Something that nearly all digital photos have in common—regardless of their camera of origin—is that they're in color. Although that's not necessarily a bad thing, it may seem counterintuitive, given the evolution of photography. Before digital replaced film as the photo medium of choice, color and monochrome shared the limelight. Today, if you want to channel your inner Ansel Adams with your own moody wide-angle vistas, specialty black-and-white apps are the path to achieving your monochromatic vision.
Hueless takes black and white seriously, offering a detailed and feature-laden set of controls.
Based on the reality that you do most of your shooting on the camera in your pocket, Curious Satellite's Hueless is built exclusively for the iPhone and designed for skilled hobbyists, with an emphasis on shooting high-resolution JPEGs and TIFFs. The app is easy to use and navigate, though perhaps not ideal for that superquick shot when there's just a few seconds between the train coming and your image of it emerging from the tunnel.
A button opens the interface to reveal several discrete controls that let you create presets, frame images, tap to focus, use composition rules, constrain dimension, adjust exposure and contrast, set geotags, and even apply colored filters for assorted monochrome looks. Despite its power and precision, don't look for Hueless to convert existing images from your camera roll into black and white. Instead, treat Hueless as a film camera loaded with black-and-white stock. Shoot with Hueless when you want black and white through and through—monochrome from start to finish—absent color reinterpretation.
For the one-click joy of simply converting your iPhone's native color images to black and white, focus on Pacific Helm's Camera Noir. You can shoot original monochrome images through this app or retrofit older color photos. Shooting is intuitive via the camera icon, which lets you tap to focus, frame, and adjust exposure.
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