How to create a black and white portrait

Black and white photos have a classic look. But are you tired of grayish-black and white photos that make your image look dull and unexciting?

A great black and white photo needs rich details and true depth. Thankfully, Luminar^AI makes this easy. You’ll find built-in black and white Templates to help you get started. There’s no need to spend so much time moving a bunch of sliders around hoping something will magically appear.

This feature works very well for portrait photos but can be applied to almost any image.

Step 1: Open a photo in Luminar^AI or choose one in your Catalog.

Step 2: Choose Templates to browse a collection of great starting points to speed up your editing process and boost creativity.

Step 3: From the Portrait group, choose the Black & White collection.

Step 4: Choose one of the Templates. Here, we used Soulful.

Step 5: Let’s customize the Template for a refined result. Click the Edit button.

Step 6: Let’s get a perfectly composed photo. From the Essentials section, choose Composition^AI and click the Composition^AI button. I like the crop, but I want the orientation to be landscape. Click the Orientation button to convert the crop.

Step 7: Let’s get perfect exposure and contrast. Click on Enhance^AI and then adjust Accent^AI to bring out hidden details.

Step 8: Let’s get an amazing dynamic range for the photo. Click the Professional tab.

Step 9: Adjust the Supercontrast controls. Refine the Highlights and Shadows to get the perfect black and white photo.

Let’s look at the results.