Artisan Pro X 2024
B&W Editing Software By Artists, For Artists
Arguably the best dedicated black and white editing software for fine art photographers.
Designed and developed by a highly acclaimed craftsman in digital B&W photography and processing who pioneered B&W fine art architectural photography, to serve his own critical needs in processing. Now also available to other crafts(wo)men.
**Note that this is not a luminosity mask panel – it’s a complete fine-art post processing plugin**
900+ Functions
608 Depth & Special FX functions, 154 Micro Zone Presets, Toning Buttons, Styles, B&W conversions, pro tools, selective adjustments, and more
local & global adjustments
Global adjustments and local adjustments using micro zones.
Luminosity masks
65 Luminosity Masks, Full, Quarter and Half and 31 micro zone masks.
Adobe PS CC 2024 Compatible
Fully compatible with PS CC 2024 v25.x.x
AI Enhanced
Improved sky masks using Adobe's built in AI and image upscaling using preserve details
Training material
There are 2 dozen of in-depth YouTube trainingvideos and counting + Knowledge Hub
Adobe PS Plugins overview & comparison
If you’re not sure which plugin will suit your needs (Artisan Pro, Artisan Shibui, Artisan Max, or Quick Mask Pro) then here’s a quick overview and comparison
Dynamic Zone Maps
Artisan Shibui, Artisan Pro and Artisan Max all have the new 16-zone and 11-zone Dynamic Zone visualization maps, giving you real-time information on the tonal zone distribution in your photo.
Dozens of free manuals and videos
For information, free manuals and quick reference guides for the Artisan Pro panel and Quick Mask Pro panels, please visit the Knowledge Hubs and it’s highly recommended to watch the YouTube channel with dozens of training videos.
Images created using artisan pro x
“Is It Hard?' Not If You Have The Right Attitudes. It's Having The Right Attitudes That's Hard.”
B&W software designed by a B&W craftsman
B&W Artisan Pro X 2024 (UXP version) is the latest evolution of the B&W Artisan Pro software panels and is a panel for Photoshop for pure and unrestricted B&W editing. It takes advantage of the AI engine in Adobe PS CC 2024.
Artisan Pro is the only dedicated B&W software and self-developed personal digital toolkit of a B&W fine-art photographer, educator, and widely acclaimed craftsman in B&W photography, whose innovative work pioneered digital B&W fine art (architectural) photography.
It is designed for other discerning B&W fine-art photographers who need powerful but proven and effective tools to support and express their artistic vision without any technical restrictions. The panel is designed for both beginners and experienced professionals in B&W photography who have made, or intend to make, B&W photography their first and foremost form of expression.
About the Designer of this plugin
The designer of this Photoshop plugin, Joel Tjintjelaar, pioneered B&W Fine art architectural photography more than 15 years ago. Together with a few other leading photographers, Joel popularized this style of photography. Ever since thousands of photographers worldwide have adopted this visual style of architectural photography and technical methods for artistic expression. These days, the phrase ‘B&W fine art architecture’, has become synonymous with the style Joel pioneered.
System Requirements
- PS CC 2021 or higher is recommended for B&W Artisan Pro X 2024 UXP
- Artisan Pro X 2024 for UXP is fully compatible with Adobe PS CC 2025 (v26.x.x)
- Mac(Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows compatible, no Linux support
- Make sure that your computer can run the latest Photoshop version. Check Adobe’s website for specifics.
- The plugin runs language independently.
Highlights
Training material
- Neutral and Fine art conversions + B&W color filter emulation
- Proprietary Restore feature for controlled blending
- 65 different luminosity masks + 31 micro zones
- Creating depth with smart directional gradients
- Special FX for light effects in intricate details like cables
- Sophisticated global adjustments
- Advanced local adjustments with auto blending
- Pro Adjustments with or without auto blending
- Optimized AI Enhanced Sky mask generation
- Upscaling + Noise
- Auto Styles with auto masks or Manual Styles
- Basic toning, split toning & Color grading
- Micro Zone adjustments with multiple zone activation and auto blending
USD $49.99
USD $49.99
USD $37.49
25% OFF Summer sale Aug 20 – Aug 28
“You Want To Know How To Paint A Perfect Painting? It's Easy. Make Yourself Perfect And Then Just Paint Naturally."
Our philosophy
Putting the artistic process and quality in the first place.
We are passionate photographers and artists in the first place, we’re not software engineers. But we are comfortable with technology. Our main objective will always be to enable artistic expression, not software development. The digital toolkit we developed with the Artisan plugin is also a highly personal and indispensable toolkit to create the art we envisioned. And that’s what separates our software from others: we know better what other photographers need than software engineers. And we know what it takes to create images that inspired other photographers for more than a decade already. And that’s why we developed Artisan Pro.
We do not believe in replacing your individuality with 1-click ‘magic’ filters just to save you time. That is a production process, not an artistic process. The software encourages you to learn the artistic process. And it is that process that takes your time. Initially to learn the process, and later to fully embrace the process as a way to immerse yourself in your art.
Therefore, the software has two main objectives:
First to emulate through software the technical proficiency and skills of a B&W craftsman with a very high degree of subtlety, consistency and accuracy.
Second, to adopt the mindset of the creator of the panel by following the suggested artist’s workflow that is built upon principles in art and aesthetics. It takes time, but perfection and quality take time. There is no shortcut to quality.
Both objectives are enabled through recommended workflows and elaborate presets in the panel.
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers. For more FAQs please go to the Knowledge Hub.
The older (CEP) versions are designed for Adobe’s CEP Legacy platform and will still work as long as Adobe supports the CEP platform. In 2020 Adobe announced that the older CEP Legacy platform will be discontinued within a few years and fully replaced by the new UXP platform But Adobe didn’t give an exact date. As for now, the older CEP Legacy plugins will still work but if you have the latest Apple computer with the new M1 or M2 processor then you have to start up Adobe PS in Rosetta emulation mode to use the older CEP plugins. It is described here – it is a simple one-off setting and the older plugins will then work fine. But it is not known when Adobe will discontinue the support for the CEP platform. Apart from that, the new UXP plugins have more features and will usually work faster.
Because this is not a panel for creating luminosity masks – it does that too but can do far more. The luminosity masks feature is only one small bonus feature part of this full post-processing workflow panel. It is a full workflow panel designed to process B&W images optimally and easily, like for example Silver Efex Pro or Topaz B&W.
I use the panel myself extensively, even though I am able to do it all manually. Why? Because I can do it faster and much more accurately with much more subtlety and consistency than when I do it manually. Furthermore, creating depth in very small objects like thin cables is nearly impossible to do without the panel (Special FX feature) or cost a lot of painstaking effort that can not match the subtlety of the method with the Special FX feature.
No, this panel offers something for everyone. There’s a way of working with the panel that’s less intimidating and time-consuming. It will result in less sophisticated images, but still very good artistic results, considering the time, effort, and experience you give it. To paraphrase Robert M. Pirsig: it’s not hard, it’s having the right attitude that’s hard.
Yes, absolutely. The panel is designed to operate independently from color information as it only takes into consideration the actual RAW luminance value of a pixel, not the color information of a pixel.
You can process color images very accurately, effectively, and beautifully just by using the luminance value information to come to your colorful end result. Later on, you can alter the saturation/hue yourself with either the built-in color-grading or split-toning presets, or do it yourself manually with Photoshop’s color features.
No, there’s a difference between a traditional workflow, the workflow using adjustment layers that Adobe endorses and everyone seems to use, often referred to as a ‘non-destructive workflow’ and a non-traditional workflow such as the workflow supported in the panel and used by me. A non-traditional workflow is not equal to a destructive workflow. The many subtle incremental changes that are typical for my workflow, using dozens of channels and hundreds of layers, are not workable using the traditional workflow.
Yes, absolutely. It will work on both Mac OS and Windows systems.