Comments on: How to Make High Contrast Black & Whites in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

By: patel keyur

patel keyur — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:36:13 +0000

it’s nice. i like it

By: Emil

Emil — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:16:13 +0000

I think the grayscale mix is very useful sometimes.
It just allows you to modify the luminance of each color. You can also use the picker so you don’t have to choose the colors manually.

Emil

By: Bernhardt

Bernhardt — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:17:28 +0000

I just began on lighroom yet and of course impatient for every tutorial! I usually begin with the curve by pulling it down but it may be a bit too strong so using different sliders gives the possibility to be more subtil.
As the settings in photoshop appeal quickly to some spectacular results I have to stay reasonnable with my enthusiasm. Thanks a lot!

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:21:11 +0000

Doesn't increasing the exposure and fill light just undo what was done by moving everything to the darker tones by increasing the blacks so much? Just wonder how this effects noise as well because I've used several presets in the past that can create a huge amount of noise in an otherwise clean image. If the exposure is correct there should be a good spread of tones from very dark to light depending on the scene and adding an S-curve usually does the trick IMHO. I personally prefer Photoshop for more advanced editing due to the additional control it gives. Inner Beauty Photography

By: Jonathan Zahra

Jonathan Zahra — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:38:26 +0000

Thanks for a great tutorial! I only have a few photos which I think look great in black and white, and I’m not sure I like the high contrast look for those particular photos, but boosting the blacks to the 70-80s range to start with definitely makes things pop more!

By: Brian Auer

Brian Auer — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:46:34 +0000

Great tutorial! I created a preset in ACR and ran a few photos to test it out. The method definitely calls for some tweaks depending on the photo and subject matter, but it’s a great guideline for getting these high contrast b/w photos.

By: Raymond Chan

Raymond Chan — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:12:06 +0000

The value of the sliders (contrast/black/etc) is really dependent on the image itself, so the end result is really up to the author’s preference. Experiment and have fun, people!

By: Reznor

Reznor — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:43:49 +0000

Hmm, wasn’t familiar with this technique. I just convert to grayscale and customize the result by dragging in the picture to make certain colors brighter or darker. This way I have complete control over the result. When finished, I might apply an S-curve or just set the curve to strong contrast and that’s it. Works for me. Maybe others prefer your method. Never to old to learn something new ;-)