THE POWER OF BLACK & WHITE

In Adobe Lightroom & Beyond

A

M A S T E R C L A S S

Piet Van den Eynde

I N T R O D U C T I O N

I N T R O D U C T I O N

In a digital world, where colour abounds, black and white almost seems like an anachronism. For a long time, digital monochrome
was a no-go zone, only to be entered at your own risk. It was the playground of digital alchemists who mixed channels in Photoshop
and printed their work on a colour printer that they had custom-converted into a dedicated black and white machine that ran on
specialty quadtone inks. More than knowledge of photography, you needed a degree in math, chemistry, or preferably both to achieve
even halfway decent black and white results. That was then, this is now: the last five years have brought tremendous progress, both in
hardware and in software, and black and white is back from well, never having been away in the first place

Now that printers use more than ten tints

plugins that could completely mimic the

In this eBook, Ill explore the black and

about how you can incorporate High

of ink and that software and calibration

grain structure and spectral relationships of

white conversion options that Adobe

Dynamic Range techniques into your

hardware seems to have tamed almost

your favourite black and white film.

Lightroom has to offer. Almost all of these

black-and-white post-processing.

techniques work also in Adobe Camera

The book also gives some suggestions

every known colour, manufacturers have

started to pound on the last stronghold of

Nowadays, only a mouse click separates

Raw, which shares the same processing

on finishing off your photo, with notes

analogue photography: black and white.

your raw file from its two-stops pushed

engine as Lightroom. Only when its

on adding borders and tinting your

We have printers with greyscale cartridges

Tri-X incarnation. At least, so the

necessary will we go to Photoshop. For

photographs.

of varying intensity and special black and

manufacturers would want us to believe.

Photoshop-only techniques, I highly

white drivers. With Photoshop CS3, Adobe

While its true that digital black and white

recommend Andrew S. Gibsons eBooks,

But before diving into Lightroom, lets start

introduced the much more intuitive Black

has become more accessible, what was

available at CraftAndVision.com.

with some generalif youll allow me to

& White Adjustment Layer that was the

once a lack of options is now an agony of

basis for the even better B&W panel in

choice: which tool, but more importantly,

I will also discuss a few Lightroom plugins

Camera Raw and Lightroom. Third-party

which process will express your black-and-

that can make your black-and-white

software developers entered the game with

white vision best?

workflow more rewarding, and I will talk

be so directivedigital black-and-white
dos and donts.

Chapter 1:
D I G I T A L B L A C K &
D O S A N D D O N T S

W H I T E

Chapter 1:
D I G I T A L

B L A C K

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W H I T E

D O S

A N D

D O N T S

It may sound like a paradox, but dont use your cameras built-in black
and white options. You havent spent 300 USD on Lightroom to let
some camera engineer decide how your black and white images should
look, have you?

Youll get the best results from a colour

right in camera applies here as much as in

original. And the more colours in your

any other photographic discipline:

original, the more quickly and flexibly

youll make beautiful conversions.

Try to crop in camera (think of the great

masters like Cartier Bresson!).

Preferably (thats an understatement)

Use analogue filters when necessary:

your original should be a raw file: the

certain aspects of a polarizer simply just

digital darkroom allows you to convert a

cant be mimicked digitally.

light blue sky to a looming it was about

Expose to the right: squeeze as much

to storm one, but theres only so much

information in your raw file as possible,

digital beating your pixels will take. The

without clipping the highlights. In post-

4096 different brightness levels of a 12-

processing, its better to lower the exposure

bit raw capture will survive your post-

of a bright image than to increase it on an

processing abuse much better than the 256

underexposed one.

levels of an 8-bit JPG will.

Pay even more attention to composition:

the lack of colour makes elements such as

Finally, it goes almost without saying (but

perspective, form, lines, and texture all the

Ill do it anyway) that the motto get it

more important.

Chapter 2:
T H E B A S I C S O F B L A C K
W H I T E C O N V E R S I O N

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Chapter 2:
T H E

B A S I C S

O F

B L A C K

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W H I T E

C O N V E R S I O N

Technically, digital black and white is nothing else than the translation of
colours and their mutual relations into shades of grey. Because colour is
always at the start of the black-and-white conversion process, well first cover
some essentials on colour.

One of the ways to describe the various

through, and will block the wavelengths of

colours and their mutual relations is

the opposing colour on the colour wheel.

with this colour wheel, which weve

simplified to a colour hexagon. You can

So, even in analog photography, there

easily reconstruct it yourself by drawing

wasnt just one black-and-white version of

a triangle with the base at the bottom.

any given scene: the film and filters used

You put Red at the top and continue with

significantly influenced the final result (or

Green and Blue clockwise. Then draw a

should we say interpretation), and thats

second triangle, standing on its tip. Start

not to mention the secrets of developing

with Cyan (the opposite of Red) at the

the film and enlarging the negative in the

bottom tip and add Magenta and Yellow,

darkroom.

also clockwise.
In that respect, nothing much has
Doing this will help you understand why

changed. Except that now, the lights can

you have to put an orange or red filter in

stay on and if theres a funny smell to be

front of your lens to darken a blue/cyan

noticed around your desk, you cant blame

Print the colour wheel and tape it somewhere on your monitor

sky: a filter of a certain colour will let the

the chemicals.

until you intuitively know the mutual relations of the colours.

wavelengths of light of its own colour

It will also help you in your colour post-processing.

T I P

Chapter 3:
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B L A C K

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T O O L S

Chapter 3:

I N T R O D U C I N G

L I G H T R O O M S

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T O O L S

The screenshot below shows all sliders and

Sure enough, some of these sliders are also

processing is involved, but we cant go

Photoshop Lightroom or the chapter on the

settings that can be used in order to create

used for colour developing, but for black

into the specifics of each and every tool

Develop module in my own Lightroom

incredible black and white conversions

and white, theyre extra important.

of the Develop module. If youre looking

book Lightroom 3 Ontmaskerd, which is

for in-depth coverage on that, I highly

currently only available in Dutch.

without ever having to set one foot outside

of Lightroom.

Well cover the tools as far as their

recommend David duChemins book

behaviour for black-and-white post-

Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe

Chapter 3:

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control. You can click on a point on the

to read Michael Fryes eBook Light and

white mix interactively by activating the

you set the white point of your picture

curve and drag it upwards to lighten the

Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom,

Targeted Adjustment Tool

(Exposure) and the black point (Blacks).

corresponding brightness values or drag it

available on www.craftandvision.com.

dragging on a colour. Dragging down will

Fill Light can help to open up shadows and

downwards to darken them. You can

Highlight Recovery can to some extent

make the curve steeper in some parts,

The actual conversion takes place in the

will render it a lighter shade of grey. If the

recover blown-out highlights. But both

increasing the contrast there and decreasing

B&W section of the HSL/Color/B&W panel

colour is a mix of one of the eight colours,

Fill Light and Highlight Recovery have

it elsewhere.

The sliders in the Basic panel

will let

render it more dark grey while dragging up

. If youve set Lightroom up this way in

the Presets Tab of the Preferences, hitting

their drawbacks so, as always, its better

and click-

youll see two sliders change simultaneously

when you use the tool.

to get it right in camera. Contrary to

While you can only see one instance of the

the B&W button here or in the Basic panel,

Exposure, which brightens or darkens all

Tone Curve (either the Parametric Curve

or typing the shortcut V will give you

It can be useful to be in Before/After

the tones more or less equally (as real, in-

or the Point Curve) at a time, you should

Lightrooms best guess at how to convert

view

camera exposure does), Brightness mainly

know its settings are cumulative. You switch

your picture to black and white. Even if

information of the picture next to

affects the midtones. Clarity is especially

between versions by pressing the button

Lightrooms preferences are not set up to

your black-and-white conversion (not

give you an automatic conversion, hitting

shown here). You can drag the Targeted

important in black and white, as it allows

. A more intuitive way of working with

, so you see the original colour

you to accentuate textures and add depth

either version of the Tone Curve is to

the auto button will do so. To restore the

Adjustment Tool in the colour (Before)

to your pictures. I sometimes call it the

activate the Targeted Adjustment Tool

default, neutral position, Alt/Option-click

view or black and white (After) view; it

and simply click and drag upwards

on the Black & White Mix header. Auto or

doesnt matter.

3D-slider. The Contrast slider provides a

basic way of altering contrast.

on an area in the picture to lighten the

not, thats just a starting point.

The sliders only go to -100. Yet, sometimes

corresponding brightness levels or drag

For infinitely more control you can use
the Tone Curve

down to darken them.

, which comes in two

The true power of the B&W panel lies in

you might want to go beyond that. In

the fact that it gives you direct control over

those cases, it pays to experiment with

flavours: the Parametric Curve and, new

For a very thorough explanation of how to

how any of its eight colours are translated

the Temperature and Tint sliders from the

in Lightroom 3, the Point Curve that you

use the Tone Curve for things you would

into shades of grey. Want to darken the

White Balance section in the Basic panel

might know from Camera Raw. The Point

normally use the Basic Panel for (such as

skies in a picture? Drag the Blue slider to

and with the Camera Calibration sliders

Curve offers the highest amount of

setting black and white points), make sure

the left. You can also change the black and

(See Case Study 2.)

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C O N V E R S I O N

T O O L S

all the blues in the picture, not just the sky.

this photo was made on an eleven-month

Another way of populating your preset

tint your picture and is covered in greater

Luckily, as of Lightroom 2, there are two

bicycle trip and there are only so many

library is to share presets with others, look

detail in chapter 9.

controls that allow localized corrections of

light modifiers a man can stuff in his

for free ones on the Internet or, if youve

seven of the most important effects (well,

bicycle panniers!

got money to burn, you might even buy

The Split Toning panel

allows you to

Over at the Effects panel, the Post-Crop

Vignette

actually six plus colour).

them The free OnOne presets (www.

is mostly used to darken the

ononesoftware.com/products/perfect-

Clarity set to +100 and painted on the beard

presets-lightroom) have a couple of nice

edges of the frame to lead the viewers eye

The first is the Graduated Filter

towards the centre. Make sure to choose

will make landscape photographers smile

to make it stand out more. The bulk of the

black-and-white effects. At 9.99 USD per

either Color or Highlight Priority (not Paint

because of its ease of use in darkening skies

look of this picture was actually applied

volume, you might want to check out the

Overlay) from the Style dropdown list to

in cases where a real grad wasnt used.

through a one-click preset (for more on

Cold Storage Film Presets, volumes 1 and 2,

achieve realistic results. For even more

Still, a real filter darkens the light before

preset strategies, see chapter 5). The presets

at www.x-equals.com/blog. Theyre a range

realism, simply hand-paint a vignette with

it hits your sensor, so to bridge really big

built-in vignette had darkened the mans

of custom-built simulations of analogue

the Adjustment Brush

exposure differences between sky and

clothes too much, so I dodged them with

colour and black-and-white films. In the

foreground, a real grad will wipe the floor

yet another Adjustment Brush. The oven

analogue days, film had to be stored in the

with its digital incarnation.

in the left of the frame was burned (no pun

refrigerator, hence the name.

The Grain sliders

(new to Lightroom 3)

. It

I used a Local Adjustment Brush with

will allow you to add an analogue-like film

intended) to make it less prominent.

grain look to your picture, and can come

The Adjustment Brush

is the most

Creating an engaging black and white

in very handy to cover up post-processing

advanced of Lightrooms local correction

You can turn your favourite black-and-white

doesnt always have to be time consuming

traces like well do in the example in Case

tools: it allows you to digitally dodge

conversions into Presets

or complicated, as other sections in this

Study 2.

(lighten) and burn (darken) parts of an

comes with a long list of built-in presets,

eBook might lead you to believe. For this

image. In the image on page 8, the eyes

including the B&W Creative ones and the

image, I applied a home-ripened preset

Up to this point, all the adjustments we

were dodged, and the left part of the

B&W Filter ones, that emulate traditional

and tweaked the result with the above-

discussed have been global ones: they

face was burned to make it more three-

filters (more on those in the upcoming case

mentioned handful of local adjustments.

affect the entire image. Even the seemingly

dimensional. This allowed me to make up

study). You can create presets of your own

Everything was done within Lightroom

localized colour corrections of the B&W

for the fact that I really should have used a

as well, either from scratch or based on

and the whole conversion from the colour

panel are actually global (albeit limited to

softbox instead of an umbrella when taking

other presets. Its all just metadata, really.

picture you see in the Navigator window

one colour): darkening the blues will darken

the picture in the first place. However,

. Lightroom

took less than two minutes.

CASE STUDY 1
The Endless
Possibilities of the
Black & White
Adjustment Panel

CASE STUDY
The Endless
Possibilities of the
Black & White
Adjustment Panel

1
And how would you like your black-and-white conversion today, sir?
There really isnt one way of converting to black and white. From top to bottom youll see a number of conversions. Because lab
tests and real life are two different things altogether, I combined a test strip comprising the 8 colours found on the B&W panel
with a photo of some Buddhist prayer flags.

The best way to learn how the sliders work, however, is to dig up a multicoloured picture in your Lightroom Catalog and drag the different sliders around. In the conversion process, youll
quickly note that all three components of the original colour (hue, saturation, and luminance) contribute to how its translated into grey.
A very quick-and-dirty way of converting an image
is to simply drag the Saturation slider to -100 in the
Basic panel. However, this leaves no additional control
over how individual colours are translated, so quickand-dirty also means hit or miss

Desaturating in the Basic panel

A standard zeroed mix with all sliders set to their

default positions. Notice that green and aqua get
translated to a very similar shade of grey. That is
an important pitfall when converting to black and
white. A woman in an aqua dress standing in front of
a green wall will almost appear to be a head floating
in space in a standard conversion: areas of different
colour arent necessarily translated into different
shades of grey. Youll have to control the translation
but, fortunately, you have all the tools to do so.

Neutral mix in the B&W panel

CASE STUDY

The Endless
Possibilities of the
Black & White
Adjustment Panel

Lightrooms built-

Auto mix in the B&W panel

in Presets panel on
the left hand of the
Develop Module
offers a selection
of black-and-white
presets. For more
about using presets,
check out chapter 4.

When you select the Apply auto mix when first converting to black and white
checkbox in the Presets tab of Lightrooms preferences, Lightroom will propose an
automated conversion for you. If anything, it can provide a good starting point.

The screenshots on the following pages show the result of some of the analog filter-emulating
presets that ship standard with Lightroom.

CASE STUDY

The Endless
Possibilities of the
Black & White
Adjustment Panel

As expected, the Blue Filter

preset is set up in a way to
lighten its own colour and
darken its opposing colours:
red and orange.

Blue and Blue Hi-Contrast Filter from the Lightroom presets

You can use the Green Filter
preset as a starting point in
those situations where you
want to lighten foliage.

Green Filter from the Lightroom presets

CASE STUDY

The Endless
Possibilities of the
Black & White
Adjustment Panel

There are about as many Lightroom

Infrared Filter from the Lightroom presets

infrared simulating presets as there are

people developing them. Just like the
effects of a polarizer, infrared capture is
hard to completely simulate digitally.

The Yellow Filter from the Lightroom presets

CASE STUDY

The Endless
Possibilities of the
Black & White
Adjustment Panel

The Orange, Red, and Red

Hi-Contrast

Filter

presets

can be used to simulate the

sky-darkening effect of their
analog counterparts.

In general, the orange slider

has a strong effect on how skin
tone is rendered. Dragging the
slider to the right will make
for a lighter, ethereal skin
whereas dragging to the left
will make skin look darker
and more weathered.

Orange, Red, and Red Hi-Contrast Filter from the Lightroom presets

Chapter 4:
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W O R K F L O W

Chapter 4:
L I G H T R O O M

B L A C K

As noted in the introduction,

the basics of digital black-andwhite conversion have become
simple, even deceptively so.
Although every image is unique,
in this chapter I want to offer
some basic guidelines and
workflow suggestions.

&

W H I T E

W O R K F L O W

Choosing a profile will establish Lightrooms

2) My second step is to apply auto lens

3) Because Lightroom is as much about

base conversion in terms of color rendition,

corrections1 (ALC) whenever possible. By

workflow and efficiency as it is about post-

saturation and contrast without changing any

removing any lens-induced vignetting,

processing, I wont do these two steps for

of the actual sliders. The choice of a profile

auto lens corrections will have an effect on

every individual image. Instead, Ill make

might be slightly less important when working

your histogram. If you apply your exposure

an import preset a preset that I apply

in black and white, but its still a recommended

corrections without having ALC on (only to

whenever I import new pictures. You can

first step.

apply it later on in the process), you might

only apply one preset at a time when

overcorrect your images.

importing, so if you want to automatically

assign a profile AND apply auto lens
corrections, youll have to include these
two things in one preset. I always try to give
my presets logical names, so I might have a
preset called Camera Profile Neutral + Auto

1) For colour work, the first thing you normally

do after importing a picture is to choose
a profile in the Camera Calibration panel.

If you find yourself applying the same

settings to freshly imported pictures
over and over again, its time to turn
them into an import preset (which
is nothing more than a normal preset
that you apply upon import).

If you use an older computer and make extensive use of the Adjustment
brush, the lens corrections might slow things down. In this case, you could
move the lens corrections to the end of the processing step.
1

Lens Corrections.

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4) Youll typically want to start with the

are parts of your image that will be printed

basic corrections in the aptly called Basics

as pure white. The idea is that, unless you

Its a good habit to give your Virtual Copies a name in the Copy Name

panel. I often do these basic corrections

want to deliberately clip those areas, you

section of the Metadata panel (e.g. BW) in the Library module. You can

while still in colour mode. Then Ill decide

shouldnt Alt-drag the slider further to the

if I want to process the picture only as a

right than where the first coloured speckles

black and white or if I want to process it in

appear. Similarly, Alt/Option dragging the

colour and black and white. In the latter

Blacks slider will inform you on where the

case, Ill make a Virtual Copy. Ill often

black clipping will occur in your picture.

turn on the Clipped Shadows/Highlights

warning (shortcut: J) that will
show clipped shadows in Blue
and clipped highlights in Red.
This allows me to see if there
are parts of the picture that
will be printed pure black
or white and adjust the
sliders accordingly.

Another way to make

informed decisions on how
to adjust the image, is to hold
down the Alt/Option key
while dragging the Exposure
slider: this will give you a
black screen where coloured
areas will start to appear as
you drag the slider further to
the left: those colored areas

use this variable later to make a custom renaming preset so you can add
it to the filename or the title (as in this example) when youre exporting
pictures. That way you can easily identify your black-and-white images
by their filename.

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The most intuitive way of adjusting a black-and-white conversion is by using the Targeted Adjustment Tool. Activate it by clicking the bulls-eye like icon
down on an area in the picture

to render it darker or up to make it lighter.

and then simply click and drag

Dont forget to hit Enter or the Done button in the Toolbar to go out of the Targeted Adjustment Mode.

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5) Since the black-and-white conversion in

takes the possibilities of the B&W panel to

In the latter example, the sliders of the

9) Somewhere in between these steps Ill

itself will affect the relative contrast in and

the extremes by throwing in some White

B&W panel will not be able to make much

do my capture sharpening (and noise

the overall contrast of the picture, I tend

Balance Voodoo and Camera Calibration

of a difference and youll need to apply

reduction, if needed), but this does not fall

to go to the B&W panel before tackling the

Black Magic.

local exposure corrections (dodging and

within the scope of this eBook.

actual Contrast slider.

burning) with the Adjustment Brush in

6) As flexible as the B&W panel is, it

Lightroom or similar tools in Photoshop.

10) The steps arent always as linear as

If youve set up your Lightroom

also has its limitations: changing a slider

preferences to do so, then Lightroom

will affect all instances of that colour.

7) As for when to crop, its mainly a matter

the processing chain, youll sometimes

will make an often nice auto conversion

Darkening the sky of a fashion picture

of personal taste and intent: if you know

want to tweak earlier settings: applying a

right off the bat when you press the B&W

where the model wears blue jeans will also

you want a square crop, you might as well

vignette may lead you to increase the Fill

button in the Basic panel, the B&W panel,

darken the jeanssomething the client

crop the image beforehand. However, if

Light slider in the Basic panel, for example.

or when you apply the V shortcut (conVert

may not want!

youre like me and you prefer flexibility,

Case Study 2 provides a nice example of

want to experiment with alternative

what I would call an adaptive workflow!

to Black & White).

theyre described here. As you move along

The more colours you have in your

crops, or simply need different crops for

Dragging the eight sliders will change the

original, the more youll be able to do

different outputs, youll want to apply your

greyscale interpretation of these colours

with the B&W panel. A model wearing a

crop at the end of the workflow and apply

accordingly. Colours that are a mix of

purple pair of jeans (does that even exist?),

your different alternative crops to

these eight base colours can be changed

a green sweater, and a red handbag against

virtual copies!

by changing two sliders at a time or

a blue sky background may hurt your eyes

by using the far more intuitive Targeted

with all that colour, but when it comes to

8) Finally, its time for the finishing touches

Adjustment Tool.

black-and-white conversion, shell lead to

such as tinting, adding vignettes and

more interesting and quicker results than

border effects. These are discussed in detail

Often, you can achieve a really good base

her twin sister, whos dressed in an orange

in chapter 9.

conversion with this panel. Case Study 2

outfit and stands in front of a brick wall.

CASE STUDY 2
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
1. The original image as imported into

it was only hours later I realized I had

Lightroom. Severely underexposed, but

inadvertently set my camera to spot

it might also have been overexposed:

metering mode!

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
2. Sometimes I do my cropping after the

weight in the overall composition. I choose a 5x4

of the available perspective lines from the fence and

conversion, but here I immediately decide I want

crop. Whenever possible, I try to stick to classic

the upper part of the dome. They help to lead the

to crop part of the building in order to reduce its

crop ratios such as square, 2x3, or 4x5. I make use

eye through the frame.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
3. Increasing Exposure by 1.5 stops and

picture but raises another problem: the

lowering the Blacks to 1 restores shadow sky now shows even less detail and starts
detail and brings some light into the

to lean towards white.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
4. Since I have Apply auto mix

conversion when I type the shortcut

Because the division line between

Brush because of the difficult

when first converting to black and

V. The sky is still way too bright

the bright sky and the foreground

transitions and the amount of

white switched on in the Lightroom

for my liking (the auto conversion

is not a straight line , I cannot use a

darkening that will be needed.

preferences, Lightroom automatically

lightened it even more).

Graduated Filter to darken it and

proposes this black-and-white

Im reluctant to use the Adjustment

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
5. In cases like this, its best to let the image select

lacks detail. An unwanted side effect is that the white

light of the sky). Well deal with that later. I also

itself. I move the Aqua and Blue sliders all the way to

taqiyah (the knitted religious cap) turns dark, because

decide to raise the value of the oranges and yellows,

their minimum but the result is still too bright and

its a similar hue to the sky (it probably takes on the

lightening both the skin tone and the building.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
6. With the Blue and Aqua sliders already at their

Calibration panel and increase the saturation of the

have the effect of making the blues a darker grey.

minimum, I cant get the sky to go any darker in

Blue Primary. Since Lightroom internally applies

Unfortunately, the taqiyah goes darker too, but

the HSL/Color/B&W panel. So I turn to the Camera

this before the black-and-white conversion, it will

were starting to get some detail in the sky.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
7. Another way to influence the black-

balance of the picture. Dragging the

also leads to haloing around the dove

for when making drastic changes to

and-white conversion before the B&W

Temperature slider down to 4917K

and the caretakers arm, something

luminance values.

panel kicks in is to change the white

darkens the sky considerably, but

you should always be on the lookout

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
8. I settle on a value of 5125 K. There are still some
artifacts, but nothing a healthy dose of film grain
wont be able to cure.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
9. I type K to open the Adjustment Brush panel.

way too much, but painting at higher-than-

overlay (O key). You can always lower the value

I choose an Exposure of +2 and paint over the

intended values will let you clearly see where

later. I settle for +0.62.

foreground to lighten it. This setting is actually

youve painted without switching to the red mask

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
10. A 1:1 view of the sky shows that

I decide to cover up my pixel abuse

processed and less-processed parts

at 1:1 or ideally in print, so dont

the extreme conversion has taken

by adding a grain in the Effects

of the picture together. The effect of

judge the effect based on

its toll in terms of image quality. So

Panel. This will help to tie the highly

added grain should always be viewed

these screenshots.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
11. In order to further draw the eye
to the centre of the image, I apply a
subtle vignette.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
12. I find the image still lacking in

will make things look

contrast and punch, so I boost the

more textured and slightly

Clarity in the Basic panel to 75. This

more three-dimensional.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
13. I still want to add some extra

the Basic panel. Instead, I turn to

lighten the midtones slightly, and

found in the gatekeepers clothing).

contrast, but not uniformly. So I

the Tone Curve panel and use the

significantly brighten the extreme

This also helps to bring out detail in

dont use the Contrast slider in

Point Curve. I darken the shadows,

highlights (which are mostly to be

the sky.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
14. In order to add some midground interest, I make a new mask with the
Adjustment Brush, increasing the exposure on the domed structure and the
cloth on the left side of the picture.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
15. I add some more contrast, and because I want

disturbing little bird near the top border that

to do it uniformly, this time I use the Contrast

looks more like a dust speckle, using the Spot

slider in the Basic panel. I also eliminate the

Removal tool.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
16. I still have to tackle the hat

The result isnt perfect, but OK for

16.1. Make a Virtual Copy of the

16.2. Then, select the master file

problem. Using a carefully painted

screen and small prints. For larger

image obtained in step 15.

and in its History panel, track back

local adjustment mask (a tablet is

format prints, the following approach

to the auto black-and-white

worth its weight in gold in these

involving Photoshop would yield

conversion from step 4, where the

cases) I manage to lighten the hat.

better results.

hat was still white.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
16.3. Select both files in the Filmstrip and open them as layers

16.4. The top layer should be the one with the white cap. Add a black layer

in Photoshop with the aptly named Edit In > Open as Layers in

mask to that layer to hide it completely and then paint with a white brush in

Photoshop command from the Develop modules Photo menu.

the layer mask to reveal only the white cap, as shown in the screenshot below.

If youre a perfectionist,

Sometimes, even when you can

you can clone away the

achieve everything you want in

remaining black halos like

Lightroom, its just better or quicker

I did here on a separate

to use a little bit of Photoshops

retouching layer.

powerful capabilities.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
17. Im generally not a big fan of

look at the before picture), youll

highlights. On those rare occasions

versions live next to each other in

tinting my black-and-white images,

know why! In order to add some

that I do tint my black-and-white

the Catalog, and I have the option of

but I decided to give this image a

extra depth to my tinting, I chose

images, I will generally apply

exporting them separately.

warm tone. If youve ever visited

slightly different hue and saturation

the split toning to a virtual copy.

Delhis Red Mosque (or take a closer

values for the shadows and

That way the toned and un-toned

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
18. Dont be afraid to experiment: everything you

around with the Red Primary Tint and

do inside of Lightroom is non-destructive and

Saturation sliders in the Calibration panel allowed

reversible, even between Lightroom sessions. After

me to darken the sky even further without the

completing this picture, I was experimenting a

unwanted side-effects that altering the Blue

little and by accident, I discovered that playing

Primary sliders invoked.

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
Just like in analogue photography,

This case study illustrated:

Lastly, it shows that you often can

experimentation, perseverance, expertise,

First, I wanted to show that you can

get 90% to 95% of your work done

and a dose of luck are important

still make a good black and white

in Lightroom. Often even 100%. But

ingredients to getting to a successful black-

conversion from an anything-but-optimal

sometimes, youll need Photoshop for

and-white print. Things havent changed

original, and teach you a few lesser-known

some final tweaks, such as turning the hat

that much after all!

techniques.

back to white.

When youre working on one picture for a

Secondly, it shows the importance of

long time, it helps to stop and clear your

correct exposure and shooting raw: ideally,

mind, do something else, and return to

this image would have been exposed a

it later. You may find you have overdone

little more to the right (without clipping

some corrections and overlooked other

the highlights, though). Thanks to the

areas needing your attention.

flexibility of raw, I was able to pull it off.

Even when preparing the images for this

Thirdly, it shows that advanced

eBook, I found myself re-tweaking some of

editing like this is never (at least not in

them slightly. Allow yourself to learn and

my book) a linear process. It involves

grow as a post-processer, as much as you

checking, moving between panels,

would allow yourself to grow as

tweaking and re-tweaking.

a photographer.

As noted, for this picture, I prefer this method of darkening the sky to using Adjustment Brushes. Using them would have been hard
to pull off believably because of the intricate masking involved, and especially because of the strong luminance changes required.
Using global instead of local adjustments has a second benefit: they can easily be synchronized with other pictures that have the
same problematic sky.

T I P

CASE STUDY
Making the Most
of an All-butperfect Original

2
In Lightroom, theres usually

The standard way of converting

(especially when you add the

more than one solution to any

to black and white using the

extra possibilities offered by

If you find yourself

given problem.

B&W panel is very flexible

playing with the White Balance

using this advanced

and the Camera Calibration

technique

sliders). Still, theres one

technique that allows even more
control: it uses the HSL panel
instead of the B&W panel and
consists of desaturating the eight
colour sliders in the Saturation
tab of the HSL panel (1) after
which you can change their
greyscale brightness by altering
the Luminance sliders (2) in the
Luminance tab of the HSL panel.

The main difference is that this

technique allows you to use the
Vibrance and Saturation sliders
from the Basic panel (3) to tweak
your conversion, which is not
the case in the standard blackand-white conversion technique.

lot,

you might turn the

process of dragging
eight

sliders

to

Saturation -100 into

a preset.

T I P

CASE STUDY 3
With a little
help from my
(Photoshop)
Friends

CASE STUDY
With a little
help from my
(Photoshop)
Friends

In chapter 7, well discuss the use of real (32-bit) high-dynamic-range Lightroom plugins that use multiple exposures
in order to achieve truly deep and rich black-and-white images.

However, you can go a very long

At the end of the trip, when I got

I wanted to darken the sky to give

way with just one file, Lightroom,

back home, I suffered a severe case

it a more ominous look: it was

and some Photoshop finessing. To

of what I call monitor shock.

already drizzling at the time of

that effect, Lightroom has two nifty

This is when your vision of what

capture and it really started to pour

features that help you squeeze the

you photographed changes from

minutes after Id taken the picture.

most out of a single raw file: virtual

the tiny and very forgiving four

The Graduated Filter wasnt going

copies and the Open as Layers in

square inches of your camera

to be helpful, because it would

Photoshop command.

LCD to an 80-fold preview in

affect the mast protruding into

Lightrooms Loupe view. Where I

the sky and I feared that dodging

Take this picture of a small

had remembered cloud detail in

and burning with the Adjustment

shipyard, taken during a bicycle

the sky and lots of gritty textures in

Brush would also be less than ideal,

trip through Thailand. It was a

the foreground, I was confronted

because of the level of complexity

magical little place. The artist in

with a very drab scene and an

of the masks I would have to paint.

me wanted to stay the rest of the

almost blown-out sky. Luckily, the

No, this would be a Lightroom-

day, but the manager in my head

histogram showed that there was

Photoshop joint venture.

told me, It looks like its going

no actual clipping going on.

to rain, itll be dark in two hours,

and you still have to cycle 30
miles to the next guesthouse. The

Theres generally some leeway in the clipping preview on your cameras LCD, because that

manager won, so I only stayed for

warning is based on the preview JPG, not on the actual raw file.

15 minutes.

T I P

CASE STUDY
With a little
help from my
(Photoshop)
Friends

3
1) I selected the master file and made

layer mask to the top layer, hiding it

performed the Black & White

a (colour) conversion with detail in

from view. I then used Photoshops

conversion in Lightroom, after having

the foreground. I let the sky turn to

more precise brush tools to paint with

saved my Photoshop composite back

almost white

white on the layer mask, revealing

to my Lightroom Catalog. Postponing

parts of the top layer

the black-and-white processing until

2) I made a virtual copy (by typing

the end had two advantages: I kept a

the Cmd-/Ctrl- shortcut). Virtual

4) Sometimes thats all it takes, but

colour version just in case I wanted

copies are a really helpful Lightroom

in this case I wasnt happy with the

to use that one, and working in

feature: basically, theyre different

result. I wanted to further dodge

colour (as opposed to sending two

develop settings that refer back to

and burn the picture to really make

Lightroom-made black-and-white

the same raw file. They exist only in

it reflect what I saw and felt that

conversions over to Photoshop)

Lightroom but you can export them

afternoon. While Photoshop has

also allowed me to make colour-

as separate files or send them to

dedicated dodge and burn tools

based selections for my dodging and

Photoshop like well do in a later step.

(that recently received an overhaul),

burning adjustment layers. I decided

I developed the virtual copy, making

I rarely use them because theyre

to add a rugged, old-school film

sure that there was detail in the sky

destructive. They recalculate the

border to the photo to help convey

this time

brightness values of the pixels with

the crumbling atmosphere of the

way too dark, but that didnt matter

each brush stroke you apply. I prefer

shipyard even more

because I had that covered by the first

to do my dodging and burning with

conversion.

Curves adjustment layers

. The foreground went

By the way, dont let the number

of layers intimidate you: I just

3) Then, I used one of my favourite

5) Youll notice that I performed

happened to use a separate layer

Lightroom commands: I selected the

the black-and-white conversion at

for every step in my workflow for

master and the virtual copy and chose

the very end in Photoshop, with

maximum flexibility, and some layers

Edit In > Open as Layers in Photoshop

a Black & White adjustment layer,

are restoration layers because part of

from the Photo menu.

which is very similar to Lightrooms

the bow of the ship was blurred by a

Once in Photoshop, I added a black

B&W panel. I could as easily have

raindrop on my lens.

CASE STUDY
With a little
help from my
(Photoshop)
Friends

3
For dodging and burning in Photoshop using adjustment layers, I use some custom Photoshop Actions that are driven by an equally
custom-made Photoshop Panel. It offers a choice between dodging and burning using selections or using brushes (for more detailed
work). To dodge the eyes in this picture, I selected them very roughly

And then I hit one of the Lighten buttons on the panel

This triggered a Photoshop action that added a lightening Curves adjustment layer

There are other ways to use the same double

conversion (more on HDR in chapter 8). Say

processing technique, for example in

youve got a wedding portrait in an industrial

conjunction with black and white presets.

setting. The environment may scream for

You may find that one preset gives a good

that gritty HDR look and you might take five

conversion for one part of an image while

exposures with HDR in mind. Yet, that same

another one does so for the rest. You could

look doesnt look great on your average bride

then apply that second preset to a virtual copy

(unless shes a Goth, perhaps). You could then

and send both to Photoshop and layer mask

do the following:

them into the best of both worlds.

1. Make a black and white HDR (see chapter 8)

merging the five exposures together.

Youre not limited to two conversions either:

2. Take the one exposure where the bride is

the Open as Layers in Photoshop command

well-exposed and give that its proper black-and-

allows you to send more than two files over

white conversion, using any of the methods

to Photoshop. Youre only limited by the

described here.

amount of RAM (and your Photoshop layer

3. Select the HDR composite and the file

masking skills).

with the bride conversion in Lightrooms

Filmstrip and select Edit In > Open as Layers in

Continuing with the same idea, you might also

Photoshop from the Photo menu.

use this technique to combine the best of two

4. Use a layer mask to combine the HDR

Silver Efex Pro conversions (see chapter 7), or

background with the non-HDR bride.

mix a Silver Efex Pro conversion with an HDR

Chapter 5:
P R O S

A N D

C O N S

O F

U S I N G

P R E S E T S

Chapter 5:
P R O S

A N D

C O N S

O F

U S I N G

P R E S E T S

Presets. Heaven-sent, time-saving creative muses to some; mind-numbing, originality-killing nuisances to

others. Sure enough, theres no such thing as an unsuck Photoshop filter or an unsuck Lightroom preset.
Yet, when used wisely, presets can tie your

These are the kind of presets that apply a

simulations of traditional filters). A second

images together, making different images stand

complete look (just about anything except

one could contain a couple of contrast-

out as a whole. They can also save time, which

for the local adjustments) in one click. Too

altering presets. A third one could contain

is after all one of Lightrooms main reasons for

often, the only type of picture these presets

some different degrees of vignetting. If youre

being. And, if nothing else, they can prove to

work really well on is the type that was used to

into tinting, you might want to add a presets

be an inspirational starting point to kick start

create them in the first place, because the more

folder with some tinting presets and why not

the post-processing journey.

check boxes you select in the New Develop

throw in some different grain presets for good

Preset dialog box, the more youre restraining

measure, ranging from a fine ASA 100 to is

its universal applicability.

that ASA 3200 or is it just a macro picture

Even preset-haters must admit that they have

one big thing going for them: when you

of sand?

hover your mouse over a preset, you can see

Modular Presets

a little preview in the Navigator window of

As opposed to the one-click-fits-all variety,

Working like this will let you achieve a nice

what the effect would be like, without actually

modular presets are those that change only one

balance between the visual dictatorship of the

clicking the preset or changing the sliders in

slider or a related set of settings. So, instead

one-click preset and the unguided (and time-

the right panel.

of that killer high-contrast, high-vignetting,

consuming) stroll through the sliders on the

high-grain-with-a-sepia-twist kind of one-

right pane.

With regards to presets, I like to differentiate

stop black-and-white preset, you might want

between what I call one-click-fits-all presets

to make a few folders with presets that can,

as opposed to modular presets.

but dont have to be, used as building blocks.

Lightroom Legoland, here we come!

One-click-fits-all Presets
In this first category youll find the ones that

A first folder could contain a few different

are often touted to be of the unsuck variety.

black-and-white conversions (maybe even

Chapter 5:

P R O S

A N D

C O N S

O F

U S I N G

P R E S E T S

C O N T I N U E D

You can also take full advantage of the fact that presets can be previewed: hover over the
presets in the Black and White Conversions folder to choose the one that suits your vision

Unfortunately, Lightroom only allows one folder level for organizing your

best. Click to apply that one. Then hover over the contrast presets in the Contrast folder to

presets. Even worse, presets are ordered alphanumerically within a folder.

add contrast (if necessary) and so on. Say each folder consists of three presets and you have

The only way to force them into a custom order is to put prefixes in front

five folders in total, then some quick-and-dirty2 statistics3 show that there are 243 (3 to the
fifth power) possibilities.

T I P

of them, such as 01_, 02_, etc. A very un-2011-like workaround which will
hopefully be addressed in future Lightroom versions.

When working with modular presets, its a good idea to include a zeroed

I highly recommend you play with presets, study other peoples presets and fiddle with

preset, which puts the slider values of that particular set of parameters back

them. You will find yourself liking some more than others and you can then finesse these

to their default. So, add a Zero Vignette preset to your Low, Medium, and

into your style. If Lightrooms sliders are your tools, then presets are just turbo-charged

High Vignette. That way if you apply a preset based on a favourable preview
in the navigator window and its not what you expected when you see it up
close in the content window, you can undo it simply by pressing a button
right there in the area where your mouse already is, instead of reverting to

versions of those tools, and for that reason can be very good to kick start your processing.
Presets will never be a substitute for style and certainly not for vision, but any preset that
helps you express your vision more accurately is a good one.

the more time-and-gesture-consuming Cmd-Z/Ctrl-Z.

Viewed this way, presets are just a quicker way of making informed choices through
Lightrooms myriad of slider options. And more often than not, youll find the result will
need some more dodging and burning. Presets are like the big felt markers you used for
colouring when you were a kid: they can do the heavy lifting, but for the detail work
youll need the more subtle control the right panel (and especially the Adjustment Brush)
has to offer.

2
3

Well, not quite: I had to look it up!

This may very well be the first ever paragraph in a book to simultaneously feature the words Lightroom and Statistics. In fact, taking into account that you can also choose not to choose an option, the number of possibilities rises to a staggering 3 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 = 772!

T I P

Chapter 6:
D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

Chapter 6:
D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

1. This picture, used with kind permission of photographer

My idea for post-processing this picture is to really let the

The original colour picture has nice colour contrast between

Peter Van Himste, is a good illustration of the limits of the

lines playboth the diagonal horizon and the little paths

the blues in the sky and the greens in the foreground.

B&W panel and the opportunities of the Adjustment Brush

in between the rows of vines.

and the Graduated Filter.

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

2. I hover over the black-and-white filter presets in the

Lightroom Presets folder. Hesitating between the Green and
the Orange filters (the preview in the Navigator window
helps me to decide), I go for the latter as a starting point.

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

3. I open up the exposure by about two-thirds of a stop.

Did you know you can also change the Blacks, Highlights, Recovery, and Fill Light sliders by dragging around their respective areas in the Histogram?

B R U S H

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

4. I want to darken the clouds and make the fluffy part a

forest (or vines) in the distance in the middle-left part of

Contrary to what I expected, the Targeted Adjustment

little more tangible. I could do both in one Graduated

the frame. So I decide to do it in two steps, darkening the

Tool leaves too much of a bright patch in the sky, which I

Filter, but I decide not to because using a Graduated Filter

clouds with the Targeted Adjustment Tool first.

find distracting. So Ill try my luck with the Graduated

to darken the sky might darken the already dark patch of

Filter anyway. (see step 5 on the following page).

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

5. There is no law that says a graduated filter, be it

darkening effect on the distant patch of vines. I also set the

key as you drag. Whenever I can, I prefer Graduated Filters

in Lightroom or the real world, has to be vertical or

Clarity to +100 (in the same Graduated Filter) to give the

to the Adjustment Brush, because theyre so much faster to

horizontal. I use them in all kinds of angles: carefully

fluffy white cloud some extra depth. If you want the filter

apply in an inconspicuous manner.

positioning the Graduated Filter allows me to minimize the

to be absolutely horizontal or vertical, hold down the Shift

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

6. I add another Graduated Filter, this time with only

between the Graduated Filters upper and lower

Clarity set to +100, while keeping the other sliders at their

demarcation line, which is dictated by the distance you

default. I even decide to add a third clarity layer (they

click-drag the Graduated Filter), I can make sure there

by adding a second adjustment layer on top of it.

arent really layers, but there is some analogy to Photoshop

isnt a telltale transition.

Just watch out for possible artifacts and haloing.

layers). By varying their position and feather (the distance

With the Adjustment Brush and the Graduated Filter,

you can go beyond the maximum effect of a slider

T I P

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

7. I decide to view the before and after of the Graduated Filters by

using the little switch that temporarily turns off a panels settings
(great for a before/after view on a panel-by-panel basis).

Chapter 6:

T I P

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

8. I want to darken the vines in the left side of the picture a

Exposure. The exact amount doesnt matter as you

little, to make their luminance level match that of the ones

can change it afterwards without harm to your

I sometimes expressly overdo the settings so I can

on the right. This is clearly a case for the Adjustment Brush.

image. I choose a feathered brush which will make

easily see where Im painting the effect without having

I could use the Burn tool preset brush but I find its settings

for a soft transition between the dodged and the

to be too low for this case. I enter a negative amount for

un-dodged pixels.

T I P

to switch to the red mask overlay (O button) mode!

The Flow slider lets you determine

how

many

overlapping

brush

strokes it takes to build up the

effect

you

entered.

Imagine

youve dialed in an amount of -2

for Exposure. A flow of 100 will
immediately paint the effect of -2.
A Flow of, say, 30 will take a lot of
overlapping brush strokes to build
up the effect to -2. For delicate
dodging and burning, using a
lower flow is often advisable. In
this case I decide to keep the flow
at + 100.

For jobs like this, a tablet really is much more comfortable than a mouse. Need convincing? Try writing your name with a mouse without looking like a four-year-old!
The latest Wacom Intuos 4 even has a programmable circular control ring that lets you change the brush width and feather without having to touch your keyboard.

T I P

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

9. Using a Wacom tablet, I carefully paint using an Adjustment

Brush with negative exposure. A nice feature of the Wacom Intuos
4 is that the control ring lets you control the size of the brush
without having to touch your keyboard.

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

Chapter 6:

T I P

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

10. I would also like to lighten the paths between the vines

Sometimes the Auto Mask feature can help, but not in

to increase the contrast, but because both the vines and

this case, as it works based on differences in colour and

If you want to toggle on/off the mask youve

the paths are green, using the Targeted Adjustment Tool in

the problem I have here is that there isnt much colour

painted, use the O (Overlay) key.

the B&W panel wont help me here. Ill need to use a new

difference in the first place. If there were, I wouldnt have

Adjustment Brush, set to dodging (lightening) this time.

to use the Adjustment Brush!

In cases where you find you can

use the Auto Mask feature, make
sure to inspect the resulting mask
up close as it may show some harsh
transitions. I find I often have to
hand-polish the results when I use
the Auto Mask feature.

I carefully paint with the increased Exposure

setting between the vines, reducing my
brush size as I paint further into the
distance. Whenever I make a mistake, I can
hold down the Alt/Option key, which will
temporarily put my brush into Erase mode.

Now that Ive painted the mask, its time

to enter the exact amount I want. I settle
for 0.43.

T I P

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

11. Things are starting to look the way I want them to, but

lighten the little paths. There are dark parts (the vines) and

the contrast slider does? So, I add yet another Adjustment

the right part of the picture is now bothering me: because

light parts (the paths in between) but I cant paint precisely

Brush and paint a big mask with increased contrast over

of the perspective, the vines and the paths between them

enough to separately lighten and darken them. But wait a

those hard-to-reach vines and paths.

are very much one big area and theres no way (even with

minute, I want to darken the darks and lighten the lights

a Wacom) that I can paint in between the vines to further

of what is basically one area in my picture. Isnt that what

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

12. Still two things bother me: over at the left, theres
a patch of land thats too bright and therefore attracts
my attention too much. So I darken it with yet another
Adjustment Brush.

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

13. Finally, I also find the foreground to be too bright. I

I add a final darkening Graduated Filter, drawn from the

want it to be the same tonality as the paths between the

bottom upwards, this time.

vines, so the viewer is invited to step into the frame and

wander through the paths. To equalize the luminance,

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

14. I switch to the before and after view (using the Y

Working this intensively with the Adjustment Brush requires you to have quite performant

key) and dim Lightrooms lights by typing the L key

hardware. It also pays to use a drive thats as fast as possible. I like to keep the files Im

twice. We sure have come a long way and best of all,

we did it all in Lightroom!

currently developing in Lightroom on an SSD drive. Because space is limited there, after
finishing my developing I move them (in Lightroom, of course) to another, slower drive.

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

15. After having finished the local

adjustments, I often find myself revisiting

B U R N I N G

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

When dragging around the Blacks sliders it can be helpful to hold down the Alt/Option key. This will turn your picture
to pure white and, as you Alt/Option-drag more to the right, more coloured pixels will appear. These are pixels

the global adjustments, especially the overall

that will wind up as pure black when printed. This way allows you to quickly and informedly set your black point,

contrast and blacks level, to really finesse and

and allows you to visualize which parts (if any) of your picture youll allow to become pure black. This Alt/Option-

finalize the picture.

dragging technique works elsewhere in Lightroom too, e.g. with the Exposure slider and the sharpening controls.

T I P

Chapter 6:

D O D G I N G

A N D

B U R N I N G

16. The final picture, with Blacks at 13, based on the

information gained from Alt/Option-dragging the slider.

W I T H

G R A D U A T E D

F I L T E R S

A N D

T H E

A D J U S T M E N T

B R U S H

Chapter 7:
L I G H T R O O M

P L U G I N S

F O R

B L A C K

&

W H I T E

C O N V E R S I O N

Chapter 7:
L I G H T R O O M

P L U G I N S

F O R

B L A C K

&

W H I T E

C O N V E R S I O N

I love Lightroom and so I try to do as much as I can within it. Its fast and lets me work with relatively low-weight raw files.4
Yet, I quite frequently use plugins as well. Plugins are applications that are engineered by third-party software developers. They run in
host programs such as Lightroom and Photoshop. The main advantage of plugins is that they offer a speedier way of doing things that
would normally take a lot of post-processing time and/or skill. Sometimes, their results are just downright impossible to achieve in
Lightroom or Photoshop.

The main drawback of using plugins in a

in that plugin will calculate the plugins effect,

Lightroom environment is that they break the

apply it to the TIFF file, and send the file back

non-destructive workflow: when you send a

to the Lightroom Catalog. There, it will wind

raw file over to a plugin, Lightroom will apply

up stacked with the raw file it was derived from.

all Lightroom edits youve made so far to a

Unlike raw development in Lightroom, where

TIFF copy of that raw file, and send that to the

you can always go back and change the sliders

plugin. When youre finished editing that TIFF

settings, edits you made in the plugin arent

in the plugin, hitting the Save or OK button

reversible: theyre baked into the TIFFs pixels.

The only other files that come close to raw in terms of image quality are 16-bit TIFFs but they are about six times the size (in megabytes) as a raw file.

Chapter 7:
T I P

L I G H T R O O M

P L U G I N S

F O R

B L A C K

&

W H I T E

C O N V E R S I O N

Since plugins (and especially black-and-white conversion plugins) tend to shift the brightness values of your colour pixels quite a bit, always make sure that you
send a 16-bit TIFF of your raw file in a wide gamut colour space such as ProPhoto RGB or Adobe RGB to the plugin. You can check and edit these settings in the
External Editing tab of your Lightroom preferences (Edit > Preferences [Windows] or Lightroom > Preferences [Mac]).

The renewed interest in digital black and white has spurred

the development of some truly great Lightroom plugins.
Messing around with smelly chemicals in the darkroom
has now been replaced by dragging sliders around in the
comfort of your office chair. If youve never set foot in a
traditional darkroom, that wont matter to you, but those
who do remember their darkroom days will either be sad
that what used to take a lot of art and craft now comes in
pre-canned presets, or will be enthused by the countless
possibilities that digital has to offer and will look upon
these presets as just starting points for equally adventurous,
albeit digital, explorations.

All the plugins that are discussed in this eBook have trial
versions available at the manufacturers website.

Chapter 7.1:

A L I E N

S K I N

E X P O S U R E

The first jaw-dropping plugin for anyone with darkroom experience is

Exposure by Alien Skin. This plugin simulates colour and black-andwhite film, including spectral relations, contrast, grain structure and
much more.

Just like modern artists use samples of old records crackling and ticking
to add some warmth and realism to those otherwise too-perfect CDs,
Exposure allows you to add dust and speckles to your pictures. Theres
even a built-in randomize function that makes sure your dust is what
dust should be: unpredictable! Of course, with a slogan like Taking the
digital out of digital photography, that should be expected!

While Exposure offers filter simulations (to darken a sky you can
apply an orange filter, for example), it doesnt allow for local dodging
and burning; these still need to be performed in the host application
(Lightroom, Photoshop or Photoshop Elementsthe plugin works in
these three environments). The price also reflects the quality: at 249
USD, Exposure isnt cheap, but then again, those rolls of film arent,
either and you do get colour film emulations as well And if youve
ever worked in a true darkroom, youll feel like a kid in a candy store!
www.alienskin.com/exposure

And how would you like your 2-stops-pushed Tri-X today, sir? With or without a vignette? The highly unpredictable juggling with chemicals has been
replaced by well-aimed mouse clicks. Doesnt that kill part of the charm? Oh well, if youre feeling nostalgic, fix a red filter over your desk lamp and
dim the other lights. Unscrew a bottle of your favourite developer for added olfactory realism and leave the tap running for bonus sound effects!

Chapter 7.2:

N I K

S I L V E R

E F E X

P R O

Unlike Exposure, which also simulates

Silver Efex was engineered with the

allowing you to break up the image into

possibility of adding a film border from

colour film, Silver Efex Pro from Nik

analogue darkroom in mind. And while you

eleven zones ranging from absolute blacks

within the plugin. Purists beware!

Software is aimed purely at the black-

absolutely dont need darkroom experience,

to pure whites and everything in between.

and-white aficionado. Like Exposure,

those of you who have will appreciate the

Silver Efex Pro boasts a number of presets

little touches (highlights and shadows in

In the recently introduced version 2,

that Silver Efex Pro has to offer could

and simulations of classic film types, but

the Toning panel are called Paper and

Nik added even more presets and more

easily fill an entire Craft & Vision eBook.

Control Points are where the software really

Silver respectively, for instance). On

controls (such as the very useful albeit

To give you an idea, well describe the

shines. These allow you to apply changes

a more functional level, theres a digital

hard-to-describe Dynamic Brightness

interface, pointing out the most

in brightness, contrast, and structure (Niks

equivalent to Ansel Adams Zone System,

slider). Silver Efex 2 now even features the

important options.

equivalent for Clarity)

selectively without
having to make
complex selections:
you just define a
circular control point
that encompasses
the area you want to
work on, and Niks
patented U Point
technology will distill
a selection based on a
number of parameters
such as brightness
and colour.

A complete explanation of the possibilities

Chapter 7.2:

N I K

S I L V E R

E F E X

P R O

The History button that opens the

right-hand panel to specific values. Over

History panel (not shown) is new to Silver

there, the global adjustments have been

especially useful when printing as they

make a selection for you, and apply the

Efex Pro and comes in very handy: not only

expanded but still fall within three broad

allow you to open up blocked shadows

changes only to that selection. New in

does it allow you to track back to previous

groups: brightness, contrast, and structure.

and avoid clipped highlights.

Version 2 is the Selective Colorization

steps (as long as youre in the same session),

The first two are self-explanatory. The third

but in conjunction with the Compare

one is a midtone contrast boost, similar to

button

the popular High Pass Overlay Sharpening

and other Nik plugins apart, its the

history step to the before window. This is

technique or HIRALOAM Sharpening (High

Control Points. They allow you to

The basic Silver Efex workflow is pretty

similar to the Copy History Step Setting to

Radius Low Amount) in Photoshop, or

intuitively alter any number of supported

straightforward: you set the global mood

Before option in Lightrooms History panel.

to Lightrooms Clarity slider. Its great for

controls. You draw a circle that just

for the picture with the global controls or

adding local tonality and emphasizing (or

encompasses the region you want to alter

a preset and you can then emphasize or

de-emphasizing when used with negative

and then enter the values on the Control

de-emphasize those settings locally with

from one of the built-in presets (if only

values) textures and wrinkles. It could easily

Points sliders. Niks algorithms will use the

Control Points.

as a starting point for further creative

be dubbed the Gritty slider.

colour, contrast, and texture information

, it allows you to copy a certain

The Presets panel allows you to choose

The Tonality Protection controls are

of the original picture to automatically

control, which allows you to locally let the

If theres one feature that sets this

original colour shine through again!

exploration) or create your own custom

presets. The small previews can already

The new Dynamic Brightness slider

give you an idea as to how suitable a preset

analyzes the image and adapts the applied

might be for a given image.

brightness differently across areas. Contrary

to classic brightness sliders, which can

Much like in Lightroom, the left side

affect contrast adversely, the Dynamic

of the interface houses the organizational

Brightness slider aims to maintain good

aspects. Remember that presets simply put

contrast throughout your picture even if

certain sliders and settings found in the

you change the brightness.

As always with image manipulation, you have to continuously be on the

lookout for unwanted side effects such as artefacts, banding, increased noise
or inversions. Quite often, a dash of film grain (applied either in the plugin
or non-destructively through Lightrooms Effects panel afterwards) will go a
long way to hiding unwanted post-processing effects.

T I P

Chapter 7.2:

N I K

S I L V E R

E F E X

P R O

In the example in this screenshot, I used

contrast, the Levels and Curves section in

with the analogue photographer in mind.

a Control Point

the Film Types panel is where you should be.

The tonal range is broken up into eleven

to darken the neck

in order to draw attention to the face

zones, ranging from pure blacks (Zone 0) to

itself. Other control points (visible as tiny

The Finishing Adjustments panel allows

yellow dots) were placed on the ears (also

you to add a single or split tone. If you want

more) of the 11 zone buttons will display

to darken them) and on the brim of the

to emphasize the centre of a picture by

a hatched pattern over the corresponding

hat, to slightly lighten it and increase its

darkening the borders, you have the option

zones in the image preview. This allows you

texture, so the stitching would show

of symmetrically darkening the borders of

to easily identify areas of a certain brightness

up better.

your picture, or applying a vignette. A nice

level (e.g. clipped highlights or blocked

touch is that, unlike Lightrooms Post-Crop

shadows) so you can address them with a

vignette, you can put the centre of the

dedicated Control Point.

As explained in the second chapter,

filters can be used in analogue photography

vignette off-centre!

to manipulate colour rendition during

capture. Niks Colour Filter panel allows

pure whites (Zone 10). Clicking on one (or

With a feature set this impressive, its no

New to Silver Efex Pro 2 are a number of

wonder Silver Efex isnt a plugin bargain:

you to do so post-capture. Just be careful

image borders. Understandably, the choice

its priced at 199 USD or 199 for the

with extreme luminance shifts, as they may

of borders is not as opulent as a dedicated

Lightroom and Photoshop enabled version.

invoke less desirable side effects such as

frame plugin such as OnOnes Photoframe

Nik also offers Silver Efex in a bundle with

noise, posterization and banding.

but one of the 14 base versions or any of

their five other plugins (including HDR

its reincarnations through the Vary Border

Efex Pro, described below). This Collection

button might be all you need to finish off

exists in a Lightroom/Aperture only version,

your conversion.

which has a much better bang-for-the-buck

The Film Types panel allows you to

apply a film type! The choice isnt as

ratio if youre OK with not being able to use

abundant as Alien Skins Exposure, but there

are still 18 film renditions to work with and

The Loupe & Histogram panel also

tweak to your analogue hearts content.

houses the Zone Map tool

. Its tools

If you fancy curves over sliders to apply

like this that show Silver Efex was built

the plugin in Photoshop.

www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro

Chapter 7.2:
T I P

N I K

S I L V E R

E F E X

P R O

Silver Efex Pro 2, when bought separately or as part of the Complete Collection for Lightroom
& Photoshop, can be used in Lightroom and Photoshop. The end result will be the same, but
the Photoshop version can be applied as a Smart Filter. This allows you to re-visit the plugins
settings and change them after the fact. If you own Photoshop and Lightroom, you might
want to use the following advanced workflow when using Silver Efex Pro.
1) Prepare your picture in Lightroom. Make especially sure you avoid clipped shadows and
highlights to a maximum and dont overdo the contrast in Lightroom. Dont convert to black
and white: Silver Efex needs colour to work with! (This advice also counts when you use the
Lightroom version of the plugin.)
2) Choose Edit In > Open as Smart Object in Photoshop. This will open a TIFF copy in
Photoshop. The difference between this and the normal Edit in Photoshop command is that
the TIFF will actually include a copy of your raw file in it. In Photoshop, double-clicking on
the layer with the Smart Object will open up Camera Raw with the same settings as you
applied to the image in Lightroom, and will allow you to alter those settings should you
find need to. Note however, that as it is a raw copy, your changes wont trickle back to the
original raw over in Lightroom.
The Open as Smart Object command also automatically prepares your Photoshop file for
Smart Filtering, allowing Silver Efex to be applied as a Smart Filter. Smart Filters are filters
that dont apply their settings as pixels, but rather remember the values and settings that
you used while you were in the filter, and allow you to tweak these settings even after youve
finished your Photoshop session.
3) Clicking the OK button will apply the filter and return you to Photoshop. Choosing File >
Save will save the file in the same folder as the original raw, and automatically add it to your
Lightroom Catalog, allowing you to print it, export it as a JPG, put it online, or do anything
else to it that you might want to do with a Lightroom picture.

Chapter 8:
H I G H - D Y N A M I C - R A N G E
A N D B L A C K & W H I T E

I M A G I N G

( H D R )

Chapter 8:
H I G H - D Y N A M I C - R A N G E

I M A G I N G

( H D R )

A N D

B L A C K

&

W H I T E

If ever a subject in the short history of digital post-processing has received such polarized (no pun intended) reactions, it must be HDR
or high-dynamic-range imaging.
To me, HDR is a tool like any other and just like the Vignette panel and the Grain slider it can be used as much as it can be abused,
although as in all matters of taste, one mans definition of over-the-top is another mans just getting started.

There are two broad tendencies in HDR

should visit this site for an interesting read:

imagery: on the one hand, the one that

www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/le_gray

Chapter 8.1:

doesnt even try to conceal its HDR and,

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

on the other hand, the more subtle,

Yes, more than 150 years ago, French

photographically oriented variety. I use

photographer Auguste Le Gray combined

I wanted to include HDR Efex Pro in this eBook because on top of being a really

HDR quite a lot because it helps me to

two different exposures to get more detail

good colour HDR converter, it has everything on board to make great looking

express the way I envisioned a scenea

in his seascapes. He used glass plates

black-and-whites within the plugin: there are two black-and-white presets

vision that is sometimes greatly impaired

instead of silicium chips, but the general

that can provide a starting point and its the only HDR software that allows

by my camera, which can cover a much

idea was the same.

localized corrections in the HDR interface itself. It does so by means of the

smaller dynamic range than my eyes can.

patented Control Points we discussed in the Silver Efex Pro section.

So I use HDR techniques to make the print

There are an ever-growing number of HDR

say what my eyes saw and what my mind

software applications, but for the scope of

Again, at 159 USD or 159 , HDR Efex Pro doesnt come cheap, but its one of

experienced at the time I

this eBook well limit ourselves to three

those rare software packages that combines quality and ease of use. It will lead

was photographing.

examples, one of which technically isnt

novice users to professional results while still offering a full-blown feature set

even HDR, but a very low-cost alternative

for more advanced users.

By the way, if you that think HDR has

only been around for a couple of years you

to it.

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

The following is a walkthrough of how I made the image at the beginning of this chapter:
1. I made a bracketed exposure series of seven shots ranging from -3 to + 3 EV. When youre
shooting for HDR, its best to be on a tripod. And if youre not, as was the case for me, hold

Whenever you use Auto Sync, dont forget to turn it off again after you

your camera as stable as possible in between exposures. Also note that you should change your

are finished, or you run the risk of synching many more adjustments

shutter speed, not your aperture.

Once imported into

Lightroom, I selected all
pictures in the Filmstrip and
selected the Enable Lens
Profile Corrections check
box in the Lens Corrections
panel. This is especially
important for eliminating any
chromatic aberration as much
as possible before entering
the HDR conversion. Before
doing so, I switched the Sync
button to Auto Sync. Failing
to do so would apply the lens
corrections only to the first
selected picture.5

Chapter 4 explains how you can import your pictures into

Lightroom and have lens corrections applied by default.
5

than you cared for!

T I P

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

2. In Lightrooms Library grid, I selected the -3 EV (which

to the processing time and increases the risk of misaligned

holds the sky detail), 0 EV, and + 3 EV (which holds the

pictures without boosting quality.

shadow detail) shots. Most of the time, I find it unnecessary

to send all my exposures to the HDR software: it only adds

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

3. I chose File > Export > Export to Nik Software.

P R O

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

4. In HDR Efex Pro, I chose the Monochromatic Contrasty preset from the Artistic section. This made for a nice, rich black-and-white starting image.

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

5. I slightly brightened the global exposure and added a

in the middle of the picture

large Control Point to the sky, lowering the brightness and

a flat, corrugated steel roof) is too bright in comparison.

looks very much like well, a non-descript, uninteresting

increasing the structure. I also noticed two more problem

Because our eyes are drawn to the lightest part of a picture

structure! In order to restore the viewing balance, some

areas: the dust spot in the upper left corner could easily be

first, this picture is now about the relationship between the

extra steps were needed.

dealt with in Lightroom, but

there was a bigger problem:
to me, this picture is about
the relationship and coexistence between different
cultures and religions in Leh,
a city in the North Indian
province of Jammu and
Kashmir. This relationship is
symbolized by the mosque
in the lower right corner
and the Buddhist monastery
in the upper left part.
You did not notice the
monastery right away, you
say? Well, thats exactly
the problem: because its
roughly the same colour as
the rock it is built on, the
monastery is translated into
the same grey value. And, on
top of that, the structure

(with what appears to be

mosque and a non-descript, uninteresting structure that

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

6. So, I placed a couple of neutralizing

thing thats altered is the size of the control

monastery). By the way, you have the option

(I dont know if thats official Nik lingo)

circle. The effect of such a neutralizing

of looking at the actual masks the Control

Control Points. Theyre just Control Points

Control Point is to push back or remodel

Points make. I just rarely do so, because I like

with all sliders at the default values. The only

the reach of the first Control Point (on the

to stay focused on the image.

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

7. Then, I added a darkening (burning)

relationship in the picture was what it was

diagonal line between the mosque and

control point to the non-descript structure

supposed to be about. The dodging and

the monastery.

and tweaked its Clarity and Contrast to

burning helped to fortify the relationship

match the surroundings better. Now the

that was already implied by the strong

Chapter 8.1:

N I K

H D R

E F E X

P R O

8. Saving returned the result to Lightroom, where I just had to

quickly use the Spot Removal Tool to eliminate the dust speckle.
www.niksoftware.com/hdrefexpro

Chapter 8.2:

P H O T O M A T I X

Photomatix Pro has a reputation

offers previews and an incredibly flexible

deservedlyas a top-notch HDR package

de-ghosting control.6 It doesnt offer the

and is available as a Lightroom plugin.

control points that HDR Efex Pro does but

Its latest incarnation, version 4, now also

at 99 USD, its also cheaper.

On a recent bicycle trip

through Iran I developed a
crush on these elderly ladies
of the road, called Mercedes
O 302. Dumped by the West
for something younger, these
almost 50-year-old goddesses
of chrome and design live their
second life in Iran, where they
run the Mahmooly (normal)
services, as opposed to the
faster and more expensive
Volvo-operated lines.
HDR conversion in Photomatix
Pro, black-and-white
conversion in Lightroom.

When parts of the image have moved while the different exposures were
captured, this can create ghosts in the merged image. Thats why every
HDR software package has some sort of ghost removal function.
6

P R O

Chapter 8.2:

P H O T O M A T I X

While Photomatix version 4 now

also offers a previewable black-andwhite preset, I prefer to use it for the
actual HDR conversion only. One
control that very much determines
how HDR-like (and therefore how
real or fake) your image looks,
is Smoothing. For photorealistic
results, I find myself only using
the High and Maximum buttons.
Contrary to what you might expect
judging by their names, these
settings yield the results with the
lowest if-that-isnt-HDR-Ill-eatmy-camera factor. The actual
black-and-white conversion was
performed in Lightroom, with
some burning performed on the
right headrest.
www.hdrsoft.com

P R O

Chapter 8.3:

L R / E N F U S E

If you dont feel like forking out a hundred or more

LR/Enfuse is a donation-ware plugin for Lightroom, so

that has given HDR somewhat of a bad rep) it can yield

dollars for a dedicated HDR program and you dont

youre free to give whatever you deem reasonable (with a

interesting results at a value that cant be beaten.

own Photoshop CS5which comes with a completely

minimum of a couple of dollars). Theres also a trial version

redesigned, solid, yet somewhat more difficult-to-master

available. Technically, Enfuse is an exposure blending

After installation, LR/Enfuse will also show up as a plugin

HDR enginethen LR/Enfuse might be a good alternative.

program, and not a true 32-bit HDR program. Still, for

in the File > Plugin Extras menu.

photographic use (i.e. not the over-the-top processed style

www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/lrenfuse

A Lightroom-only black-and-white

Exposure blending using LR/Enfuse offers

Real HDR, based on multiple exposures

single-image HDR feature. With this feature, you

(as performed here in Photomatix) followed

exposures. No HDR was used, not even the

apply the HDR algorithms to a single image. Of

by a black-and-white Conversion in

so-called Single-image HDR.

course, this will not magically repair lost shadow

Lightroom, delivers the most vibrant, rich

or highlight detail, but when your original image

and deep conversion.

conversion based on one of the six

slightly more detail in some areas.

Most HDR software packages also have a

has a decent tonal range, the results can be quite

interesting. Shown here is the result of HDR Efex
Pros single-image HDR function. The black-andwhite conversion, including some dodging and
burning by means of Control Points, was entirely
done in the plugin.

Chapter 9:
T H E

F I N I S H I N G

T O U C H E S

Chapter 9:
T H E

F I N I S H I N G

T O U C H E S

A great way to finish off your freshly processed black-and-white

conversion is to add an old school film border to it. Another
way of letting black-and-white photographs convey your vision
more accurately is by tinting them. Lets start there.

9.1:

T I N T I N G

A N D

T O N I N G

Sometimes, you may strive to achieve the ultimate,

perfectly neutral black-and-white print, whereas
other times, you may intentionally want to give
your monochrome images a hint of colour to help
convey certain emotions. Or, you may choose to
selectively let colour shine through an otherwise
black-and-white image to draw attention to certain
areas. Whichever you choose, Lightroom has got
things covered.

9.1.1:

T I N T I N G

W I T H

T H E

S P L I T

T O N I N G

P A N E L

Lightrooms Split Toning panel helps

You can also interactively choose a colour

and slide the Balance Slider all the way to

shadows or only the highlights. Not only

you to digitally simulate classical tinting

with the colour picker, by clicking on the

the right.

is experimentation a lot cheaper and faster

effects such as sepia toning, cyanotype

small colour patches.

(bluish finishing) or, as the name implies:

than in the days of film, its also more

Similarly, there isnt any law that says that

environmentally sound! As always, you

split toning, where the paper (highlights)

While the Split Toning panel allows you

that you have to tint both shadows and

might decide to save your most successful

usually received a warm tone and the silver

to choose different colours for shadows

highlights: you might decide to tint only

tinting recipes as presets.

(shadows) a cool one.

and highlights, theres

no law in nature that

Just choosing a Hue for the Highlights and

says they have to be

Shadows wont do very much: in order for

opposite as in the

your tint to become effective, you have

traditional darkroom

to enter a certain amount for saturation.

warm/cold split tones:

Alternatively, you can Alt/Option-drag the

you can achieve some

Hue slider. This will temporarily show the

rich, subtle sepias

colours at full saturation. Once youve got

by choosing slightly

a colour that you like, let go of the

different hues and

Alt/Option key and then move the

saturations for shadows

Saturation slider to the desired setting.

and highlights. For

The Balance slider lets you determine

uniform tinting, you

which brightness values are considered

can enter the same

highlights (receiving the highlights hue

amounts for shadows

you selected) versus shadows (receiving

and highlights or, even

the shadows hue you selected).

simpler, just choose a

colour under highlights

9.1.2:

S E L E C T I V E

C O L O U R I N G

U S I N G

T H E

H S L

P A N E L

Remember that scene from Schindlers List, where the

the red slider towards -100. As always with Lightroom, if

want it. A couple of sweeps with an Adjustment Brush

red coat of a little girl was the only dash of colour in an

you find yourself doing this a lot, make a preset out of it.

with the Saturation slider set to -100% will deal with these

otherwise black-and-white scene? The first way to achieve

The disadvantage of this technique is that it will leave

offending remnants of colour, or you might decide to use

this effect is through the HSL/Color/B&W panel: instead of

all instances of red intact (and also areas that have some

the following technique.

hitting the B&W button, choose Saturation and slide all but

percentage of red in it), maybe in places where you dont

9.1.3:

S E L E C T I V E

Another way to achieve selective

C O L O U R I N G

U S I N G

9.1.4:

A D J U S T M E N T

H A N D

T I N T I N G

B R U S H E S

P H O T O G R A P H

and highly precise (de-)

From the early start of photography, photographers have

painting with local adjustment brushes. Youll need to

colourization is to simply paint

wanted to capture and render colour. Before photography

make a different mask for each colour you want to apply

away the saturation where you

itself made this technically possible, colour was simply

and, because its a lot harder to keep track of masks in

painted onto black-and-white pictures with water-diluted

Lightroom than it is to keep track of layers in Photoshop,

dyes. It was a painstakingly accurate job that needed

youll get better and faster results with the latter.

want by painting with

an Adjustment Brush set to
-100 Saturation.

surgical precision. In Lightroom, you can mimic this by

9.2:

A D D I N G

A N

O L D - S C H O O L

F I L M

B O R D E R

Film borders are about as old as

Because these carriers were generally a little

also meant that the photographer hadnt

We could probably fill an entire eBook with

photography itself: for a negative to be

larger than the negative itself, the border

fiddled with the crop of the image in the

the different ways of adding these old-

printed in the analogue darkroom with an

of the image turned black on the print.

darkroom. If you want to honour this

school borders but in short, here are the

enlarger, it was put in a negative carrier,

Some photographers filed out their negative

tradition, you should only apply a border

possibilities:

which was then put between the lamp of

carriers so that the border became a sort

to uncropped images!

the enlarger and the photo-sensitive paper.

of signature. Filed out or not, a border

9.2.1:

B O R D E R

W I T H

P E R S O N A L

T O U C H

A greatand personalway to add an old-school border is the following:

1. Scan one of your own analogue prints that feature a negative border.

2. In Photoshop, turn the background layer into an editable layer by double-clicking on its name in
the Layers palette.

3. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool with a slight feather (some 5 pixels will do) to select the image
area and delete it by pressing the Backspace key.

4. That area will now show up as transparent.

5. Choose Save for Web & Devices and

save as PNG-24 format. PNG-24 supports
transparency and can be used in Lightroom.

9.2.1:

B O R D E R

W I T H

P E R S O N A L

T O U C H

C O N T I N U E D

6. In Lightroom, you can use this PNG-24 format in

If you find yourself doing this a lot and dont

Lastly, while not offering the staggering choice that

any of three ways:

mind spending 259.95 USD, then a dedicated

OnOne does, Silver Efex Pros latest incarnation

plugin (yes, there are plugins that do only that!)

also sports a number of border effects.

a) Make it into a Custom Identity Plate that you

might be just the ticket: OnOnes PhotoFrame

can overlay on your images in the Print module.

has an incredible array of highly realistic photo

You can then print your image either to a printer or

borders. Just prepare to be despised by the die-

to a JPG with the border applied.

hard darkroom guys if ever they can tell the

difference! While PhotoFrame is available as a

T I P

It might be a good idea to save a 90

rotated version of your negative border
and turn that into a second Identity Plate
so you have one to apply to landscape as
well as portrait images.

b) Use the PNG as a graphical watermark in

Lightroom 3s new Watermark Editor. That way,
you will be able to use the negative border in any
part of Lightroom that supports watermarks (such
as the Export dialog, the Print, Slideshow and some
of the Web modules).

c) Use it as a graphical watermark in the optional

Lightroom Export Plugin LR/Mogrify 2.

plugin for Lightroom, it needs Photoshop running

in the background.

If you dont have an image handy, a Google search on

sloppy border will give you plenty of options.

T I P

Chapter 10:
T H E

P R I N T

Chapter 10:
T H E

P R I N T

The more we photograph, the less we seem to actually print. And

thats strange, because a photograph only truly comes to life on a
print. Otherwise, its really just a bunch of ones and zeroes. After
all, in the darkroom days we didnt content ourselves with just
projecting slides on a projector carrousel, did we?
After long having been inferior to

Expressing your vision of your photograph

analogue printing, Digital black-and-

doesnt stop with the choices you have in

white printing has finally caught up: over

the digital darkroom: the right choice of

the past few years printing companies

paper can convey as much mood as any

have developed printers with different

other parameter in the Develop module.

greyscale inks and dedicated black-andwhite drivers. There are dozens of specialty

Whichever paper you choose, make

papers to choose from. Some are entirely

sure that youre working in a calibrated

new, others try to imitate the baryte paper

environment. Even in black and white it

of the darkroom, like Ilfords Gold Fibre

is important to calibrate your monitors

Silk, Epsons Traditional Photo Paper or

brightness and colours to get the best

Hahnemhles Fine Art Baryta. And yes,

possible screen to print matching. Also

these papers are as expensive as their chic

check if the paper manufacturer has made

names imply! Theres also a slew of matte

any profiles for your specific printer. If

papers available, ranging from smooth

such profiles arent available, you can

I use a ColorMunki Photo from X-Rite to do so, but other options exist.

and sleek to textured and weathered, like

build your own.

If you print on an Epson 3800 or 3880 and want to use the Advanced B&W Photo

Hahnemhles Torchon or Epsons new

driver, be sure to check this highly interesting article from Eric Chan (who happens

Hot and Cold Press papers.

to be on the Adobe Lightroom Developer Team) who created a set of very specific
paper profiles to be used with the 3800s and the 3880s Advanced B&W Photo driver.

Chapter 10:

T H E

P R I N T

The magic of the analogue print, slowly rising in

C O N T I N U E D

You have a choice between printing to a printer

Printing in 16-bit

will only work if supported

the basin filled with your favourite developer, has

and printing to a JPG. The latter is important

given way to the goose bumps that you feel when

if you want your print layouts to be printed by a

that perfect black-and-white print rolls out of the

printing company. In that case, it pays to look for

printer, inch by inch.

a company that has experience with digital black

Colour Management allows you to choose

and white because otherwise you might wind up

between Managed by Printer and Managed by

with a print that has an obvious colour cast.

Lightroom, in which case you have to select a paper

Well limit ourselves to a discussion of the Print

Job panel, as this is the one that deals with the
ultimate quality. The other panels are all about the
layout of your print.

by your printer and operating system. It can

improve quality in difficult areas such as gradients.

profile from the drop-down menu

Draft Mode Printing uses the previews instead

. Letting

Lightroom manage colour by means of a profile

of the original raw files and should not be

will also display a friendly reminder

selected, unless youre printing contact sheets.

you to double-check in the printer driver that

advising

any additional colour management on the part

Normally, Lightroom will print with the native

of the printer is turned off. Some printer drivers

resolution of your file. Checking the box

are notoriously stubborn and want to manage

allows you to input a custom printing resolution.

colour by themselves, regardless of whether youve

already decided to let Lightroom take care of it.

Lightroom has a very good sharpening algorithm.

Colour management is something you only want

In addition to the capture sharpening, which you

to be done once: double colour management is as

perform in the Develop module, the sliders here

unpredictable as no colour management at all.

are about output sharpening: sharpening for your

intended output, in this case, a print. You choose

And with that, its time to wrap up this ebook. It

the amount

is my sincere hope that this ebook has helped you

of sharpening (Id only use High

for really big prints) and the media type

. Matte

papers can handle more sharpening than (semi-)

discover new ways to express your Black & White

vision more creatively.

glossy ones.

All pictures are copyright Piet Van den Eynde/

MoreThanWords.be, except for the Vineyard
picture in chapter 5, copyright Peter Van Himste.

Spend $5
I M P R O V E

THE POWER OF BLACK & WHITE

In Adobe Lightroom & Beyond

Y O U R

C R A F T .

M A S T E R C L A S S

Piet Van den Eynde

(Buy less gear.*)

Craft & Vision aims to do one thing: create the best value in photographic education through ridiculously low-priced eBooks, available
as both PDF format or as apps for the Apple iPad. With titles by David duChemin, the best-selling author of Within The Frame, and
photographers like Dave Delnea and Andrew S. Gibson. Always $5. Or less.

Get the whole collection at www.CraftAndVision.com

craft & vision

Pixelated Image Communications Inc.
29115 RPO South Granville Post
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Canada
info@craftandvision.com
CraftAndVision.com
Copyright 2011 by Piet Van den Eynde
Editor & Publisher | David duChemin
Production Editor & Manager | Corwin Hiebert
Copy Editor | Susannah Rohloff
Design & Layout | FiveGraphicDesign.com

Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior
written permission of the publisher.

*Gear is good. Vision is better. But hey, who are we kidding? Yall are still going to lust after the latest lens, so at only $5 each, these books
will allow you to have the best of both worlds. So, if you like, feel free to change that to: Improve your craft. (buy more gear). Whatever.