7.3. Using Grayscale Mix for More Control

Lightroom's Grayscale Mix controls have revolutionized digital black and white conversion. Since using these controls, I've retired several of my more complex and time-consuming conversion techniques. I'll show you how and why I now turn almost exclusively to Lightroom for my black and white conversions.

To start, you need a color image. From a quality point of view, it's preferable to work with a native RAW file, but a JPEG, TIFF, or PSD will do, as long as it is in color. Figure 7-11

Click on the word Grayscale (circled) in the HSL/Color/Grayscale pane. Figure 7-12 Your image will appear unsaturated, but what you see is misleading. The underlying color data is still available, which means you can use Lightroom's Grayscale Mix control to determine how each color is converted. Once you export your image as a TIFF, JPEG, or PSD—even though it is saved in RGB—all color data is eliminated. If you export your converted image as a DNG file, the color is retained and can be retrieved, if necessary, in other programs such as Photoshop.

If we look closely at the Grayscale Mix sliders, we can see that they have not all moved the same amount. Figure 7-13 Lightroom creates a "smart" custom auto mix (see the sidebar earlier in the chapter). Although this often produces pretty good results, I find it is mostly just a good starting point.

Often I want to interpret the color conversion differently. Let's say, for this image, I want to make the blue-purple sky appear darker. I can work specifically on that color in a couple ways. I'll show you what I mean.

Using the TAT for Black and White Control

By far my favorite method for this kind of adjustment is to the use the Targeted Adjustment Tool (TAT). I can start with the Auto-Adjust mix settings created by default, or I can hold the Option/Alt key and select Reset Grayscale Mix and start from a neutral point. Figure 7-14

I simply select the TAT icon in the HSL/Color/Grayscale pane (circled, lower). Then I place my cursor over the area I wish to work on (in this case, the sky, circled) and drag down to darken, or up to lighten. Figure 7-15

If you look at the Grayscale Mix pane, you will see the beauty of using this method. Even though I wasn't sure which colors were in the sky (remember, I'm looking at a grayscale version of my image), the TAT knew and the Blue, Purple, Magenta—and to a lesser degree, Aqua—sliders moved accordingly.

I can continue using the TAT on different parts of the image to lighten or darken areas based on the color values of the image that are under the tool.

Using Before and After for Reference

If you want to work on a color-by-color basis using the Grayscale Mix sliders, it's difficult, unless you know which colors are where. There is an easy way to do this: use the Before and After mode.

In this example, I physically moved the Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Magenta sliders based on the colors in the Before view. My adjustments are immediately viewable in the After view. (By the way, to get to the Before/After view, select the icon in the toolbar at the bottom of the preview window (circled).

Creating Virtual Copies and Snapshots

You can create a virtual copy of your black and white conversion by placing your cursor over the image preview in any module or in the filmstrip. Right-click and select Create Virtual Copy from the contextual menu. Figure 7-17 In the Library module, you can group your versions into a stack. Lightroom doesn't actually duplicate the image file, it creates a set of instructions that are saved in the Lightroom database and take up very little space on your hard drive. In the Develop module, you can also create a snapshot to save your settings. Click on the [+] sign in the Snapshots pane (circled) in the left panel and name your snapshot. It will remain in the Snapshots pane until you delete it by clicking on the [−] sign.

Beware: Camera Black and White Settings Ignored Many digital SLRs, and some digital point-and-shoots, offer sophisticated control over the way black and white images are converted in the camera. Figures 7-18 and 7-19 If you are planning on using Lightroom, don't spend a lot of time fiddling with these controls or any other camera-based special effects. The settings are often encrypted and unreadable by Lightroom. On import into Lightroom, you will probably get a black and white thumbnail preview that appears to contain your camera settings. However, once Lightroom creates its own standard-sized preview, the original camera settings are not applied. Figure 7-18. John McDermott took this shot with a Canon EOS 5D and set it to shoot black and white and save as a RAW file. On import into Lightroom the preview briefly reflected John's settings. Figure 7-19. Lightroom automatically created its own preview and all the in-camera black and white settings were ignored.

Angela was a last-minute addition to the Adventure team. She works for Adobe but wasn't directly involved with Lightroom, the product. She received a customer alert about the Lightroom beta from Jennifer Stern, who was organizing the Adobe side of things for the Adventure (and paying the bills from her budget). Angela emailed Jennifer, asking to be a part of the beta. A few weeks later, Jennifer invited Angela to be a part of the Adventure. I took one look at Angela's stunning online portfolio of flowers and nature and welcomed her heartily on board. Angela's Lightroom toning technique, which she used on this photo, is explained in Chapter 8.

Angela Drury