Black and White Photos with Google Photos

“Tag, you’re IT!” That’s what it’s like in today’s world on Facebook. Its called a “Challenge” and the latest one is about Black and White photography.

Seven days, seven black and white photos of your life. No people, no pets, no explanations.

I usually ignore challenges, I’m a party pooper, I don’t want to play. But, I liked this, I wanted to play. Here are my 7 pictures:

#1 Dolphin carving, black and white with vignette

#2 WWII Museum in New Orleans - just black and white with a little Pop

#2 Lighthouse: Vogue filter with a little Pop!

#3 Jackalope

#4 Roadtrek

#5 Union Station Kansas City

#7 Bridge over Missouri river in Kansas City. Also added some "Drama" using Snapseed

I Cheated

I did not use Black and White film! I didn’t set my digital camera to take black and white photos. I didn’t even use my phone’s capability to take photos in black and white  mode. I took color pictures. A few of these, like the lighthouse,  are even old color pictures I chose, then I used very simple editing tools to create the B&W images.
Here’s the lighthouse photo that I took back in September 2016, it’s in my Google Photos library.

To turn this into a Black and White photo, all I had to do was click to open it, then click the Edit tool: Now I see a number of “filters”, including 3 different black and white filters: Eiffel, Vogue, and Vista. Just try clicking on each one and see what it does. I like the Vogue the best, but then I also add a little Pop to sharpen the lines a bit.

The filter does the trick, but there’s another way I think I like even better. You can click on the Adjustments button: Yes, I know, it looks just like the Edit button above. Don’t ask me why, I liked the old pencil for the edit button personally! Anyway, once you’re in the adjustments, you’ll see a slider for color. If you drag that all the way to the left, you’ll remove all the color … that makes it black and white! Then, you can also add a little “Pop!” If you add more pop, you’ll get some of the color back, but in a special, muted way. Watch this quick video and I'll show you exactly how to do it.

Partial Black and White

If you watch the video, you'll see how Jim made this image of  our musician friends, Victor and Penny, performing at Cafe Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa. Notice how the photo is not completely black and white, but it's not really color either.

Want to give it a try?

Don’t wait for a challenge, just do it. You can post them on Facebook, or you can even leave a link here in the comments where we can see your black and white masterpieces. To get a link:

1. Select the pictures you want to share
2. Click the share button:
3. Get Link, Copy
4. Start a comment here, then paste the link

Leave a comment about which photo above that you like the best.