Black and White Photo Converter

Removing colour puts the attention on light, shape and expression, which is why black and white is popular for portraits, street photography and architecture. It also gives a consistent look to a set of photos taken under different lighting, and it prints well on office printers.

For a warmer, vintage look try the Sepia effect in the same tool.

The converted file keeps its format and resolution: JPG stays JPG and PNG stays PNG, with transparency. A grayscale JPG is often slightly smaller than the colour original. Choose several photos to convert a whole album at once and download them as a ZIP.

Photos with strong contrast, interesting textures and clear light and shadow tend to look best in black and white. Pictures whose subject stands out only by colour, such as a red flower among green leaves, can turn flat because both colours have a similar brightness. Try several photos from the same set and keep the ones where the shapes are clearest.

To make a colour splash, where one object stays in colour and the rest is grey, convert the whole photo in a photo editor and paint the colour back. With this tool you can do the reverse quickly: choose Selected area and turn just one region grey, for example a distracting background sign. Lowering the strength to about 70 keeps a hint of colour, a popular muted style for portraits and travel photos, and works on a whole album at once in batch mode.