. Go to the B&W Mix panel to fine-tune your image. The target icon here can be used to drag over the photo to alter the brightness of colours within.

05 SAVE A NEW PROFILE

Make any other changes. We added a post-crop vignette, and darkened the bird with the Adjustment Brush. Once done, we can create a new profile. Click the Preset icon in the toolbar, then hold Alt and click the New Preset icon to open the New Profile box.

06 TEST YOUR NEW PROFILE

Give your new profile a suitable name and choose a set to save it in. You can also decide which edits to include in the profile, and which to omit. Once done, open another image then go to the Profile browser and try out the new profile on it.