20. MAKING A BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGE

IN MY OPINION, you can make a very powerful photographic expression by working in black and white. It’s been said that working in black and white lets you see the “bones of the image,” and I could not agree more.

Working with black-and-white images involves a lot more than just removing the color. There are plenty of ways you can make the process of creating a black-and-white image uniquely your own.

Select B&W from the HSL / Color / B&W panel in the Develop module, and your image will immediately turn into a black-and-white image. Under the B&W header you’ll see a series of color sliders that allow you to change the overall look of the black-and-white image. Dragging one of the color sliders to the right will take all of that color in the image and make it brighter. Dragging it to the left will make the color darker.

You can also adjust the brightness of each color by using the Targeted Adjustment Tool (Figure 20.2). Activate the tool by clicking on it in the B&W panel, and then click on one of the colors in the picture and drag to the right to make brighter, or drag to the left to make darker.

Directly controlling which colors you make brighter and darker is a great way to make your own black-and-white image, but many people skip over the fact that you can develop this image further by going back to the Basic panel.

The change to black and white often reduces exposure and contrast in an image, or decreases clarity. Once your conversion to black and white is complete, make sure you go back to the Basic panel and reprocess your image to offset any of the changes lost in the conversion. You can then finalize the black-and-white image by adding a little extra sharpness and grain to the image (Figure 20.3).

Share Your Best Black-and-White Image!

Once you’ve captured your best black-and-white image, share it with the Enthusiast’s Guide community! Follow @EnthusiastsGuides and post your image to Instagram with the hashtag #EGBlackandWhite. Don’t forget that you can also search that same hashtag to view all the posts and be inspired by what others are shooting.

Figure 20.1 This shot I took of the sunset in NYC from the Top of the Rock is nice in color, but I’m looking for a more timeless look. This would be a perfect candidate for black and white.

Figure 20.2 I like toning black-and-white images with the Targeted Adjustment Tool. Rather than having to think about what colors the sliders control, it’s a “what you see is what you get” approach.

Figure 20.3 The final black-and-white image with some added sharpness and grain. Because of their timelessness, you’d be surprised by how much sharpness and grain you can get away with.