Earlier this month we featured a tutorial explaining a Lightroom technique for editing b&w photos to achieve maximum impact. The quick tutorial below takes a similar approach for all of you Photoshop users.
Instructor Brendan Williams specializes in straightforward image-editing tutorials designed to help others simplify and master daunting Photoshop techniques. It you’re tired of flat and boring monochrome photos, this seven-minute episode will quickly set you straight.
Eye-catching contrast and effective tonal separation are the hallmarks of dramatic b&w images, and flat is definitely not where it’s at. The most basic approach is simply going to Photoshop’s Adjustments panel, employing a b&w adjustment layer to strip color out of an image, and then using sliders to modify the Luminance values of individual color channels to add or subtract contrast.
But the easiet methods rarely deliver the goods and Williams explains the problem like this: “What you get is a very basic and uninteresting effect.” In other words, there’s a much better approach, and Williams explains how to add maximum impact and drama to b&w photos in less than seven minutes.
The first step occurs in Photoshop’s Adjustment panel where Williams makes a Gradient Map layer. Once this layer is created inside of the Properties panel, Williams then clicks on the Gradient preview, opens the Basics folder, and makes sure to select the B&W Gradient option.
Initially the effect may appear far too intense, but that’s easily rectified by following Williams’ instructions to adjust how the Gradient blends into the image. There are a few options available, and this is how they work: Choosing Perceptual will provide the most intense contrast, while Linear is a lot softer (therefore brightening up the effect). The Classic mode delivers results that fall somewhere in between
Once you make your choice and evaluate the image you can still use your Gradient Map to further refine the effect until it perfectly suits your fancy. With Williams’ first example, created in the Linear mode, he further accentuates Contrast by opening Photoshop’s Gradient editor and adjusting color stops to change the intensity of shadows or highlights.
Williams provides other examples, using different modifications, as the video proceeds. All this requires a bit of experimentation because every photo is a bit different as is the approach you’ll take to create the proper amount of Contrast and the specific values of highlights and shadows in the image.
There’s much more to learn by visiting Williams’ instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look. And don’t miss the Lightroom tutorial mentioned above, explaining how to use that software to create incredible b&w photographs.
Lightroom’s powerful Tone Curve can dramatically improve your photographs and it’s incredibly useful for adjusting both color and b&w images. In the quick tutorial below instructor Robin Whalley demystifies this important tool, describes what goes on under the hood, and demonstrates when and how to put it to work.
Whalley is a professional landscape photographer based in the UK who posts weekly videos on editing images for maximum effect. He kicks off the episode by saying this: “The Lightroom Tone Curve is an extremely powerful but potentially confusing feature.” His goal is to cover all of the basics to you can unlock the magic of this tool and start using it today.
You’ll find the tone Curve in a dedicated panel within Lightroom’s Develop module. Whalley explains that it exists in two similar forms, yet the differences are important to understand. The first option is known as the Parametric Tone Curve where sliders are used to adjust the image, and this is the topic of the video below.
Your other choice is the Point Tone Curves, that will be covered in later lesson. By default the Tone Curve is a straight diagonal line indicating that “the curve doesn’t have any effect on your original image.” Manipulating this line is what you’ll learn how to do today for making various adjustments to the photo at hand.
Whalley’s first example illustrates what happens when you drag the Darks slider to the right. In this case the shadow tones become lighter revealing hidden detail. You’ll notice when you do this that the Curve moves up above the diagonal position. Conversely when you move the Tone Curve in the opposite direction the image is darkened.
If you want a do-over there’s a quick way to reset the effect so that the Curve reverts to the default position. If you prefer not to use sliders, simply click on the diagonal line and drag it until you see the effect you’re after. Just remember that when you move the Curve up the image is lightened, and when you it down the reverse occurs.
In many cases you may want to do both, as represented by a Curve whereby it’s above the diagonal for the highlights and below it for the shadows. Thus bright areas become brighter and dark areas become darker.
The foregoing is just the beginning of what you’ll learn by watching this episode, and by the time the video concludes we bet you’ll use the Tone Curve frequently and add it to your Lightroom bag of tricks. All you have to do to find more videos like this is pay a quick visit to Whalley’s informative YouTube channel.
We also encourage you to watch a very important tutorial we posted recently from another post-processing expert, in which you’ll learn the best way to organize your Lightroom catalog for maximum efficiency so you never lose a photo again.
Most landscape photographers know that a dramatic realistic-looking sky is often a key element in captivating photos. Today you’ll learn a simple-two step edit that provides compelling results without sky replacement, image stacking, or other complicated procedures.
Instructor Pablo Garcia may be engineer by training, but his true passions are nature photography and helping other photographers improve their shooting and image-editing techniques. In this quick tutorial he demonstrates the sky enhance method he prefers, and it’s easy enough to implement for Lightroom users of all skill levels.
Garica agrees that Lightroom’s Select Sky option works great most of the time, but in certain instances “you have to do some refinements by Adding or Removing, because the Select Sky mask is applied to 100% of the selection and can result in skies that don’t appear natural.”
The simple solution is to Intersect the sky selection with a Linear Graduated filter, and Garcia walks you through the straightforward steps for getting the job done. The sky in Garcia’s sample image is far less than impressive, even though he made of a few basic adjustments before pulling it up on the screen.
That’s because we must always be mindful of how global enhancements affect other areas in the shot. He begins with Lightroom’s Select Sky mask to illustrate the pros and cons of this approach, paying particular attention to a few problems that need to be fixed—even after making a few refinements by adding Clarity, Contrast, Dehaze, and a couple other tweaks.
Garcia describes the problem with the initial step like this: “When we first selected the sky Lightroom made a 100% selection of the sky from top to bottom.” The point is that most skies have a wide range of tones, and a universal selection doesn’t always create a natural-looking result.
The second step changes everything by combining Lightroom’s Intersect function with a Graduated Filter. Garcia demonstrates how the fading effect of the filter enables you to control how much of your edits get applied to the sky. The trick involves using a Linear Gradient to accentuate the effect.
Garcia walks you through the entire process in barely seven minutes, and we think you’ll be very impressed by the transformation he achieves. Garcia’s instructional YouTube channel offers other helpful tips and tricks like these, so be sure to pay a visit.
We also recommend watching a tutorial we posted from another image-editing expert who explains the difference between Lightroom’s Vibrance and Saturation tools and the best way to employ them for enhancing different types of photos.
