B/W Styler PS plugin ships

The Plugin Site has released a Mac OS X version of B/W Styler, a Photoshop plugin for B&W conversion. The software, which offers three different working modes depending on experience, is designed to create traditional B&W effects and styling B&W photos and works in dozens of graphics applications including Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, Photo-Paint, Photo Plus, IrfanView and PhotoImpact. B/W Styler runs natively in Photoshop CS3 on Intel-Macs and also supports 8-bit and 16-bit RGB images. The company said the software simulates the whole work flow of B&W photography from shooting a photo to processing it in the lab and framing the end result, recreating the look of films, lens filters, lab effects and photo papers--many of which are popular in traditional B&W photography. It also offers advanced colorization and masking features. B/W Styler is available for $50 (standard license) or $30 (education license).

B/W Styler also offers other features not available in traditional black-and-white photography, the company claims. Using a color photo, B/W Styler allows users to produce B&W images that are not possible with B&W film. B/W Styler uses the whole contrast range of color photos to achieve what it calls "dramatic" B&W images.

"B/W Styler 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 B/W Styler gives you detailed control over the whole color spectrum," the company wrote. "Additionally if you switch your 24-bit color image to 16-bit per channel before running B/W Styler, it will produce higher quality B&W conversions, which will be retained even after you switch back to 8-bit per channel."

In addition, users 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.

Unlike other tools B/W Styler 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, B/W Styler is available at an affordable price. It offers more features and possibilities than other tools in the same price range and beyond.

by MacNN Staff