Can I get the colours back?

Yes. The black-and-white look is an adjustment layer; hide or delete it and the original colours are back. The photo underneath never changes.

How do I make the sky darker, like a red filter?

Use a Channel Mixer adjustment layer with Monochrome ticked, and take more of the red channel and less of the blue. Black & White itself has no colour sliders.

Can I keep one colour and make the rest grey?

Yes. Paint black on the adjustment layer's mask over the part that should stay in colour.

Is my photo uploaded?

No. Everything runs in your browser. Picstea has no server that receives images.

How to make a photo black and white online

To make a photo black and white in Picstea, open it and choose Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Black & White. The colours turn to grey on a layer of their own, so you can undo it any time. It's free and your photo never leaves your device.

Open the editor — free, no sign-up

Make a photo black and white in three steps

Open the editor and drop your photo on the page.
Choose Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Black & White.
Choose File → Export As… and save the result.

Control the tones

Channel Mixer with Monochrome ticked lets you decide how much each colour adds: more red brightens skin and darkens a blue sky, more green suits landscapes.
Curves or Levels above the black-and-white layer add contrast — see levels and curves explained.
Gradient Map maps the greys to two colours for a duotone or a sepia look.
Hue/Saturation with saturation at −100 is another quick way to remove colour.

Keep one colour

Every adjustment layer has a mask. Select the Brush, paint with black on the mask over the part that should keep its colour — a red coat, a flower — and paint with white to bring the grey back.

Limitations

The Black & White adjustment converts colours with fixed weights and has no sliders; use Channel Mixer when you want to control them. Picstea works in 8-bit RGB, so there is no 16-bit or greyscale-mode editing.

How-to guides

Related tools

Questions

Can I get the colours back?: Yes. The black-and-white look is an adjustment layer; hide or delete it and the original colours are back. The photo underneath never changes.
How do I make the sky darker, like a red filter?: Use a Channel Mixer adjustment layer with Monochrome ticked, and take more of the red channel and less of the blue. Black & White itself has no colour sliders.
Can I keep one colour and make the rest grey?: Yes. Paint black on the adjustment layer's mask over the part that should stay in colour.
Is my photo uploaded?: No. Everything runs in your browser. Picstea has no server that receives images.