Best software for b&w images?

P.S. Lightroom and Capture 1 all have similar modules to convert color files to b/w giving you control over the various channels and/or including pre-sets which sometimes are a good starting point. I used to use Silver Efx and it was ok. I've always found no matter what I used, it was best to use a raw file if digital or scan to tiff if I was going to really end up editing it, and the better the exposure coming out of the camera, the better the final result whether shooting film or digital. Blown out sky is the number 1 culprit in screwing up any file I work on, as is over sharpening which I use to do all the time and end up give the pics a brittle appearance when combined with over-exposure. Now I usually mask what I want to sharpen to confine it or to do different levels of sharpening at different places. Same with sky, shadows, etc. I guess I'm saying most of these programs will all do a good job of converting to b/w, learning to use them is the thing. I'm just scratching the surface myself.

I like Affinity Photo for most things, including color to black and white. Going from negative to positive is another story. I've yet to do as well with that as with other programs. One can go to curves and slide the black to white and the white to black, then alter the curve as needed, but for some reason I seem to get flat or blown out results from Affinity. It would be interesting to try a step tablet shot on film to better understand what was happening, but I don't have one and haven't processed film for quite a while. Another retirement project if that day ever comes.

OT:

I tried out Affinity Photo some years ago. It was a lot cheaper than Photoshop and there were a whole lot of things I liked about it. At the time, the main reason I decided to stay with Adobe LR/PS was Lightroom. I don't keep up with all the things new editions of various PP programs can do, but my view then was that PS was the most easily replaceable. Even by the free (if slightly more clunky) GIMP. The Affinity software was impressive in replacing PS at a much lower price. At the same time, I didn;t see an Affinity replacement for Lightroom. I'm sure there's a process of using something like (free) Bridge for cataloging and using some other software (from Bridge) for editing single photos like Affinity, GIMP, or many others.

 

I haven't 'evaluated the 'PP field'' for at least 5 years. I tend to stick to what I know which is Lightroom + PS. But as far as I know, Lightroom still leads the field in cataloging and seamless, non-destructive editing of photos. Either in Lightroom itself or via numerous 'filter plugins' (including PS) that are are available in PS too. So it's this 'seamlessness'' that attracts me. I can edit a Lightroom photo directly from Lightroom which appears as a different version. I can also apply a (Topaz) filter directly from Lightroom to the whole photo or switch to PS to 'blend/mask' the same filter with more subtlety.

 

I'm pretty sure that other PP software suppliers will shortly catch up with Adobe's Lightroom/PS model (or equivalent) for amateur photographers. Perhaps they already have.

 

I'd be interested to hear about current alternatives to Adobe's Lightroom/PS combi.

 

 

 

I like Affinity Photo for most things, including color to black and white. Going from negative to positive is another story. I've yet to do as well with that as with other programs. One can go to curves and slide the black to white and the white to black, then alter the curve as needed, but for some reason I seem to get flat or blown out results from Affinity. It would be interesting to try a step tablet shot on film to better understand what was happening, but I don't have one and haven't processed film for quite a while. Another retirement project if that day ever comes.