Bolder black and white
QIs it possible to create great black and white images in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw without using a plugin like Nik Silver Efex? Natalie Traylen
AWhile there are lots of excellent plugins that can help you improve your black and white processing, with a bit of careful thought it is quite possible to achieve excellent black and white images directly in Lightroom (or ACR). The most important thing is to have a good range of tones to play with when you go from the colour version into mono. This way, you can tweak the various colour channels via the Black & White Mix panel. Simply move each slider in turn and watch whether it makes any difference in terms of tonal contrast. Depending on the nature of the image, some colour channels will have a greater effect while others do absolutely nothing.
Once you’ve tweaked the Black & White Mix, then it’s simply a case of ensuring that the rest of the image has the right contrast and definition of detail, just as you would for a colour image. You can use Masks, too, of course, if you need to target specific areas with the frame. A black and white image is all about tonal separation, as there is no colour to make the distinctions in shape, so you may need to manipulate more than you would for a standard colour photograph. Of course, none of this means that black and white plugins aren’t of use and I know that many photographers really enjoy playing with them and get great results. I’ve used Silver Efex a lot in the past, but most of the time these days I only use Lightroom.