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Black & White Mixer in
Photoshop Adobe Camera Raw

Black & White filter layer in Photoshop

Color to Monochrome: Black and White Filter Layer vs Black & White Mixer

The B&W Mixer in Adobe Camera Raw during direct raw conversion is slightly more powerful in that it offers offers controls for {Oranges, Aquas, Purples}. Also, the output can be RGB or Lab. The B&W mixer also operates independent of RGB color space, which can mean more control over the results. And this is also why its settings produce different results than the a filter layer. Finally, it is appealing to do a one-pass conversion from raw, with all the conversion settings stored in the metadata (but beware co-mingled color/B&W settings like exposure, a bug in ACR).

The Black & White filter layer mixes colors to monochrome on any existing RGB image from any source. It can also tint an image. It does not work on Lab or CMYK images; these must first be converted to RGB. However, it has several advantages of its own:

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Diglloyd Infrared Photography covers cameras and lenses for infrared photography.

The coverage explains all the issues involved in shooting for monochrome and in infrared. It is not a review of any particular camera or lens, though many examples are included.

Monochrome vs color cameras.
Post processing for monochrome.
Guidance on workflow for infrared, including black and white and channel swapping for false-color images.
How infrared renders, and why certain spectral cutoffs matter: false color vs black and white.
Image quality issues to be on the lookout for in infrared.
Numerous lens evaluations in infrared.

View an overview of infrared as well as filter spectral transmission plus examples from an optimal lens.