Processing B&W (Original Photography & Tutorial)

Howdy,

Occasionally, I like to post an image in black and white, and wanted to provide a little insight into the way that I process these images. The process I use for black and white is significantly different than what I use for color photos.

For the purpose of explanation, we'll use a photo I took last week of a barn. This image is a great candidate for black and white, because it has a lot of texture and lines that will be exaggerated by removing color.

This is the original photo, straight from the camera and converted to a jpeg, with no edits.

^{It's a barn!}

To process for color, I increased contrast a little, adjusted the white balance to bring out the subtle reds of the paint, and boosted sharpness to pull out some of the fine details. It's also cropped a little tighter.

^{Oooh! A cool barn!}

Here, you could just click the black and white button and, yes, it would be black and white. I prefer to start with the original file, though, and work the process in black and white from the beginning. Loading the original fiel, click the black and white button and it will convert to a pretty gray image.

^{50k shades of gray?}

My first step with black and white images processing is to add a lot of contrast, then adjust the master brightness to get a good range of blacks to whites. The tone curve or shadows / highlights sliders in Lightroom can be used to make more subtle changes in the midtones.

^{So Contrasty!}

The next step is to add clarity. Sometimes the contrast needs to be backed off a little, when clarity is added to get a good balance of the two that brings out detail and dlesn't look like an ink blotch test.

^{Is the devil really in the details?}

My finishing touches usually involve a slight vignette and, of course, noise reduction. My old Canon 7D has a somewhat noisy sensor. A little sharpening can improve the subtle details, as well.

^{Finished–Not unlike the barn, itself!}

Here are a few other examples:

^{Old Silo}
This grain silo image was processed with heavier clarity than the barn image, but a similar level of contrast

^{Don't flag my cornography!}
For the previous image, a lower level of contrast and clarity were used, to preserve some of the focal fall-off in the background.

^{Really wanted to ring it...}

Photo processing is very subjective and everyone has his or her own preferences. This is the way I, personally, process my black and white images. It isn't the only way and your own personal style and taste may lead you to a different approach that is equally viable. Feel free to leave questions, comments, or critiques below.

Thank you for taking a look! If you enjoy my work, please click the upvote button. Comments are also greatly appreciated.