Black and White Filter for Photos With Color Filter Mixes
Apply a black and white filter and watch the picture change as you move the sliders. The red, green and blue mixes act like the colored lens filters of film photography. Nothing is uploaded.
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- Files stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
- Free, no sign-up, no daily limit.
- Works with Wi-Fi off once the page has loaded. Check it yourself
Updated by Khokhar Sab
How do I apply a black and white filter to a photo?
Press Choose a picture and the black and white filter shows on it at once. Pick Natural, Red filter, Green filter or Blue filter, or drag the three sliders, then press Apply black and white and Save picture. The whole thing runs in your browser, so the photo never leaves your device.
- Press Choose a picture, drop a file or paste one with Ctrl+V.
- Watch the live preview. Press and hold the eye button to compare with the color original.
- Pick a mix or drag Red, Green and Blue. Double-tap a slider to reset it.
- Press Apply black and white, then open Export and press Save picture.
What does a red, green or blue filter do in black and white?
A colored filter lightens its own color and darkens the opposite ones. A red filter turns skies and water darker and reds lighter; a green filter lightens leaves and grass; a blue filter lightens skies and darkens skin. The mixes here copy that effect with weights on the red, green and blue channels.
| Color | Natural (21, 72, 7) | Red (75, 25, 0) | Green (10, 80, 10) | Blue (5, 25, 70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sky (90, 140, 200) | 134 | 102 | 141 | 180 |
| Grass (80, 140, 60) | 121 | 95 | 126 | 81 |
| Skin (224, 172, 140) | 181 | 211 | 174 | 152 |
| Brick (170, 60, 50) | 83 | 142 | 70 | 58 |
Lower numbers are darker. The sky drops the most under the red mix, which is why landscape photographers on film reached for a red filter to get dark, dramatic skies. The photographic filter article on Wikipedia describes the colored filters the mixes imitate.
Can I make the black and white filter weaker?
Yes. The mix sliders convert fully, so for a partial effect lower Saturation in Adjust, where -50 keeps half the color. A color of 200, 100, 50 becomes 159, 109, 84 at -50. The Noir look in Filters also has an Intensity slider that blends the look with the original.
Saturation works in the same Rec. 709 luma terms as the conversion, so -100 gives the same gray as the natural mix. Use the Filters tool when you want channel control and Adjust when you want to keep some color.
Is a black and white filter the same as desaturating?
Desaturating to zero gives the natural mix and nothing else. A black and white filter with sliders lets you choose how bright each color ends up. A pure blue is 18 of 255 after desaturating but 178 with the blue filter mix. Same picture, very different tones.
If you only need a quick gray, press Quick grayscale. Reach for the sliders when two colors in the photo, such as a red flower on green leaves, come out the same gray and need pulling apart. More conversion help is on Black and White Photo.
Limits
- One picture at a time. Open the next picture after you save.
- Very large photos are held to 8,192 pixels on the longest side and 16 megapixels, the size a phone browser can draw.
- Camera details such as GPS location and camera model are not copied into the saved file.
- Animated GIFs open as their first frame.
Frequently asked questions
Is the black and white filter free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on how many photos you filter.
Does the filter lower the photo quality?
The filter changes color only and keeps the pixel size. Saving as JPG recompresses the picture, so keep quality at 90 or save as PNG when you need no loss.
Can I apply the filter to a phone photo?
Yes. The page works on phones, with the tools at the bottom, and Take a photo opens the camera.
Can I undo the filter?
Yes. Undo removes it step by step until you save, and the original file is never changed.
Related PDF tools
How this tool was built and tested
- Wikipedia: Photographic filter: colored filters in black and white photography
- Wikipedia: Luma (video): the Rec. 709 weights used for the natural mix
- Test method: every operation is checked on hand-worked pixel values in src/tools/imgedit/adjust.test.ts; the numbers on this page are computed from the same code when the page is built