December 20, 2022

Merry Christmas. I started creating presets 15 years ago before the rest existed. I always gave you free preset samplers from packs Like Filmist and Natural HDR. So today I’ve made you a perfect starter pack of free black and white presets from the new Silver 5 presets.

This free black and white presets pack includes 5 hand-picked B&W styles for Lightroom, Capture One and RAW

Go HERE to the Silver Page to DOWNLOAD the FREE Silver 5 Black and White Presets Pack

I also added a few mod’s from the brand-new Mod-Kit that’s included in the complete version to show you how fast it will make you. I even included one of the AI mod tools in the LR version!

There are 3 key elements that create better black and white. Watch this video and I’ll show you them as well as how to use these black and white presets to level up your black-and-white.

I, the video, my secrets to using black and white presets to edit!

Take special note of how each Silver preset takes a different approach in how it mixes your tone using the 3 keys for a perfect black-and-white recipe. Once you have the complete pack, you’ll see this extended much further but just as simple and easy to apply.

Some are perfect for portraits, others for rich streets of the landscape. That’s the key to mixing the tools and completing your vision!

free black and white presets silver 5 sampler with capture one styles
Natural screens often benefit from a more crushed dark black and white and you’ll see great examples of that even in the free presets of Silver 5

You’ll quickly see what I showed you in this Silver 5 training video from my channel. How when you have advanced formulas you are more creative with your edits than any purist who tried to create a recipe from scratch every time. They simply never get this deep in their edits. That’s why presets are essential.

I hope you enjoy this free black and white presets pack.

Please let me know in the comments. See just how much time a good black and white presets system will save you and take a look at the complete Silver 5 pack as well because this free presets sampler pack is just the beginning.

Gavin Seim

Capture one and Lightroom free portrait black and white presets
Good portrait presets tend to focus on softer tones and the skin color channels are very important.
Lightroom free black and white presets
Download the free Black and white presets from Silver 5 and try all these elements in your photos.
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December 14, 2022

Last month I launched the Silver 5 Black and White Styles for Capture One, and in today’s video, I’m going to show you how to use Silver 5. But, along the way, I’ll reveal the secrets of what makes a great black-and-white in Lightroom, so you can use them no matter how you edit.

Today I’ll show you how I use Styles for Capture One and the advantages C1 has for black-and-white conversions.

This video will be all about creating better black and white in Capture One and some tips for you regardless of what Styles you use for Black and White. The little details inside how Capture One will help you convert RAW photos to black and white better.

You can get Silver 5 Styles here. Note: If Lightroom for black and white see the Lightroom version of this video here.

I could type for hours, but instead I’ll show you in the video how easy it is to get great black and white and refine it in Capture One.

Do you really need Styles for Black and White?

I often see presets and styles getting dumped on. This makes no sense since any serious photography should always have them available. Well organized and the best they can get. If that means you invest the time to make your own that is fine. But avoid huge packs of crappy Capture One styles that only make you work harder.

I’ll explain in the video why it’s so important to use styles to get your black and white really dialed in, even if you don’t use my styles. Without using Styles in capture on to do your initial conversions you will not only use a lot more time, but you will also get lesser results. Yes, I mean that!

Should you use Capture One or Lightroom for Black and white?

The results of Lightroom VS Capture One on black and white, in general, are equal. Both have advantages. While Lightroom has more power in layers because of its Ai masking tools, Capture One does have some extra options in how we can use color channels and nuances that I’ll show in this video.

In the end, it’s more of a personal choice. With Capture One costing more than Lightroom and Photoshop combined for most Lightroom make more sense. In the end, you also need a pixel editor like Affinity Photo. or Photoshop where you can also use my BlackRoom black and white actions.

The point is that even if 98% of your black-and-white edits are in a RAW editor like LR or C1, your very best images will still be improved in the pixel editor and you want to have both. Just keep that in mind when planning what to use.

If you already use Capture One and are happy, rest assured that with the methods I showed you in the video you will get world-class black-and-white conversion and you’ll be a happy camper.

Let me know what you think in the comments because I’m here to help.

Gavin Seim

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December 14, 2022

Lightroom is a powerful black-and-white conversion tool. But RAW processors tend to focus on color tools and give us a few simple sliders for black-and-white conversions. The secret to black and white is how to mix all the little things to make the shadow magic.

Last month I launched the Silver 5 presets, and in today’s video, I’m going to show you how to use Silver 5. But, along the way, I’ll reveal the secrets of what makes a great black-and-white in Lightroom, so you can use them no matter how you edit.

I’m going to use Silver 5 in today’s video and show you how it works But whether you use it or create your own method, these tips will still work.

If you use Capture One, I made a video dedicated to black and white with Capture One using the new Silver 5 styles. Watch it here.

Silver 5 brings over a decade of pushing to make black and white in Lightroom easier and faster. It takes the concepts I’m going to show you in today’s class and makes them easy by letting you #1 add a black and white base mix and #2 quickly modding it to get the right look for your visualization.

If you’re serious, Yes you do! Even if you don’t use Silver 5. Don’t let photo snobs tell you presets are for amateurs. The amateurs are the ones to get low-quality conversions because they are too lazy to get a good Lightroom preset in place that lets you start with a really good tone mix.

Do you really need presets for black and white?

You can do what I’m showing you if you make your own presets. But don’t ignore presets. I am featuring Silver 5 presets in this video, but this process of converting black and white using presets as a base rather than wasting time with a slow manual start will transform your black and white and your edits will absolutely improve. Don’t let any purist amateurs tell you different.

I’ll show you what I mean in the video as we explore how to use Lightroom presets to get black and white in Lightroom that is better than you have ever created before.

Lightroom has a tad fewer sliders than Capture One, but Lightroom has the advantage of Ai masking layers which despite not having as many sliders are generally more powerful than Capture one layers. You’ll see these integrated, especially inside the new Mod Kit presets that come with Silver 5.

The real secret to black and white in Lightroom is mixing the tone vs the channels of color with details in various ways. This can be done manually but in reality, you won’t try enough. It would take too long.

Silver 5 or perhaps your own carefully crafted presets are hundreds of hours of refining those sliders and let you test it on a photo in seconds to find the look that we were creating in your mind when you pressed the shutter.

Let me know what you think below – Gavin Seim

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December 2, 2022

As a tool creator, my most popular products have lots of organic darkroom looks. and for good reason. Filmist Film presets for Lightroom and Capture one. Emulsion Platinum actions, Silver black and white presets. They all have something special in common… Darkroom science!

Presets and edits that mimic the look of film in a darkroom give your photos an authentic look.

But you need more than that. You have probably used some of my most popular or my free film like presets such as my Classic Negative style, and Portra film presets. These work so well because digital makes it really easy to over-edit in ways that were non a problem in the darkroom and we need to balance that.

We’ve all gone back over our images and seen icky, overly saturated adjustments. So it’s easy to panic and begin underediting after that. Due to underediting, I actually designed Muse presets to create more cinematic edits.

Balance is what my new Darkroom Hackers editing class is about.

You can sign up for the class here.

This is not a “how to use the best film presets class.” I will show you how to use Filmist, Silver, and other tools; even Photoshop, for amazing color and black-and-white darkroom-like edits.

But this class is more than that. It’s a power-packed LIEV hour of how to understand what RAw editors are doing. Whether you’re using STyles for Capture One, Lightroom Film Prestes, Photoshop layers, or your own manual edits.

I’m going to show you how to achieve that organic look that feels like it came from the darkroom while still being able to create great color mixes and bold shadow blends. You’ll learn how to use film-like presets and make your own looks that pop off the page.

I’m excited about Darkroom Hackers because how we edit matters, and the photographer that knows these things get ahead of the competition in so many ways.

I’ll see you there | Sign Up

Gavin Seim

Film presets film styles portra 160
Fuji Classic Negative lightroom preset
Silver presets for LIghtroom and Capture One film looks
Grainy film look black and white edit
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November 26, 2022

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen a fully new version of my black-and-white presets. I do minor free updates all the time. But I like to wait till the features and tools of Lightroom and Capture One improve for these big rebuilds.

Black and white presets for editing in Lightroom and Capture One

Silver 5 makes next-generation Silver editing simple using native RTAW tools and black and white presets.

There are a lot of new things in these presets. They take advantage of Lightroom Ai layers and while Capture One still does not have Ai tools, Silver 5 is using every ounce of update that Capture One has brought us with layers and better one-click black-and-white conversions.

I’m excited about these new presets for black and white and I made a pretty fun video to share what I was thinking and what’s new in Silver 5.

You can check out my Silver black and white presets playlist on YouTube for more.

Black and white preset are about the details. And that’s what Silver does makes it easier than any other tool. By using native tools instead of plugins, Silver 5 can leverage all the power of these apps but you don’t have to spend a lot of time tinkering.

Choose your black and white presets for the main look. Then mod them with the new Mod-Kit…

The mods are now a simple separate preset pack, so they don’t clutter up the main set. Whether it’s the Lightroom Presets, Capture Styles or working in Camera RAW. Just select your presets for black and white a lot like choosing a film.

Then you can mod it in a mod kit with adaptive detail tools. Grains, contract mods, and even Ai portrait tools. Of course, you can take mods further with packs like Elegance Speed-Masks but you’ll find that Mod-Kit has a little of everything so you can quickly get your edit right.

Silver 5 Black and white presets and Capture One Styles

Presets and styles for black and white let you work better.

If you’re not using presets, you’re editing is suffering. It’s about being able to finish the look you visualized by quickly trying mixed that would otherwise never be tried. It’s the secret that nearly everyone professional knows and those trying to show off at photo club pretend are cheating.

My edits always stars with Lightroom Presets or Capture on styles because I know I will get a better result by mixing things in various ways to find the look I want. Don’t let snobs shame for you using good tools. Even if you make your own presets, make sure you have them ready and refined and that you are using them.

I’ll be doing a training video soon on how to use Silver 5 black and white presets to get the best edits in Lightroom or Capture One. Future updates to V5 will be bringing more improvements to Mod-Kit and these recipes for great black and white that I’ve spent a lot of years refining.

Let me know if you have questions. Gavin Seim

presets for black and white make editing faster and more refined in Lightroom or Capture one
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