in part one I set myself a black-and-white photo challenge just to
go out and find three interesting black-and-white photos this involves
thinking differently this involves pre visualizing it's it's about imagining
what something would look like when there are no colors in it when there are
colors you get lots of separation because the colors separate but when you
take those colors away how you're going to achieve that separation in tones of
gray so you have to really stretch your creative muscle give it a good workout
and and work on the pre-visualized there was quite a lot of comments under
that video saying well why don't you just switch the pitch control settings
to monochrome well I didn't want to mention it in that in that video and so
I said later on I'll give you a tip it is something you could do but in that
video I didn't want to tell anyone about that because I want you to stretch your
creative muscle it's really important not to just rely on tech because cameras
don't take pictures you take pictures and it's your input to the camera that
makes the picture interesting vibrant exciting it's about developing your own
style your own way of seeing things and having your own exciting interpretation
upon them so let's have a little look in Lightroom let's go take a look and see
what we've got and how I convert them to here are our images first off I think
we'll take a look at this one here which was the the table shop because I really
kind of liked that but also then going to take a look at the one at the end
here this one here when we shot into the Sun I know we did the one with the fence
post but I think those probably the two most interesting so that's interesting
looking at my thumbnails just change lunch rooms obviously having a weird
five minutes and in mind we'll just leave it to get on with it shall we so
where would we begin I would recommend just make a virtual copy there we go
I've already got one virtual copy isn't that interesting it keeps putting the
wrong thumbnail on the right image how weird is that I've really got one
virtual copy which is the one I made for the video and then there's another here
where I did a very long letter boxy shape because that's the banner I use on
my website when we put up a new video he's still doing that weird thumbnail
I've never seen that before here we have our color image this is a
virtual copy so where do we begin well there's a couple of ways you can do
these things I'm just going to show you a little shortcut ething the obvious is
like you just pull the saturation out but here's the thing with that you kind
of lose data in color channels I'm going to recommend that if you click on the
black and white here nitrogen does a better job if we're going to here you
can see you're on the s-curve in the different color channels and that means
you can control those channels and they're going Det here because this is
quite a long subject in my seven steps of perfect pictures lights from course
we go we've spent a whole week actually
working on this kind of stuff to do with color channels and color controls but it
is really interesting it does give you more control we don't need it with this
image so we've got our black and white I recommend you do it using the black and
white button here all down there on the HSL color B&W panel what about tones
tonal range is looking really good exposure looking really good there's not
much to do there I might just take the highlights down a hint and shadows don't
really need anything and the whites what are we got there looking pretty good I'm
just gonna check them I'm going to slide that to loose start to just on the edge
to Sparkle and I'm gonna take the blacks down because I want some blacks in here
I want this to have they're just gonna do this by eye never mind what the the
mask says let's just have a look somewhere around there that's giving it
quite a nice sort of a look what else the clarity let's just pump that up a
little bit because clarity is gonna make it sort of really shiny now I don't like
that that's way too much I think one of the most common mistakes in starting
with post-production is going too far how far is too far that's another good
question we address that on week 7 of perfect pictures I'm just going to push
it into about here I think that looks pretty good now we really got a goal and
a plan for this because when I shot it I knew I liked these textures down here I
knew that I liked these lines and I knew that I liked the number 27 and this is a
bit of bench poking out if you remember I said I didn't like this dark area here
I thought it looked a little bit and it interfered so what I want to do now is
just take this lighter area down a bit so that it just kind of it's not quite
such a collision here and to do that I'm going to grab hold of a grab
filter its going to pull one in something like that and whip that across
here it's not bad alignment just make it line up just take it across
somewhere there maybe further a little more something like that it's not going
to need much what do we got it's already on - let's just switch that off so you
can see so that's been no adjustment I'm just gonna mouse over and use the down
arrow key and just by I just have a look as I sneak that down it's somewhere
around there I think what do we got - half of stop I'm going to take it up a
bit I think it's too much it looks fiddled with and and when things look
fiddled with there we go I'd say that it's pretty good so that is
a really kind of simple image to do it's pretty obvious yes I had to shoot it
upside down so we've got to do is rotate it just flip it job done there's a
little look at this one at the end here shooting into the Sun now lots of people
to make comments saying always an it dangerous shooting into the Sun when it
damaged your sensor I've read all sorts of conflicting things about this online
I shoot into the Sun a lot I love it I've never had a problem with my sensor
I think it's a good idea to leave your sensor just pointing at the Sun
endlessly no I think that's probably a very bad idea or - sort of you know
leave it on a long exposure but you don't need to leave it on a long
exposure because you're putting into the Sun I've never had a problem with it as
for damaging your eyes yes you can be very very very careful I use a
mirrorless which means I'm not actually looking at the Sun I'm looking at an LCD
I'm looking at a little LCD panel so I can stare at that as long as a light
it's not damaging my eye but if you're using a DSLR be very very careful I
strongly recommend sunglasses things like that squint what about our plan for
the image well I kind of like this haziness across the Sun I'm not worried
about the fact the sun's burnt out because some highlights do burn out
that's just a natural thing you know if you look at the Sun with your eyes it's
burnt out nothing you do about it look at the filament in a straight lamp
you know it's burnt out it's just the way it is I got a whole video about that
coming up fairly soon so what's my plan I like the light in this flag that's the
bit which really drew me I like the light I just like the simplicity I like
the textures in the sky so what do we need to do our plan this is all about
thinking about your photography thinking about your post-production you know just
rush in put sliders around willy-nilly hoping to get a good one planet think it
have a goal what excitement you want to put into that picture what do you want
your viewer to feel and think you know what excited you to take the picture in
the first place I'm giving you too much of my 7 steps to perfect pictures an
environment where there you go I want the Sun there I want to be able to see
the flag it's this light in the flag I like we have a big exposure difference
of what are we going to need to do we're going to need to separate the two
slightly aren't we so first of all I think I need to select this flag here's
a little little freebie tip for you something which I often do when I'm
going to select something is I brighten it up so know what I want to do is see
what I'm going to select now obviously I'm going to leave it like that but I
want the light on the flag to be probably more like that than like that
but just to help me select it I'm just gonna brighten that up a bit
let me take the blacks down a bit because it's giving me more edge
contrast nearly forgot let's just quickly ping that into black and white
there we go back up to there and let's do a selection
we've got a flag selected so let's just leave that selection there for a moment
and deal with the sky so that expose you can come back down
let's get that probably just reset it I think where it was because the exposure
was pretty much bang on now what about our sky highlights let's just take them
down a bit because I want to pull some of this haze back into its the haze that
I liked look get in look at that I like that I don't know too far because it
just kind of looks a little bit fiddled I do like the kind of the ring halo we
got around the Sun there when I reduce it that much but it's too far is the
haze that I liked I like that kind of bright hazy thing it's about there I
think I like the way that area looks and you sort of faint kind of Sun glow halo
going on there what about the shadows I think they need anything I might just
lift them a bit do they need anything no just lose his stuff so you don't touch
them white sands gonna quick check let's let that Sun go there now look I know
you've got to worry that's burnt out because why the Sun burns out doesn't it
when you look at it so it's completely natural blacks where are we going now
this flag I don't really need much I think a little bit of black sneaking out
the flagpoles probably okay but I want to go much further than that maybe a
little bit of clarity going on in the sky I don't know no I don't like that so
let's just leave that alone and go to our flag so we're back into our flag
what do we want to do with that first obvious just turn that mask off now I
resent that exposure so that's where it was let's just lift the flag exposure
just look get in look at that it's coming to life beautifully what else
it's the light here isn't it it's this bit of light that we're interested in so
let's just kind of lift the whites a little bit in the flag what's that going
to do you see when we're pushing sliders around what we're doing it with
intention we know why we're pushing those sliders around we want to lift
that light area in the flag look that one seems to be doing it quite nicely
we're just getting a little lift in there a little bit of white that's
working nicely look at how it's helped the light in that flag that's awesome if
I turn that on and off look look at that look at the light we look at the life
we've got into that flag and it actually looks far more real as to how my I saw
it than the original straight photo so
there we go I'd say that's pretty good I was about to whiz back and show you the
original virtual copy but like an idiot I completely forgot so when we got here
I think we can go into that one it should show us yeah there we go to my
eye it was slightly different and this is where I think the color has kind of
you know got a little bit more life into it because we've got color separation
which we didn't have before I think we're pretty good there the only thing I
do think it probably needs you know I'm gonna give that flag a little bit more
life this is always why it's worth just kind of looking thinking coming back to
there we go that's pretty good about there I don't want it to look you know
like oh we brightened up the flag that's just horrible here we go it's about
there though it's any half a stop and a little bit of work on the highlights and
we're pretty much good the other thing I think I'm gonna do I want to help the
sky coming in across here so let's just take a grad and just push a little bit
of stuff coming in here I don't affect the Sun too much so I'm gonna do a soft
grad just wish that ox it had a little setting on it so that's untouched let's
just sneak that down look very subtle little that is too much I'm gonna leave
it there I think that's all I'm gonna do I don't any more than that I think that
is pretty much awesome another little look at our flag cuz it just somehow on
revisiting it looks a little bit darker than I'd like it lifts it a bit more
might even lift the shadows in there a little more that's better
that's what was missing we just wanted a little bit more going on there that is
awesome so there we go then we have our finished flag shot the only other thing
you could do with it of course depending on your own use is just to check your
detail there's a lot of fine detail going on in here there's a little bit of
dodgy missed brushwork there if I was doing it for real I'd go back and just
correct that but no make you sit through it so we're on standard default
sharpening of 25 I'm just gonna have a little look at the fan break and don't
even know if you can see this in the video that's better
looking at the the weave the fabric because this is quite important this
texture we've got a strong texture against a different you know sort of
soft texture I think that works very very well I've had to take that quite a
long way I wouldn't normally go as far as 60 odd percent but I have but it's
giving me the look that I want so that's pretty cool masking we're on a very low
ISO we're on 200 iso that's because that's where the fuji goes and lots of
people have asked why did you only go to 201 use 100 well and doesn't go that far
it's going to put a bit of masking on there just to sort of take it off the
sky but I want to keep the sharpening in all those little fabrics there so that's
all here we go I would say that is our completed image you see making black and
whites is pretty straightforward it's not like rocket science the thing is
having a clear goal and a vision for what you want to do thinking black and
white don't just rely on your pitch control settings in the camera to show
you what it might look like when you're starting out absolutely but I'm going to
give you a new challenge and there is go out and shoot some black and whites
without using the picture control setting set to black and white really
give that creative muscle pre-visualization muscle a good workout
so I hope you found that interesting guys please if you did subscribe to my
channel you can do it down here click in a few lights we'd love to hear your
comments about black and white photography and what you think about it
you can sign up to my newsletter where you get a free blog post a little
article which goes with all videos you can do that up there at the top at the
moment - and on the address down below so I hope this has been a value to you
take care and I'll see you next time