﻿- Bonjour mesdames and messiours. In this video,
I want to show you how to get amazing black and white in total homage of the great Ansel Adams,
that are not washed out, that are very powerful and that will create an impact.
Bonjour mesdames and messiours. My name is Serge Ramelli. I'm a French photographer living in the
USA, but I'm originally from the amazing, the incredible city of Paris France. And about 10
years ago, I did a book on Paris in black and white, which you can see here. It was a big,
nice book. And I spent a lot of time studying the work of Ansel Adams, including this book called
"The Negative", which is really hard. I mean, what he had to go through to get great black and white
is incredible. If you don't know who Ansel Adams is, he is an amazing American photographer. He was
considered, he's considered the one of, if not the best landscape photographer of all times.
And he worked very much on what we call the zone system which was a way to capture as much
as possible of information into one photo. You see film, and I shoot a lot on film these days
have a much smaller dynamic range. It's really hard to get all the highlights
and the shadows that we get on our amazing Sony, Fuji, Canon, Nikon cameras today. So he worked out
the zone system to get that. And then he developed an incredible complex dodge and burn system
to get incredible black and white photos. You've may want to ask what is dodge and burn? Well,
he quoted dodge and burn to be dodging burning as a steps to take a mistake God made in establishing
total relationship. Basically what he did is he had like a system for example, when he would
print a negative where he would project a negative onto a positive paper. Longer you would project
the positive, more you would get a burn result. So it would burn the negative onto the positive
paper. But let's say you wanted to make something brighter, so he would use like a little spoon like
this to make this a little bit brighter. Or the reverse, if you want to make, you know,
just one item really dark and everything else bright, you can use like a paper with holes
like this. I mean, can you imagine, you know, hard it is. This is one of his most famous photo, the
before photo is called "Moon Over Hernandez". This is the before photo before darkroom processing.
And this is the final result. See how the sky went from like grayish to black and like look at,
look at the light here on the clouds compared to how it was before, it's totally washed out here.
I mean, it totally changed the photo. That was, that is one of the most famous photo of Ansel
Adams. Another one that's really famous is for example the Tunnel View shots. I mean, look at the
tonal range. You have really dark tones, you have gray tones and you have very bright tones. Okay?
And I see a lot of people doing black and white today and kind of washed out. So we don't want
that. So I'm gonna show you how to do this in Lightroom with I'm gonna start with the same view,
the tunnel view as an homage to his work. This is a long exposure that I shot and I'm gonna convert
it to black and white. And I'm gonna show you how you can Ansel Adams this, this is sort of
techniques to really make it dramatic. First thing, first, I'm gonna go to black and white
and voila, it's finished. No, so you go to black and white in Lightroom and then you have to go to
black and white mixed here and basically black and white mix, The way it works is that you've
got different colors like red, orange, yellow, and what it does. Let's take, for example I think
there was quite some blue in this photo. Yeah. You see the blue here. If I move to the right
it's gonna make the blue brighter. If I move to the left, it's gonna make the blue darker. Now
remember how Angela Adams always had like black skies here. So we kind of want to get as black sky
as possible. So I'm gonna move that blue dark. Now you don't want to do it too much, if you do it too
much like minus 100, what's gonna happen is you're gonna get some artifact. You see this weird patch
of pixel that's because it's too much contrast. So I have a rule is, I usually don't go like minus 44
or 48. You can play around with the other tones, like Aqua. I'm gonna make Aqua a bit darker green.
Why not? You just move things around and see if it does something to your photo. Okay. For example,
orange does something. So if I go here, I want to get more details in El Capitan. And it seems to
be working if I move this to the right, but again, try not to go over 40 or 50 on your settings. So,
and the next thing you can do to maybe darken the sky is play around with a wide balance, check this
out. If I go right and I add some yellow the sky becomes very bright. If I go to the left,
the sky becomes a bit darker but also don't overdo it either. It's gonna look weird. So just a little
tad. You'll see there is a lot more tools we can do to make this good. Okay. So something like this
is kind of, okay. So that's my starting point. Okay? Now I've done a basic conversion. Now what I
do, and this is the power of the zone system that we don't need to have here in digital is we have
so much data. Check this out. I'm gonna open the shadows and ba-bahm!. I can see all that's inside
of the shadows. And I'm gonna bring down the highlights a little bit and I can see a lot of
details there. Now it's still very washed out. It's still not like Ansel Adams-y. So what I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna take my black point which is here, and I'm gonna make sure that a good portion
like about two, 3% of the photo is completely black. How do you do that? Very simple and thank
you for asking. You take the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on the keyboard and move your black
slider. And you're gonna see here, what you see here. All the black points are points, which are
100% black. There is no more information. And you want some of that, you don't want too much. That
would be too much. That would be not enough. And somewhere along like this, I kind of like that.
Same thing with the white, you hold on the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on Windows and you
move to the right. Bam, bam, bam. And what you see here in white is dots which are a 100% white.
Now, if I were to print this photo, now this section here, where there is this white point,
would be literally just paper. We don't want that. So I'm gonna bring it, so the white,
I don't do like the blacks. I go at the threshold. I don't want any white. Okay. So now we have a
basic, basic, black and white. We started having some details, but it's not enough. It's not enough
because we don't have the tone range that we really want. The eyes of the viewer is kind
of confused where to look. And I don't have my black sky that Ansel Adams loved so much. So how
can I do this? Well, I'm gonna take a grading tool here. Double-click on Effect, lower the exposure
and click and drag. Okay. And maybe, and I do it one time with like a value of minus point 71.
Pretty big meaning that gradient I can make it very small. I can make it very big. I want it
to be very big. Now you see what's happening is now that it's gonna make El Capitan top a bit
darker. I don't necessarily want that. So you can go here to range mask off. You can go to Luminance
and you can move this to the right a little bit. And what that's gonna do, it's gonna create a
mask. Basically, let me show you if I move this up about here, like 61 to 100. And before, after
you, see that only influences a sky. Okay, but it's not black enough yet. So you know what? Let's
do another one. Hey, hey, now it's, and this one I'm gonna make it more on top and even stronger.
He, know he loved to really block out the, the top of the image to focus the attention inside of the
photo. I like that. And you know what? While I'm at it, I'm gonna do the same thing at the bottom
here. I'm gonna make a very strong one. I'm gonna click and drag and make, maybe not as strong.
I'm already liking this. I'm already liking this, but it, it needs some dodging meaning
we need to put, I want to make some parts of the mountain a little bit brighter just to
focus the attention of your, just like if I would be using that amazing spoon that he used to use.
So how do we do that? Well, I'm gonna take a little, a gradient, a radial filter here, and,
and same thing. I'm gonna double click on Effect, it's gonna put everything onto zero. I'm gonna go
over this waterfall. And I'm just gonna add on black and white. I go pretty strong. I go like
maybe at like point 61. And I'm gonna add a bit of clarity and check this out. It's making
this a little bit brighter Check it out. So, one thing it's important when you work with this tool
that show added points is on auto. On auto, what's really cool is that you see as long as you're in a
photo, you can see the point but as soon as you go out of the photo, it disappear, and you can
appreciate the photo without that circle. And I can go like this before and after. And I can see
the change. Now I want to do, I'm gonna duplicate this value here and I'm gonna put each here on El
Capitan. One thing I forgot to do, no I did it, is to make sure that the feather is 100% and that
it's inverted. If you don't have the feather on percent check this out, when it's gonna happen is
it's gonna look like this, which is really sort of not very natural but if it's very feathered,
then you don't see it. And invert, if you don't do invert, it's gonna what's gonna happen. Is that
you're, you're brightening everything but the circle. You don't want that. So I want to invert
that. So forgot to mention that, very important. Okay. Just a bit of exposure and a bit of clarity.
Usually I do another one that I put right here, 'cause I want people to look in the middle of
the photo like that. Okay? Then at this point, usually I add a bit of contrast to make it even
more dramatic and I take a little brush and I'm gonna finalize it with a brush, just like Ansel
used to do. So I have a brush. I make sure that my flow and density is like in the 80 or 90. I add a
bit of exposure. I add a bit of clarity and I'm just gonna bring more detail, some details here
and here. And the whole secret is not to do it too much. You do it just a little bit, so okay. If you
can hardly see it, check it out. Before, after you can hardly see it, but now I'm gonna create a new
brush with the same value and I'm gonna do another pass at it. So you go pass, by pass if I can say,
but not everywhere. Not everywhere. That's what dodging and burning is all about. It's local. It's
localized. It's partially done. It's not done everywhere. That's what makes the photo really
cool. Okay. And, voila. I'm kind of happy with the result. Of course there is a couple of sensor dust
I got on his photo. So I'm just gonna erase it really quick just to finish this off, using the
spot healing brush tool. And you can, when you go here you can even click here to visualize spot
and see if there's any spot that I missed. I don't know if that's a spot, let's just get rid
of that. You know, you never know. Okay, cool. And check this out. This an homage to Ansel Adam, the
tunnel view. Now I'm from Paris. So let's do a Paris photo. So this is the Pont Neuf.
So this is same thing, a long exposure, I did back at the Pont Neuf and I'm gonna do the same thing,
I'm gonna go to, well, this one is so dark that you know what I'm gonna open a shadows first.
Maybe do a bit of exposure, bring down a little bit of highlights. Then I'm gonna go to black and
white so I see what I'm doing. See, it's very washed out. It's ugly. It's ugly. It's ugly.
So, but first let's go to the black and white mixed and let's see what we can do.
Let's see here. The blue is the sky. Yeah, it doesn't do really much. Okay. I remember there
was a lot of yellow and orange because of the filter that I used. So okay. Not much I can do
here. Let's play around with the white balance. Yeah. Maybe let's make it a bit darker, but you
see not much, that happens often. That's why the local tools come so handy. So same thing. We take
the gradient tool. We lower the exposure. We don't do clarity. So you can double click on effect
puts everything down to zero. And oh, by the way, guys I forgot to tell you if you like this
I have a new book that comes out called "Photography Essential". It's got some of my
best photograph here for the last 15 years. I show you which camera I used, what my shutter speed,
what was my ISO, everything, all my secrets revealed in this book.
This book comes with a masterclass that you can watch for free and get the book for free
at the end, a the digital version. Just click the link under the video. You're gonna love it. All
right. So back to what we're doing. On this one, so I'm gonna just make the sky darker.
So remember I do two pass, one first pass that's pretty large. And another one that's pretty,
just for the top. And then I'm gonna make another one, a third one. So three gradients
all the time. Okay. Now it's starting to look like something. I'm gonna add some more contrast
but I think I want to do the magic of the circle. So I'm gonna take a circle here.
I'm gonna make this, a circle there. I'm gonna invert it, feather it and make sure
a bit of exposure and a bit of clarity is there. Maybe a little more on this one?
Voila. I love this place. This is, this is the spot I think I shot the most in the last 15 years.
I just love that bridge. It's just, ah, it's so beautiful. The leading line from the bridge,
you know, same thing. I duplicate this and I just, I just place it around. You see what, where am I,
what I'm looking for is I'm looking for, for places like, look at this building here. The gray
is kind of the same. So I'm gonna move this there and voila. Move this to there. And then I'm gonna,
so now what's what's gonna happen, let me just make it on Never. So you see what's happening now,
it goes from gray to a bit whiter down to gray again. It makes it more complex. It compliments
the light. Also. I want, you know, I'm gonna put these back on Auto. I want people to look inside
of my photo, so I'm gonna one big one here for the middle, 'cause I want people to look here
inside maybe here voila and then a little more, I like really contrasty black and white. Okay?
That's circled, now it's too much. And you can, the good thing is that it's a non-destructive
workflow. So I can just go here, and I'm like nah, you know what? Maybe let's just put this here.
Well, let's just put it here, but it's too strong. Let's just make it less strong than this one.
Okay, and then I'm ready for the sort of final touch. This is a photo I shot years
ago but it's one of my best in black and white. I'm gonna take a little brush. Double-click on
effect add a bit of texture and clarity, not texture sorry, clarity and a bit of exposure.
And I'm just gonna maybe make the Seine river a little bit brighter. How long was this exposure?
42 seconds at F22. Ooh. Okay. And maybe want to make this brighter a little bit.
But, and then you, you just do it pass by pass. Make sure you're flowing density is really low
because if you, if not, if you have fluid density a 100%, let me do it a bit more of what this new
brush is gonna be like very visible. You see, you don't want that? So to avoid that
you just have a flow and density pretty low and then, you know just paint a little bit here,
a little bit there. Not everywhere. That's the key, not everywhere. And then I can look back.
I'm like, oh, that circle is way too strong. So I'm gonna make it lower. You don't want people
to see like, okay. I'll give you the test to know if you went too far or not. What you do
is you do something else or the next time you see the photo like the next day, if you're like, oh,
did I dodge and burn this photo, did I do my circle magic? And you're like, and for second,
you're like not sure, you know, you did it right. If you're like, yeah, yeah, I can see it. Then,
you know, you've gone too far. So like, for example, here, I think I've gone too far.
I've gone too far. So I'm gonna lower this a little bit. I think I want to boost, I haven't
done my black and white point, that's probably what's missing. So a little bit of black and a
little bit of white. That adds a lot of contrast when you do that. Ooh, I've got to go far. Check
this out. White is strong, white strong. Maybe lower the contrast a little bit, yeah.
And this one is very noisy because it was Canon 5D, eh, it's still pretty good. So, you know,
when it comes to noise what I'm gonna do on this one is I'm gonna do like maybe like 20
of noise reduction, about 80 of, 80 of sharpening. I always liked my nose reduction in my
sharpening to be about a hundred. And then my masking around 50. Okay. And this, then this
one is pretty cool. Here we have some, I printed this photo. It actually prints really well. Really
well. It's one of my favorite black and white. So just a little homage to Ansel Adams. I mean, look
at the before and after in full screen. So that's the before. That's the after. Isn't that crazy?
All right guys, check out my book. You're gonna love this. You're gonna learn so much. It comes
with a free masterclass. It's under the video and I'll see you in the next video. Au revoir