This is the written write-up for our Weekly Lightroom Edit – Episode 2 that was released on November 25, 2011 on SLR Lounge. To view this tutorial in video form, click here.
Hey guys, welcome to Episode two of our Weekly Lightroom Edit. Last week, we had a handful of inquiries relating to black and white workflow. So, in this tutorial, we are going to do a black and white edit of the RAW image that you see beneath.
Our last image will search like the following:
Download the Exercise File
Very first thing, let’s download the workout file by clicking right here. (Note: This image is offered by Lin and Jirsa Photography for educational purposes for DPS and SLR Lounge customers only)
Black and White RAW Workflow Tips
Final week we had a query when it came to the RAW Workflow with black and white Pictures. Effectively, for the most portion almost everything is going to keep precisely the same. We still want to make sure that we are working from the largest adjustments, to the smallest in that order. Even so, we do want to 1st make certain that we switch the image to black and white by hitting ‘V’ prior to commencing the workflow.
So, this is the general workflow procedure I comply with when editing RAW files as black and white photos, note that we are going to also add an further advanced step for Detail Enhancements.
one. Convert to Black and White (‘V’)
two. Brightness/Exposure
three. Temperature/Tint (affects B&W toning)
four. Recovery/Fill Light
five. Blacks/Contrast
6. Clarity
7. Cropping
eight. Detail Enhancements (spot removal, graduating filters, brushes)
9. Sharpening
10. Lens Corrections
Commencing with a Vision
The moment yet again, we want to commence editing with a vision of where we want the last image to be. For this image, I image a really dramatic panoramic landscape with a nice graduating sky while falling to black along the rocks. Yet again, there is so numerous points that we can do with this image, this is just my interpretation.
The Fundamental Adjustments
So, let’s naturally start by switching our image to black and white by hitting ‘V’, and then let’s start creating the adjustments below.
Brightness +85 – Once more, I want to pull up the brightness of the image with out affecting the highlights as considerably as Exposure would. So, I am utilizing Brightness more than Exposure as it is mid tone biased as an alternative of highlight tone biased.
Temperature/Tint As Shot – Usually with a black and white, I will not do also a lot adjusting to the temperature and tint. The exception to this is when the black and white toning doesn’t quite seem proper due to incorrect out of camera white balances. This normally manifests in unusual contrast and colour graduation. I.E. The image lacks general contrast, or when skins tones seem far darker or brighter than they would in colour. Considering that the out of camera white balance for this image is relatively correct, When we convert this image to black and white, we do not see these troubles. So, we are going to leave these at default, and revisit later on if we need to.
Recovery – I am not worried about smoothing out highlight tones more than skin because this image is mainly a landscape image. Because this image was shot with the sun, everything is fairly vivid. Therefore, utilizing Recovery in this circumstance would fairly much darken the entire image, requiring us to have to raise the Brightness which is just going to counteract the Recovery. So, we do not want recovery in this image. If we want to darken the sky, we will do it with Graduating Filters as you will see shortly.
Fill Light – Again, I want this image to be dramatic, which indicates that I need to have some nice deep blacks in the image for contrast. Raising Fill Light is only going to brighten these deep shadows. For that reason, we are going to leave it at as properly.
Blacks +12/Contrast +60 – Yet again, we are going for a dramatic image, so I want higher contrast and some deep blacks. Since this is mostly a landscape portrait offered the subjects are so modest, I am not worried about their faces and skin tone highlighting. So, I 1st am going to raise my blacks to the point exactly where I feel like the deep shadows are appropriately clipped. Then I am going to raise my contrast up to give the image the additional pop that it wants. Making use of the right Black vs Contrast mix will ensure that your image pops without sacrificing as well a lot shadow detail from too a lot Blacks, or developing strange graduation and highlights from too significantly Contrast.
Clarity – Contrast and facts in this image look fine, so we are going to skip adding added clarity.
We are performed with our Standard corrections, and your image should now search like the image beneath.
Cropping to Improve the Composition
Ok, so now let’s move on to our finishing touches starting with Cropping.
Crop (‘R’) – Hit ‘R’ to bring up the Crop Overlay. Very first, we are going to alter the aspect ratio of the image. As we talked about, I want this image to be a panoramic image, so I feel an element ratio of 2:1 would search fantastic. So, in the proper side in the Crop and Straighten Dialogue, click on the pull down menu where it says Authentic and choose Enter Custom as shown beneath.
We are going to use a two to one ratio, which indicates the image will be two pixels broad for each and every one pixel tall. So, enter 2 and then one as shown beneath.
Up coming, we are going to modify the crop itself so that the image has a slightly more powerful composition. When this image was shot, I shot it actually with my abdomen against the sharp rocks on the ground. So, obtaining the crop ideal, was not only challenging, the priority at the time was finding my chest from off the rocks that have been impaling me. So, even though I am all for acquiring it right in the camera, it just didn’t happen on this shot. So, we will repair it. We are going to pull in the crop so that the couple sits on the appropriate 1/three vertical line, and on the leading one/three horizontal line as shown under.
Now the image has a slightly stronger composition, and need to appear like what you see beneath.
Detail Enhancements
We have quite a few detail enhancements that we need to make at this point that are really going to bring out the drama in the image. Let’s begin very first with spot removal.
Spot Removal (‘Q’) – Now, although we maintain our sensors and lenses really clean, provided the amount that we are out shooting, we practically constantly nonetheless have some spots when shooting at higher apertures. Simply because of our crop, we have actually cropped out the majority of these spots, but just for practice, you guys can eliminate them anyway. Just press ‘Q’ to decide on the spot removal tool, set your Brush to Heal and the opacity to 100. The size is going to differ, but you want the tool to be just a bit greater than the spot you are healing. Subsequent, click on every spot in the image.
Now, this is just an exercising, because you will see that all the spots I removed are essentially outside of our cropped region as shown in the image beneath. This wasn’t intentional, we just got lucky this time, haha!
Graduating Filters (‘M’) – Now let’s move onto the up coming detail enhancement. We are going to use the Graduating Filters to burn the rocks and the sky to add that further bit of drama that we are missing.
Let’s initial burn the sky down a bit. To do so, pick the Graduated Filter button by hitting ‘M’. Subsequent, merely set exposure to -one.00 and the rest of the sliders at default as shown below.
Notice that this time we are making use of Exposure over Brightness. This is simply because this time I do want the adjustments to have a bias towards the highlights.
Now, you are going to click and drag from the top rated appropriate, and pull down the brush trying to keep the edge roughly along the angle of the rocks as shown below.
You want to be cautious not to cover the couple as well considerably as they will grow to be also dark. Now, let’s move onto burning the rocks.
We are going to generate two burns on the rocks. The 1st burn is going to darken the rocks general, whilst the 2nd burn is going to concentrate on dropping the base of the image to full black.
Press ‘M’ once again for a new Graduated Filter, and this time we are going to basically modify the exposure worth to -1.66 (leave every little thing else at ). Now, you are going to drag up from the bottom, yet again at the same degree as the rock face as shown under.
This adds a good darkening effect to the rocks, but now I want the extremely bottom of the image to fade to complete black, as if there was no light on that location. I feel that this final impact is truly going to operate to pull the focus into the center of the image following the rock line.
So, Press ‘M’ one particular far more time for a new Graduated Filter, and this time adjust the exposure to -3.00. Now once more we are going to drag up from the bottom at a slight angle, only covering the bottom of the image as shown below.
Great task guys, we have now created an awesomely dramatic panoramic black and white of our scene. You should now see the very same point as the image under.
Lens Corrections and Sharpening
Ok, we are practically carried out, we are just going to make some last adjustments to adjust the vignetting as nicely as the sharpening.
Sharpening Amount 70, Radius 1.five, Detail 30 – As soon as once more, we are zooming in on the image to 100%, then adjusting our sharpening to taste. For me, I am just going to default to my standard sharpening settings as shown above.
Noise Reduction Luminance 40, Detail 50 – This adjustment is truly 1 of preference. The image appears fine with a tiny bit of grain, but I personally am not a fan of the grain that is displaying up. It does not really search like a good fine consistent film grain, so I am just going to kill the noise by adding +40 to my Luminance noise reduction.
Lens Vignetting Sum +ten, Midpoint 40 – Just to slightly brighten the corners for consistency in the tone graduation, I am adding a slight bit of reverse lens vignetting. Once again, this is really a minor adjustment and just preferential at this point.
Excellent job guys, we are carried out, now your final image should appear like the following.
If I were submitting this image to a magazine or competitors, I would open it into Photoshop and get rid of that slightly distracting small strip of houses showing in amongst the rocks. But, that is a straightforward adjustment and unnecessary for the purposes of this tutorial.
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