Black-and-white photography has a way of emphasizing the relationship between light and shadow in a way that color photography often cannot. Transforming a simple photograph into a striking black and white image requires a mix of technical precision and creative decision making. This video demonstrates how to use Lightroom Classic to create a stunning black-and-white edit, taking you step by step through the process.
Coming to you from Christian Mohler of The Flog PhotographyThis detailed video shows how to take a raw image with a dull sky and turn it into a dramatic black and white composition. Möhrle starts with basic adjustments, showing how to use exposure, highlights, and shadows to build a strong foundation for editing. By dropping the exposure significantly, he deepens the shadows while preserving details in the darkest areas while raising the depth of field. These changes are balanced by enhancing the whites, which adds a crisp contrast to the image, especially around sharp edges in the subject.
To isolate this edit is to use Lightroom’s masking tool. Möhrle explains how to select a background and apply radial and linear gradients to create a sense of depth and drama. He darkens the sky and bottom of the frame, then uses a radial gradient to simulate directional light. This process not only emphasizes the subject – a tower – but also creates a balanced interplay between light and dark areas. By carefully subtracting the subject from each mask, Möhrle ensures that adjustments only affect the desired areas, adding precision to the workflow.
In addition to tonal adjustments, Möhrle enhances the image with sharpness and texture. That enhances clarity and brings out better details, especially around the edges of the tower. These tools also help to counter any softness introduced by earlier exposure changes. He emphasizes the importance of sharp-tuning settings to target specific areas, such as the structural lines of a tower, while avoiding unwanted artifacts in smooth sections such as the sky.
For an added creative touch, Mohrle incorporated subtle color grading, even for a black and white photo. Using the color grading panel, he applies a faint blue tone to the shadows, giving the image a silvery quality. This adjustment is almost imperceptible, but adds an extra layer of polish to the final result. Watch the video above for the full rundown from Möhrle.
