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A simple seven-step process to create dramatic black and white images in Lightroom

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For the longest time, I wasn’t a huge fan of digital black and white conversions. I stuck with film. Ilford FP4+ to be precise. It wasn’t a “purist” thing. I just felt that digital black and whites didn’t look as good as what I could get right out of the developing tank. Software, and specifically Adobe’s RAW processing engine, has come a long way since then, though.

Now, digital black and whites are quite commonplace. But how do you get the most out of your digital black and white conversions in Lightroom? Well, Pye Jirsa’s here with a seven-step process to help you get the best out of your shots for a nice dramatic result. He even gives you his raw file so you can follow along exactly.

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Colour grading black & white images in Lightroom is apparently a thing – Here’s how to do it

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This kind of struck me as a little bit weird at first. Mostly because it was something I’d never even considered. Toning, sure, but split toning the shadows and highlights separately on a black and white image that doesn’t actually have any native colour whatsoever? Yeah, kinda weird. But the more I watched this video from photographer Anthony Morganti, the more it intrigued me.

It’s an interesting idea, to add colour to a black & white image – and not in the colourising sense, but doing the same kind of shadow and highlight tints we might typically do to a colour image or video sequence. For stills, though, in Lightroom, it’s pretty easy to do, too.

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This is why black & white film is more expensive to have developed than colour

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Since I started shooting film again, I’ve only shot black and white film. Usually either Ilford FP4+, Kodak Tri-X or Kodak TMAX. But when I first started to enquire about having it developed, I was confronted with some pretty ridiculous prices. £12 they wanted, just to develop a £4 roll of film. That’s when I decided to develop for myself and got my cost down to £0.25 per roll.

But why is it so expensive to have black and white film developed in a store when colour film is arguably more expensive for us to develop at home? That’s what’s discussed in this video from Nicolas Llasera as he talks about some of the reasons behind this seemingly strange price discrepancy.

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Why you might want to use red or other coloured filters with your digital camera

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Coloured filters have been popular amongst black & white film photographers for decades. Typically, these are blue, red, orange, yellow and green. They help to increase contrast in skies and reduce the appearance of blemishes on skin, but are they still useful today with black & white digital?

That’s what photographer David Bergman explores in this video. He thinks that they are still valuable.

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How to effectively light black & white shots for a dramatic look

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Lighting scenes for shooting in black & white is a little different from working with colour. For a start, you don’t have to worry about colour. Brightness, direction and quality of light come into play a lot more. This can simultaneously make shooting for black & white both easier and more challenging at the same time.

In this video, Nerris from the A-Team gets together with cinematographer Justin Jones to walk us through the thought process of shooting for black and white. [Read More…]

How altering the look of your black and whites can change its mood and feeling

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Let’s talk about black & white photographs for a bit, shall we? It always has been and continues to be my favorite style. It’s classic and timeless and easy to match any decor. Personally, I think there’s a lot of misconception and a lot of misuse of this classic style.

Most people know that using color can evoke emotion and mood. Similarly, using light, contrast, clarity, shadows, tonality & edge treatment can completely change the look and feel of a black & white picture. Take a look at the top and next few pictures to see what I’m talking about.

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There’s a new black & white film available – Street Candy ATM400

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Oh boy, he’s finally here! Welcoming little Street Candy ATM400 to the world…! It mesures 35mm, weight 21 grams and mommy is fine ? Yes that’s right, there’s a newborn in the Black & White Film family.

Over the past few months I’ve been working on making this new film a reality and it’s finally available!

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How to develop your own black and white film from start to finish

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As popular as film has become, a lot of people still mention the cost of shooting film being quite high. And we’re not talking about the price of gear, because that’s dirt cheap these days. It’s the actual shooting process that can be expensive. As the rolls are made in fewer quantities, manufacturing is more expensive. Because labs are developing fewer films, their costs go up, too.

The biggest way to help knock down this cost, though, is to develop your own film. In this 36 minute video from photographer James Stevenson, we see the complete process from start to finish. James covers the kit, chemicals, accessories and entire the process from start to finish. James covers a whole lot of information, with some great tips. And best of all, you don’t even need a darkroom to do it.
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Three techniques to create dramatic black & white images

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I’m not the biggest fan of digital black and white conversions. They’re often just far too much work and effort to get the look that I want. There are a million different ways to make black & white conversions. Until you try a bunch of them, though, you usually don’t really know how quite they’re going to turn out. So, if I know I want black & white then I usually just shoot them on film.

But it is possible to make great black & whites digital conversions from colour shots, though. This video from Blake Rudis at f64 Academy talks us through his three-stage process to make his black & white images.

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