Mono conversion

[Richard Pring]

Hi, As a relative newcomer to Affinity I am interested in mono conversion. Is it best to convert to mono in the RAW development after optimising athe mage for colour, or to develop an optimum image in RAW development and  to the photo persona and comvert to mono there? I have seen  both optionns described in several video tutorials, but not sure of the logic or advantage in either approach. Thanks.

[Ron P.]

Is it best, is very subjective. Everyone, as you've seen in the tutorials, have their own opinion of what's best. My opinion is it might be better to do this in the Develop Persona, because the RAW image provides you with greater access to those colors. Thus would give you greater control over the Tones and Contrast in a mono or Black and White image. Once you Develop the RAW, you stand to loose some of that. A Caveat to that is if you choose to Develop to HDR/32 bit or even ROMM RGB.

I convert in the Develop Persona, making use of the all those color sliders on the Black & White dialog, in combination with the various tonal and contrast adjustments on the Basic Panel.

[NotMyFault]

To give an alternative opinion, I prefer to do as few as possible in develop persona. Photo persona allows non-destructive workflows, and the re-edit whenever you like.

[walt.farrell]

I won't claim to be an expert on using the Develop Persona to create a B/W image. (Nor, I suppose, am I an expert on other methods, to be honest.)

However, it seems to me that doing it in the Photo Persona may provide flexibility and options that are not available in the Develop Persona, which can be used to give different effects if you want them.

9 methods are mentioned in this post, and I can think of at least 1 or 2 that I think are omitted there:

Or this topic, with some additional details: