Black and white photography: Take and edit epic fine art landscapes

In this week's video, I show how I use long exposures and Lightroom techniques to take and edit dramatic, fine art black and white landscapes. I show the settings I use, as well as tools like ‪@PolarProFilters‬ neutral density filters to achieve a long exposure image, before showing my entire post-processing techniques to achieve this epic result.
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#Photography #Blackandwhite #Tutorial

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Who loves moody black and white photos? *raises hand*

[@DonovanMediaCenter]

This is an exceptionally well done tutorial…and I teach video production! Easy to follow, and doesn’t have the distracting KZbin-y distractions.

[@danielattias1525]

WOO amazing work Mate, I will learn a lot from you, since I shot oak trees last week, and I need to work on them, cheers

[@MrAllenMo]

Great edit of a great photo. ringing life back to some old photos.

[@ritamoll4347]

Thank you Andrew for sharing your b&w workflow.

[@nicknichols4249]

Excellent tutorial Andrew! Thank you!

[@garybrenner2801]

Just came across this video & your channel & I'm glad I did! Love the video, editing techniques/lessons & photo! I am now a subscriber & look forward to more videos.

[@fatherdanmclaughlinosa3215]

Andrew, Your explanations describe why and how you choose to edit your excellent photo. I liked that you explain how you used filters to control the bright sky when capturing the photograph. You are a good teacher! Father Dan

[@RHB-Photoart]

Nice video about Black and White editing. I must try it also in your way!

[@blackmamba3427]

God is with you, Mr Frank. You will get well soon. We pray for you, take your medication and treatment on time, and rest well! ❤

[@stevenchurch8901]

Always late to the party, lol. Thank you, sir, just the information I needed!

[@tompatton2086]

This video deserves a lot more views. 1st rate tips on working in black and white. Thanks Andrew!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks so much, Tom! I wish it did have more views, but sadly KZbin doesn't seem too keen on putting my stuff out there!

[@craigallenphotography]

Stumbled on your channel and really liked this video. I have gone from color to almost exclusively B&W so I would love to see more like this. I agree with what you said about not being able to rescue a bad image by making it B&W. Too many people feel that works. Anyway, I've subscribed and look forward to seeing more of your work.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Hi Craig, thanks so much for watching and taking the time over such a thoughtful comment - a pleasure to have you as a subscriber! Agreed with your point, I definitely think a lot of people think of black and white as a back up option if they don't get the shot they want. And hey, sometimes that works out okay but the truly great black and white images out there will have been taken with monochrome in mind!

[@inhami59]

Well done tutorial.

[@richardlewis9868]

Hi Andrew, nicely done, enjoyable to watch, I think I would have removed the buildings, but that's just me, great tip to edge on the under exposed side

[@inkslinga1]

Beautiful old tree, great edit also.....

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks Graham!

[@hilarylanglois734]

This is so instructive 🤩 thank you

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you for watching!

[@nozomu4561]

Hello Andrew, i just found your channel and I like it a lot. Thank you for sharing your skills with us. Best regards

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks so much and welcome to the channel, it's a pleasure to have you here!

[@KatieCollins1]

Very striking shot!!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you!

[@charleswsalisbury88]

Really good advice on it being better to slightly underexpose rather than over expose, as it's easier to rescue shadows. Thanks

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks mate!

[@BarryGee-pm6rv]

So wrong. If you underexpose by one stop you will have thrown away 50% of your data. Another stop loses you a further 50% of what's left. Good idea? I think not. There is no substitute for correct exposure and that means exposing as far to the right as possible short of clipping highlights. And it's not easier to rescue shadows - there is very little data in the shadows so all you will get is a lot more noise and a lot less detail.

[@rmgarofalo]

Hi. I am kind of new to photography, so I am confused about the advice of shooting underexpose, what I have learned is ETTR, as there is more information on the highlights and therefore after adjustments there is less noise. I have tested this myself. Why in this case the recommendation is the opposite?

[@BarryGee-pm6rv]

@@rmgarofalo Because the author of this video doesn't understand digital exposure. You are right. He is wrong. Period.

[@TroubleSome-ft9kv]

Great Video. Very informative and useful ✌😁

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you!!

[@nickh2519]

Great walk-through, thank you Andrew. To my eye the impact is all about the clouds streaking to/from the vanishing point. Did you have to wait for the right weather before heading off to take the shot. Or was it a case of circling the tree to get the direction right. Or is the vanishing point an artifact of the wide angle? Thanks for everything you do for us, all the best

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks nick! A bit of luck really in the direction the wind was going. The angle was based on making sure the background didn't have other trees in, and I liked the buildings on the horizon. It was also the only angle that would let me get the sun hitting the tree even a little bit. I didn't know for sure I'd get this shot when I went out, but as it was a bit cloudy and windy I knew I had a good chance.

[@garymullen4056]

Finally got around to watching this one. Very nice edit, moreover your ability to walk through your edit step by step and explain the why's and when is brilliant. Excellent instructional video, Thank You. I have a request. If you are interested. The biggest struggle within both LR and PS I have is Dodging and Burning. Specifically where, and more importantly why. I understand the lighten the highlights and darken the shadows, but often struggle with deciding where in an image warrants attention. Doesn't help that I predominantly shoot Landscapes and Portraits and often fail to understand where the D/B should be. Equally I suppose, I am more worried about where it should not be. As you have pointed out, I also prefer to Keep it Real.. Perhaps if you could take a couple or 6 images :-) and show in each instance why it requires the relevant edit. Apologies if this request oversteps the line, As I appreciate you and others could probably charge for the experience you have. Keep Well.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Hey Gary, I touched on this in my livestream and I'm sure it's something I'll try and go into more detail on soon. The reality is that I don't always really 'know' what it is I'm doing with it. You've seen technically how I D/B in terms of using new layers etc, but beyond that it's just about trying to accent those highlights or 'sculpt' a shadow as needed -- it's really not about trying to turn a shadow into a highlight, just emphasising what is already there. But it's sometimes very vague and very much just done until I think it looks 'right' and even then I may go back to that layer and tone it down (the benefit of using layers, of course). Often I'll ask myself "Is there light already there?" And if so, it's probably a candidate for some work! Hope that helps

[@imagingArts]

I'm late to discover your channel and this video, so... Nicely done. I do have a question, though. In your workflow you first went to the tone curve and created an s-curve to raise the contrast of the image and then immediately adjusted the highlights and shadows. This effectively nuetralized the curve adjustment. Do you often make these adjustments and why?

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Hi Dick, thanks for watching! I do often make adjustments like this -- it's not so much 'neutralizing' as it is layering up various subtle tweaks that, while perhaps not very noticeable by themselves, all add up to a more dramatic finished shot. But I also go back to these tools (the S Curve, exposure sliders) again and again during an edit, adjusting slightly depending on how the edit is progressing so far. It might sometimes seem like quite a chaotic way to edit, but it works well for me and allows for experimentation, while meaning that no two edits are ever really the same. Might not work for everyone but it's always been my style.

[@dwyanebrentson1]

That reminded me of when personal computers became available to the public. And we would spend hours just figuring out what the thing (computer) could do. The minute you incorporate a computer program to change the image. It nolonger is fine art. It's somebody playing with a computer program because you can never replicate it with a computer program. Fine art is a natural photo caught on camera. Converting an image from color to black and white doesn't make it art. It makes it seem as though it were aged or vintage. Which move the image back in time. What you are realizing " time" is fine art.

[@whosthebrightestmonkeyinth348]

How did you get to the range mask bit - you did it so quickly! :)

[@UtpalDeb]

I am new to your channel but I enjoyed listening to your commentary. I have never been friendly with Photoshop and the videos I have seen so far did not help me in my learning . For the first time I could understand most of what you said. I am from India and find it difficult to deal with certain accents. However, I had no problem with your commentary. I would like to ask you about editing an image I have which is similar to yours. I use Camera Raw but I guess it is not too different from Lightroom. Could you give me a few tips on B&W conversion and editing ? Will you permit me to send you the image ? Thanks again for a great tutorial.

[@UtpalDeb]

Can we do this edit in Adobe Camera Raw instead of Lightroom ?

[@andrewhoulihan7940]

As a new photographer who shoots in black and white from the start. I have my camera set to monochrome. I find these types of videos very confusing. When I’m trying to learn more about black and white and searching KZbin to get better. Why do you take this picture is colour in the first place ?? Why not in black and white from the start ? Am I missing something or are photographer’s playing it safe by shooting in colour in the first place. Maybe you can help answer my question. Love form Ireland 🇮🇪 just let you know by all means I’m not having a go at you. I’m trying to teach myself more. That’s all.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Hey Andrew, that's a good question and hopefully I can give you some clarity on it, from my perspective at least. First off, unless your camera has a monochrome only sensor (which is rare) then the images it takes are not black and white but colour images that the camera simply makes monochrome by its on-board software. If you shoot in raw format (which I do) then that monochrome conversion isn't permanent so all images will display as colour shots in Lightroom until you then decide to convert them into black and white. Converting colour into black and white can also offer better results as you have control over the individual colour channels during conversion, rather than just highlights/shadows/contrast. So if you want to darken a blue sky, you can darken the blue channel only, not affecting the rest of the scene. This is the same as in the old film days when a black and white film photographer would use coloured filters to darken certain colours in a scene. Also, as you rightly say, shooting in colour does give you the option later to go with colour or black and white, depending on what you want. If you shoot black and white in jpeg format, you can't go back to colour later. Sometimes I will set my camera to black and white when shooting, but this is purely to 'visualise' what the scene might look like without the distraction of colour and this can be a powerful learning tool, but my images are still saved as colour files and will require the same conversion in Lightroom. I hope that helps!

[@cooperswayadventures]

Just wondering if you did real fine art print with wet fingers? Oriental seagul or two bath development...

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

I’ve not done wet film development in many years - I prefer the digital way of working these days!

[@surysuryanto7668]

im

[@NateLanxon]

Once again the selective edits showing who’s boss

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

They're the real heroes