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Participant
March 1, 2023
Question

Black & White Smart Collection - TIF / PSDs

  • March 1, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 431 views

I would like to create a Smart Collection of final images that are black and white.

 

However, I do not do my editing/B&W conversion in Lightroom (so can't filter using the Treatment option), rather in Camera Raw or Photoshop and then save back the final image as a TIFF or PSD.

 

Is there a way to achieve this?

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3 replies

Sean McCormack
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 2, 2023

Unless you manually add some metadata to use in the smart collection, Lightroom has no way of knowing. It could be as simple as saving with BNW in the filename and using that as a search term, or adding it as a keyword. AI could tell this of course, but while we wait on that, you'll need to give Lightroom something to work with. 

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
twoeyesAuthor
Participant
March 2, 2023

Yes it does seem that way and is a shame. I was hopeful there would be a supported way of looking at the channel information in the preview or something along those lines, but the criteria is limited. I experimented with the bits per channel, but that is hit and miss. It really isn't that complicated but doesn't seem possible with the critera the Smart Collections allows us to select with.

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 2, 2023

I think you are going to need some Plugin with AI that can detect an absence of color in images. (Nothing known to me!)

As you found LrC cannot do it with a Smart Collection.

I am lucky in that I have (almost religiously) keyworded 'Monochrome' images with that Keyword, even if the images might be like a 'Sepia' tone in Color mode.

Interested to hear other comments.

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.4.1, Photoshop 27.8, ACR 18.4, Lightroom 9.4, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .