It’s actually still there, but now it requires an extra step to access it. This panel offered a few things, but by clicking on B&W, you would convert your image to black-and-white. Since Lightroom was released in 2007, there has been a panel in the Develop module titled HSL/Color/B&W. Things have changed in Lightroom Classic CC with regard to how we convert our image to black-and-white. Choosing A Starting Point With The New Profile Browser
Being locked into a specific starting point is a thing of the past. With digital, we are locked into nothing and can thus convert images to black-and-white in all sorts of different ways. This means that at any time we can simulate an image captured with a red filter, or a green, or a blue, or in any hue we want. Color cast can change with a simple white balance setting in an instant (see Figure 2 above). But it doesn’t change its fundamental characteristics. Playing with exposure, contrast, and dodging and burning only fine-tunes the negative. Once a color is rendered as dark or bright, that’s locked in. Shooting with a color filter (or without) creates a very specific starting point for the analog workflow that can’t be changed. Sure, we can play with contrast and dodge and burn in the darkroom when making a print, but that’s not nearly the same. With a film workflow, we are locked into a specific look once the film is exposed. Here’s a look at an original color image alongside versions with blue, green and red casts. It’s simple to simulate color filtration just by using White Balance sliders. Fortunately, there are all sorts of creative benefits to removing color after the shutter is hit as opposed to before.įigure 2. Whether we like it or not, whether we care or not, we are capturing color information that needs to be translated into black-and-white during the developing phase of our workflow. We are instead letting light travel through color filter arrays that sit in front of our digital sensors. Obviously, we are in the digital age, so color filters on our lenses aren’t needed anymore. It can increase or reduce contrast, and ultimately offer an assortment of creative possibilities. Color filtration can separate colors, blend colors or amplify colors. Red, on the other hand, can be heavier-handed, dramatically darkening blues and typically providing a much higher-contrast look. Yellow and orange filters tend to slightly darken blue skies while making greens and warm tones brighter. The magnitude and subtleties of the effect vary with different-color filters or the shades of color in the image. Yellow filters create one effect, while red filters create another. Color Filteringīefore digital was ever a thing, photographers would (and still do) use color filters over their lenses when shooting black-and-white film. Get Lightroom as part of the Creative Cloud Photography plan. Do we want a lot of contrast or subtle tones? Do we want bright tones or something more low-key? Interestingly enough, these decisions are best made by thinking about how color is translated into black-and-white. Now is when we get to decide how we want to deliver the style, look and feel of our black-and-white image to our audience. You can select Color, or you can select Black and White. If you look at the top of the Basic panel in Lightroom Classic CC’s Develop module, you’ll see a couple of options next to Treatment. With Lightroom, it’s pretty straightforward. It’s nothing like Photoshop conversions where we have a handful of techniques to choose from, like using Luminosity Masks, Gradient Maps, adjustment layers or going straight to the Main Menu at the top of the screen and simply selecting Grayscale, to name a few. Still, converting images to black-and-white with Lightroom Classic CC is not complicated. Just removing color greatly limits your ability to stylize your black-and-white images. It’s certainly a way to do it, but far from the best way. Wait! What? Shouldn’t we just move our Saturation slider to the left to remove the color and be done with it? Well, actually, no, I wouldn’t suggest doing that. When crafting black-and-white files-more specifically, when we are developing RAW files-we need to think about color. Of course, seeing images through this “different prism” is quite another thing than crafting them. Things become simpler, or, as I like to think of it, being biased toward the style: black-and-white is more to the point. Shapes, tones, patterns and textures become the central focus of a photograph, and we’re unburdened by how colors blend, contrast or enhance the experience.
When color is absent, we are left with the opportunity to experience attributes of a subject or the details of a setting more intimately. Looking at black-and-white imagery means viewing the world around us through a different prism. A black-and-white image of Montaña de Oro in central California.