Creative Black and White landscape Photography in Adobe Lightroom

Explore Creative Black & White Photography in my LUMINOSITY & CONTRAST eBook: expressive.photography/educat...
THE VIDEO:
I have been making black and white photographs for over two decades. I've used a variety of tools and lots of presets, but not for the last 10 years! I can achieve everything with a few sliders in Adobe Lightroom (or ACR) - and take ownership of the outcome.
In the next few videos I will explore much of what it takes to perfect Black and White Conversions without relying on presets or other plugins.
As always, I hope you find my take on the art of photography useful, if so Please SUBSCRIBE.
As always, thanks for watching and stay safe.
Images & Music: Alister Benn
Video Production: Ann Kristin Lindaas
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[@robertd.skonbladandersson269]

Extremely helpful! All of your videos don't only give me a whole new way of thinking when I'm out trying to take photos, they also make me want to re-edit my whole catalogue with this in mind ... It forces me to think in a new way all across the board. Many thanks!

[@Alister_Benn]

I like that - if the videos stimulate your urges to create then I think I am doing my job. Thanks for the great feedback.

[@keithmagee4450]

Thanks for a really helpful video. I use ON1 Photo Raw, but can easily transfer your tutorial . I stopped using presets for the same reason as yourself. 👍

[@oliverpinelli3334]

Nr 1: it´s a great picture. Nr 2 The new processing looks 10 x better.

[@Alister_Benn]

Ta ❤️

[@JohnKorvell]

I've used a similar LR method. In color ,not B&W treatment mode I set the saturation sliders in HSL to -100 (far left) and then I tweek the Luminance and Hue to get the tones I want. This also lets me have one more slider - the temperature adjustment basic panel. I've also used my paint brush with color temperature here too. All in all, allows more finesse.

[@Alister_Benn]

Ah, that's an interesting touch, I'll look into that. Thanks

[@mkbuhain]

I love this vid Alister, not so much of a preset fan too, although at some cases i do use it, but I get the point of not relying on it too much to "condition" your photo but rather relying more of instinctual and creative decisions to make your image more of "you" and your creative style as a signature that you can call your own. Thanks for making this vids, its even more inspiring and even mind boggling at times, i guess it the part that we learn that counts.

[@ajhertel]

Loving the series!!! Keep pushing creativity and not just quick fixes.

[@Alister_Benn]

That's the plan! Thanks so much.

[@roykropp155]

Although I understand your reason for the comparison you made, I think a more interesting one might have been to take the "finished" Lightroom color version into NIK and process it without presets (using your processing philosophy) then compare that NIK version to your final Lightroom B&W version. Nonetheless, an interesting series so far...

[@Alister_Benn]

Absolutely. If I had spent time in Nik I could have made it good there too. I think the point I'm making is that regardless of the tools, Nik, Topaz, Lightroom, ACR, Capture One and all the others. There are fundamental principles of engagement and believability of contrast and their transitions. I know sometimes this gets lost in the technical.

[@HaliSowle]

That was great, Allister, full of good information as always. I have to point out that at the cost it is, the NIK plugins are a good price, for those who like to use them. They were incredibly more expensive when NIK itself was a company and doing development, Google bought them and let them languish, but for those like me who like the product (and use it without the presets) DXO has done a good job of putting life back into the product and keeping it current. That being said I'll give the LR conversion a try now, I always learn interesting and practical things from your tutorials.

[@Alister_Benn]

Thank you very much for raising that valid point. They are good value, and can do a great job.

[@huibalbers5287]

I am curiously waiting!😊

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks - hope you enjoyed it.

[@GuyRaymond_GR]

Another good one thanks, nice to see your subs going up!

[@Alister_Benn]

Yeah, the sub ladder is a grind!! But yes, we're homing in on 10K be the end of the month I suspect.

[@hervebais554]

Super...comme toujours...merciiii 😊

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks again

[@RiccardoPareschi]

Great video ... and great music gear too. That photo is awesome. Thanks !

[@Alister_Benn]

🤟🎸 yes, very happy when I get to play

[@RiccardoPareschi]

@@Alister_Benn 🤟 🎸 🍺

[@janeqol438]

Another very informative video, thank you. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😄

[@Alister_Benn]

Thank you! The calm Scottish voice soothes me!

[@jaketuckey4650]

Great video, I'm new and still have lots to learn. It was great for me to see how subtle you are in editing and how big of a difference it made to the image. Thank you

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks for that, I wasted a lot of years when I started listening to people who I should have ignored :-) Hopefully my content will help you move forward in harmony with your innate sense of creativity.

[@keithpinn152]

Hi Alister: I have owned the Nik Collection for over 15 years and I had originally paid $400 US for the complete suite but I rarely use them now. I really liked how you have re-worked an image that you capture so many years ago. I like how you have demonstrated the additional level of control that you have gained by using LR to convert the image vs. giving the image a make-over in Silver Effects Pro. Keep safe . . . Cheers, Keith

[@Alister_Benn]

thanks Keith, always good to hear from you. Thanks again for the great and positive feedback.

[@IanSmithFotografi]

Good educational film Alister.. for me, since we’ve become friends, I’ve changed my vision quite a lot. Much appreciated

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks man, appreciate that.

[@johnscratchley3288]

Well put!

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks for that

[@andrewsimpson5436]

B&W Aurora! You crazy! :-) Works well and Silver were the only presets I ever used but I still tweaked them in LR. I've not used them in a while so I'm part of the way there, I need to try more on your use of L+C than the std LR processing. Enjoying the series and challenging my processing, cheers.

[@Alister_Benn]

Great to hear, thanks... I'm bringing out a whole series of Black and White Processing videos in June. They're going to be pretty complete.

[@Badger220455]

Timely video Alistair, I'm just working on a black and white project and I've used both NIk and Lightroom. I made the mistake of processing as I would normally in Lightroom prior to opening in Nik. (see the previous comment mentions this). I found that by doing the full processing first, including sharpening, i ended up with an over sharpened image with very distinct halos. I found I had to do nothing in Lightroom other than converting to black and white then moving the colour sliders to where I wanted them to be. I then opened in Nik and applied a preset making only slight modifications. This gave me the look I was aiming for but without the oversharpening which Nik applies and minimum halos.

[@Alister_Benn]

Excellent, that's. great point you make. Thanks for mentioning that.

[@dubaigeek1988]

Very creative

[@Alister_Benn]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@mitymous1]

Good stuff as always! I convert to B&W in either LR or PS, depending on how I'm working with an image, and then will often take it over to SilverEFX for finishing. I prefer to have the color-slider control of the Adobe tools to work first. SilverEFX is still my favorite for polishing them up though!

[@Alister_Benn]

To be fair, it's a great tool and is totally capable of delivering excellent results. I think where I have been going with a lot of m y videos is to create an ethos of individuality and knowing how to affect change from first principles. More than one way to do anything with these tools. Thanks again for your great input,

[@mitymous1]

@@Alister_Benn Agree, and after I commented, I thought I should have come back and note that I'm still somewhat relying on the crutch of Nik, and figuring out how to get the same results without it is a stronger approach. So I meant no criticisim! Just commenting as I thought through the info.

[@Alister_Benn]

@@mitymous1 No worries at all and I didn't take it as criticism at all.

[@AmbientWanderer]

Hi Alister. Sorry I have missed a bunch of your videos. I lost my beautiful cat yesterday and I'm absolutely devastated and need time to grieve. I will definitely come back to watch them in the next few days once I'm feeling a little better.

[@Alister_Benn]

Sorry to hear that, I know fully what that feels like having lost a few over the years. Be at peace.

[@AmbientWanderer]

@@Alister_Benn Thank you Alister. It's very difficult right now. But i know time is a great healer. Wishing you a great day

[@blivieriphoto]

It's interesting how colors affect the B&W. I've played with sliders a bit, but I'll be sure to do more of that next time I edit a B&W. I too have the Nik presets; downloaded them when they were free (on recommendation of a fellow photographer friend) but RARELY used them. Back then I wasn't really that familiar with post processing; I could barely manage Lr. Now, I prefer to not have to mess with too many programs. Another great video A!

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks Barb, I personally would advise people to dive into a new piece of software. Lightroom can do everything Nik can and once you understand the sliders then you have a lot of freedom.

[@blivieriphoto]

@@Alister_Benn I dove in to Lightroom when I got it. Learned as I went along, with KZbin videos and playing with functions and sliders. It was no risk because I knew how to put it all back again if I messed it up. Back then fellow camera club members (much more experienced than I) told me I HAD to have all this stuff. I was given an overload of information all at one time when I was still trying to digest Lr. I'm still trying to figure out Photoshop. And luminosity masks... phew... fugetaboutit :D When I shove too much info into my head at one time I get processes and terminology all mixed up. Once I'm comfortable with one, I can introduce another and then mix and match. Can't rush my information digestion. LOL But I'm working on it.

[@jorgkluber7011]

Pardon, that i can't be present at the premiere, while I was at cooking! Thanks, it was nevertheless a very useful video!

[@Alister_Benn]

No worries! - I did miss you :-)

[@ejpeiker]

Roy beat me to it, you could have fairly easily have accomplished the same look in Nik but, in general, the more stuff you can accomplish prior to RAW conversion (LR) rather than after conversion (Nik), the better.

[@Alister_Benn]

Agree. I used Nik for years, but feel that LR is now better functioned to deal with some of the things Nik was better at. The Range Mask negates the need for control points in Nik. Let's face it, if you know what you're doing, either works fine. As stated though, doing all this in RAW has some major advantages. - Thanks for stopping by buddy.

[@ejpeiker]

@@Alister_Benn Yeah same here, don't use SilverEffex much anymore and use the B&W module in Capture One similar to what you are doing in LR. Makes it easy to bounce back and forth between the color and B&W edition and maybe boost a color or mute a color for a specific effect with the color sliders when going back to B&W.

[@Ya666Wa]

I think this is a very nice video and this can be applied to a lot of images. Just for auroras, b/w doesn‘t domit for me... they need to be in colour :)

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks for your feedback 😀

[@johnscratchley3288]

Wonderful Alister. I do not like using presets, to me it's always someone else's interpretation of a scene.

[@Alister_Benn]

Worse, an algorithmic representation of a scene!

[@drpentecost]

Hi Alister, thanks for this video and all of the great free content that you provide. I hope that I'm not having a 'Blonde' moment, but your History Brush videos seem to have disappeared. Have you removed or renamed them ? Thanks for your help. Darren.

[@Alister_Benn]

Firstly, thanks for the kind words. I, not a blonde moment. I’ve taken them down as I am in the process of making some processing videos where I am going into the subject in great detail. Obviously with us losing all our workshops this year we need to make a living. Sorry about that.

[@drpentecost]

@@Alister_Benn Ok, thanks for letting me know.

[@ItsFritzDaCat]

Hey Allister, in case any of your viewers are not aware, you can still get the "Google version" of Nik for free, and it works pretty good, there are a few updates since DxO has taken Nik over, but I'm not sure it warrants purchasing (if you don't use it often), although you do get PhotoLab 2 with it, and a lot of bugs have been fixed by DxO in Nik. You can also use Nik as a standalone, as well as a plug-in. Also, DxO has/had a sale for 30% off (40% off "flash sale" I think ends today, but it goes on sale quite often, if anybody interested doesn't need it today, maybe wait for a sale). I like the entire DxO suite of software, (I use PhotoLab 3 Elite, with Nik and Affinity Photo) I find DxO has some useful features in it, and it works very well for my budget..and I'm not a "professional" :) P.S. I recently watched the Q&A on Exploring Exposure with yourself, Sarah Marino, Jennifer Renwick, David Kingham and Alex Noriega, a lot of good insights in that chat, hope to see you do more of those group chats with others too. Appreciate your time. Cheers,

[@Alister_Benn]

That's good to hear, thanks for that.

[@keithmagee4450]

Thanks, I’ve just looked it up and found it on the internet archive. Just need some time to download and install and hopefully will still work on the windows 10 as it’s not been updated 🤞

[@alangauld6079]

I think you are missing the point of presets. If you watch any of the Nik training webinars or read their books or manuals they always emphasise that the presets are starting points and are deliberately over-cooked. You are expected to use them as a starting point only to save a lot of repetitive boilerplate adjustment, not as a final look. And the presets don’t do any local adjustments or finishing adjustments(eg the vignette) you must do them yourself and that is where the creative elements mostly come in. You can do it all manually by starting with the neutral settings, it just takes longer….

[@cmolina31]

Just re-watched Part I...

[@Alister_Benn]

Great - hope you find them useful

[@StephenMilner]

Hey, I admire your photos, what a fantastic video. It will be superb if you mulled over my channel to see if you rate any of my videos. Keep up the great work! I look forward to your next video.

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks for that, much appreciated.