Remove unwanted colours

What’s black and white and red all over? Your photo, if you follow these six steps!

01 Import and adjust

Drag phonebox_before.dng into the Lightroom Library Module, then hit Import. In the Develop Module, set the sliders in the Basic Panel like this: Temp 5500, Tint +10, Exposure +0.65, Contrast +15, Highlights -17, Shadows +33, Whites +9, Blacks -6, Clarity +80, Vibrance +30, Saturation +10.

02 Reduce saturation

In the Tone Curve Panel, plot a shallow S-shaped curve line to boost colour and contrast. Scroll down to the HSL/Colour/B&W Panel on the right side and click HSL, then click the Saturation tab. Leave the Red and Orange sliders at 0 and drag the other colours to -100%.

03 Load the brush

There are still a few orange tones lurking in the background building, so grab the Adjustment Brush from the toolbar at the top right. In the tool options that appear below the toolbar, double-click Effect to reset all the sliders, then set Saturation -100.

04 Remove the colour

Zoom in to the right side, then paint over the remaining colour to remove it. Hit O to toggle on a mask overlay to see where you’ve painted and use the ] and [ keys to change your brush size. If you go wrong, hold Alt and paint to erase parts of the mask.

05 Adjust the Luminance

To the brightness of the black-and-white area, go back to the HSL Panel and click Luminance. Set Yellow +39, Green +45, Blue -50, Purple -15 to lighten the grass and darken the sky. Next, grab the Graduated Filter tool from the toolbar. Double-click Effect to reset all the sliders.

06 Finishing touches

Drag a line down from the top and set Highlights -60, then drag a second from the T to the middle and set Clarity +26. Next go to the Effects Panel and drag the Post-Cropping Vignette Amount to -7. Finally, scroll down to the Detail Panel and set Amount 63, Luminance 13.