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100 Articles

LEARN THE ART OF BLACK & WHITE IN A WEEKEND

Since the earliest days of photography, producing stunning black-and-white images has required a combination of shooting and darkroom skills. For the best results, you need to master being able to visualise the world in black and white, and also know how to manipulate an image for maximum impact. Despite the many changes in how we shoot and manipulate images having moved on from film, many of the basic skills are still the same. The real difference is the time it takes; the shooting and developing process that once took days can now be mastered in a few hours. So we’ve come up with a set of tasks, from simple shooting to controlling contrast and tones, that will take between 30 minutes and a couple of hours. Follow these tasks, and…

LEARN THE ART OF BLACK & WHITE IN A WEEKEND

Shoot for black & white

“When looking for a subject, keep an eye out for tones and contrast, rather than colours” We are so used to seeing the world in colour that it can be difficult to get to grips with how everything will look when converted to black and white. So, if you are struggling to see in monochrome, try setting your camera’s picture mode to black and white, then simply get out and take some photos. Using this picture mode will give you the ability to instantly review your images in black and white to see if they work or not, and how the different colours convert into monochrome tones. For even quicker feedback you can also see the scene in black and white by switching to Live View mode. If you don’t…

Shoot for black & white

TRY IN-CAMERA FILTERS

Your camera’s built-in filter effects hark back to the settings used in traditional black-andwhite film photography, where coloured lens filters were used to change how colours appeared in an image. But the names and effects can be confusing to those new to black-and-white photography. Each filter lightens the colour specified by its name, and also darkens the opposite colours. So, for example, a red filter lightens any red areas, but darkens the blues. Here’s a quick guide to the filter options – what they do and when to use them... YELLOW Lightens yellow and slightly darkens blues. Use it for Lightening skin tones or adding contrast to white clouds against a blue sky. RED Lightens reds and darkens strong blues to almost black. Use it for Adding maximum contrast to…

TRY IN-CAMERA FILTERS

Take control of the conversion

The biggest problem with in-camera black and white is that contrasting colours can end up with a similar tonal value in your images. There are a number of ways to change the way that individual colours are converted into black and white, including in-camera filter effects (see page 11), but the best way to learn is by using the black-andwhite adjustment tools in either Elements, Photoshop CS or CC. These adjustment tools enable you to use sliders to control how individual colours are converted into black-and-white tones. Darkening or lightening the tones of these colours can transform your final result compared to a more basic conversion. To use these tools you’ll need to use a colour original, so you should either turn off the black-andwhite picture mode on your camera,…

Take control of the conversion

USE PRESETS IN PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Although the preset options are designed for specific subjects, such as portraits and landscapes, it’s often worth trying them on any type of image before you start adjusting the colour sliders, as they will give a good starting point for your conversion. PORTRAIT This preset converts the image so that the reds are slightly darker than the greens and blues. SCENIC LANDSCAPE With this preset the conversion sliders are set so that the blues are darker and reds are lighter. CUSTOM SETTINGS While the preset values give a good starting point for your conversions, you can also drag the individual sliders to fine-tune the results for your subject. For our flower shot, we wanted to darken the petals a bit, so we dragged the Red slider left until the majority…

USE PRESETS IN PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Master Levels and Curves

While the individual colour adjustments will give you control over the final tones of your black-and-white photos, they aren’t the only way that you can control them in your final image. Once you have converted your images, you can also use either Levels or Curves adjustment layers to fine-tune the contrast and tones in your black-and-white shots. Curves adjustment layers aren’t available in Elements, so you’ll have to use Levels. Using Curves This adjustment enables you to make more subtle changes to your images than with Levels, because you can lighten or darken specific parts of the histogram, rather than the three fixed points available in Levels. You can click any point along the diagonal line in the adjustment window, and drag it down to darken these tones, or up…

Master Levels and Curves

USING THE LEVELS SLIDERS

HIGHLIGHTS These are controlled by the white triangle on the right-hand side of the histogram. The most common adjustment is to drag this to the left until it just meets the end of the graph. Drag it further left and you will lose detail in the highlights. SHADOWS These are controlled by the black triangle on the left-hand side of the histogram. Dragging this to the right darkens the shadows, but it’s a good idea to drag it slightly inside the end of the histogram to make your images look punchier. MIDTONES Along with the highlights and shadows controls, Levels also enables you to darken or lighten the midtones using the grey triangle in the middle of the histogram. To darken the midtones, drag to the right. Drag to the…

USING THE LEVELS SLIDERS

Discover how to dodge and burn

The Dodge and Burn tools refer to two traditional darkroom printing techniques, in which areas of a photo print were given more exposure to darken the areas (burning), or less exposure to lighten the areas (dodging). The effect is similar to using selective Levels or Curves adjustments, but you simply paint the effect onto your image rather than use layer masks. It’s good practice to create a duplicate of your Background layer, and do your dodging and burning on this new layer. This enables you to easily assess any adjustments you’ve made by switching between the layers, and also get back to your original image if your first attempts go wrong. The most common mistake when using these tools is applying too much of the effect in one adjustment, so…

Discover how to dodge and burn

Toning techniques

Adding a little colour to black-and-white images goes back to the days of the traditional darkroom. It was often used to make chemical prints more resistant to fading, but also as a way of making black-and-white images appear more striking. In the digital darkroom, the decision whether to tone your images is purely a question of taste. Add a single colour There are many ways to add a single tone, or to colour your black-and-white images, in Photoshop. One of the simplest ways is to create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Tick the Colorize box and then adjust the Hue slider to select the colour of the tone. Move the Saturation slider to change the colour’s intensity.…

Toning techniques

Classic ideas to try

You can learn a lot about the skills needed for getting great black-and-white images in Photoshop, but you can’t beat getting out and shooting images with a specific style or treatment in mind. For this reason, we’ve chosen three styles that will test both your shooting and conversion skills to help you take your black-and-white photography to the next level. Once you have chosen a style or subject to shoot, don’t think you don’t need to pay attention to the exposure and colour, just because you are going to adjust the image later on. While it’s possible to lighten or darken areas, you need to start with as much tonal information as possible. So if you are shooting a landscape, you may need to use an ND grad to keep…

Classic ideas to try

THE BEAUTY OF Black & White

When you think about it, black-andwhite photography is a curious thing. People don’t watch black-and-white TV sets any more, and apart from the occasional contemporary monochrome film, colour rules in the cinema. So why does blackand- white still work so well in photographs? Many of the great photographers – Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus to name just a few – worked with black and white (and even if some dabbled in colour, it’s their black-and-white photos we remember most fondly). In fact, most of the finest photographs ever taken are in monochrome. So when we remove colour in our own photos, it creates a visual connection to a long history of inspirational photography. Black and white not only gives images a timeless, classic feel; it can also lend elegance…

THE BEAUTY OF Black & White

Black and white basics

Many photographers prefer black and white because the absence of colour simplifies the scene, drawing attention to the essentials of shape, composition and light. So when shooting for black and white, it helps if we train our eyes to dismiss colour and look for variation in light and tone instead. Seeing the world in black and white means looking at the play of light and shade across a scene: how people and objects are illuminated, whether the way they are lit contrasts with their surroundings and makes them stand out, or whether they blend in instead. Shades of grey Every colour is transformed into a shade of grey, so think about how those colours will contrast or blend in with one another. For example, in colour a single lemon might…

Black and white basics

SET UP YOUR CAMERA FOR BLACK AND WHITE

1 Shoot in raw Raw files preserve all colour information within the digital negative, so nothing is set in stone. You’ll be able to fine-tune the monochrome conversion later, or keep the colour if you prefer. Adjusting white balance after the shoot and fine-tuning exposure is also much easier with raw files. 2 Switch to Monochrome Many digital cameras have a Monochrome setting; it’s under Picture Control for Nikon SLRs, and Picture Styles for Canons. It gives you a monochrome LCD preview, while all the colour data is preserved in the raw file. It’s good for checking the effects of mono on a shoot, and it works with Live View. 3 Fine-tune the settings Within the Monochrome setting, there are several options that let you fine-tune the conversion process. Alongside…

SET UP YOUR CAMERA FOR BLACK AND WHITE

Make the most of natural light

You don’t necessarily need lots of expensive studio lights to take high-quality portraits. Natural light can be just as effective – and it’s free too. The only extra gear you might need is a reflector to bounce light into shadows, but even then, a piece of white card works just as well. However, shooting portraits in natural light isn’t simply a case of walking outside and taking a shot. It takes skill and experience to recognise the subtleties and differences in the sun’s rays, and how they translate into good and bad light for portraits. Fortunately, our subject is moveable, so there’s no need to wait patiently for the perfect illumination like a landscape photographer has to. In any place at any time of day there are likely to be…

Make the most of natural light

SHOOT PORTRAITS WITH WINDOW LIGHT

SIDE-LIGHTING Position your subject side-on to a window, and his face will be bathed in soft, directional light that falls gently away into shadow. North-facing windows are ideal. Use aperture priority, choose a wide aperture such as f/4 and set the ISO to around 400. Ask the subject to angle his face towards the window. If you want to lift the shadows, hold up a reflector or white card to bounce the light back. BACKLIGHTING You can get many different looks from a window light. Try placing the subject in front of the window so they’re lit from behind. Use a reflector to bounce some light back at the face. Expose for the face and the background outside will be over-exposed, creating a simple high-key effect. Alternatively, ask them to…

SHOOT PORTRAITS WITH WINDOW LIGHT

EXPOSE FOR DIFFERENT SKIN TONES

1 Dark brown skin When your camera’s meter is presented with a frame dominated by dark tones, it will try to record it as midtone grey. Consequently, dark skin can turn out overexposed. So make use of your camera’s exposure compensation feature to dial in one or one and a half stops of under-exposure. 2 Light brown skin A camera’s meter exposes for a scene as if the average of all the tones is neutral grey. So imagine a person’s skin tone as a shade of grey, and decide whether it’s lighter or darker than neutral. Light brown skin is generally close in tone to neutral grey, so no exposure compensation is necessary. 3 Pale brown skin Just as if you’re taking a picture outside in snow, with pale skin,…

EXPOSE FOR DIFFERENT SKIN TONES

Studio techniques to try at home

Getting a home studio kit will set you back a modest outlay, but it’s a worthwhile investment if you want to take your portraits to the next level. The difference off-camera flash can make to the quality of your portraits is huge. By positioning the flash heads and controlling the light they emit, you can create polished, professional portraits from the comfort of your own living room. Starter kits come with two lights and a few different fittings that attach to the front. Most kits have softboxes or umbrellas, both of which enable you to soften and diffuse the light from the bare flash bulb in much the same way as clouds soften sunlight. The spread of light from an umbrella will usually be wider than with a softbox, so…

Studio techniques to try at home

CREATE DIFFERENT LOOKS BY REPOSITIONING THE LIGHTS

KEY AND FILL LIGHTING Set your key light at an angle of around 45 degrees to the subject for depth with highlights and shadows across the face. The second light’s job is to fill in the shadows and it needs to come from the same angle as the camera. If there’s a wall behind, attach a standard reflector and bounce the fill light off the wall. HIGH-KEY LIGHTING High-key lighting creates a clean look with a correctly exposed subject and over-exposed background. Your backdrop should be light-toned. Fit the key light with an umbrella or softbox and angle it onto the subject at half power, then turn the second light on the background. It needs to be full power to over-expose the background. LOW-KEY LIGHTING Low-key lighting creates images that…

CREATE DIFFERENT LOOKS BY REPOSITIONING THE LIGHTS

Get creative with black and white

One of the great things about black-and-white photography is that it frees you from convention. The absence of colour almost encourages you to break the rules, which could be why there are so many daring monochrome portraits out there. When looking for creative ideas for your black-and-white portraits, it can help to think about the four factors that monochrome accentuates: form, texture, pattern and shape. Form simply refers to the depth of an object. Directional light is ideal for this: it’s what makes subjects look three-dimensional. There are lots of ways to emphasise form. Try lighting a face from one side and the background from the other side to balance the play of light and shade. Emphasise textures Rendering a scene in grey gives it more of an illustrative quality,…

Get creative with black and white

Go further in software

Today’s tools for creating monochrome images offer far more control than their traditional darkroom predecessors. Within seconds you can create silky grey tones that rival the best black-and-white film. There are three main stages for a successful conversion. First, before we remove colour it’s best to make quick adjustments to exposure and detail, just as you would with a colour image. We may call it ‘black and white’, but technically, we don’t really want any of the tones in our image to be pure black or pure white, as this means they’ll be lacking in detail. What we actually want is a rich variety of grey tones, with punchy highlights and depth to the shadows. Remove the colour If you’re using Photoshop, there are several different methods. The best tools,…

Go further in software

Recreate film stocks in Lightroom

1 Change the colours urs Here we’ll emulate the look of one of the great film stocks for studio portraiture – Ilford fp4 Plus 125. It created silky bright skin tones, which can also be achieved in Lightroom. Go to the HSL panel, click B&W, then increase the Red and Orange sliders until the skin looks brighter. 2 Boost the contrast Use Lightroom’s Tone Curve to adjust contrast. The diagonal line lets you control the brightness of the tonal range, from shadows on the left to highlights on the right. Drag the top of the line upwards, and the lower part downwards to make an S-shape. The more pronounced the S, the greater the contrast. 3 Add fine grain Film grain gives old black-and-white images a texture that’s hard to…

Recreate film stocks in Lightroom

GET SUPERB SUMMER BLACK & WHITE

Shooting great black-and-white images isn’t just about converting your images in Photoshop or Elements, it starts before you press the shutter release. Choosing the right subjects and lighting conditions is the first step, and bright sunny days can be perfect for mono shots. Next, it’s essential to set up your camera correctly for the best results and get a better idea of how the final image will look before you shoot. Summer is an ideal time for getting out and shooting black and white. However, we can’t promise that you can do everything to get stunning mono images in-camera, so we’ll look at some basic software techniques that you can use to improve your shots. Follow our advice, given over the 12 pages of this feature, and you’ll get better…

GET SUPERB SUMMER BLACK & WHITE

Your first steps

Shooting black and white when it’s bright and sunny may seem counterintuitive, but there are plenty of reasons it’s a great option. Bright sunshine creates strong shadows, which produce really striking black-and-white images. Similarly, fluffy white clouds against a blue sky can look stunning in mono. However, the high-contrast light produced by intense, direct sunshine does mean that you have to pay attention to your exposure. In general, you should tryto keep detail in the highlights, in the same way that you would when shooting colour images. Shades of grey One of the trickiest aspects of shooting in black and white is understanding how the colours in the subject will translate into different shades of grey in your final image. Selecting the monochrome Picture Style or Picture Control will give…

Your first steps

HOW TO... SHOOT IN JPEG AND RAW

Just like any Picture Style, the monochrome effect will only be permanently applied to JPEG images, not raw files. But if you open a raw file in your camera manufacturer’s own raw conversion software, the image will appear in black and white, as the software will recognise that you selected it in-camera. Using this software, you will then have the option of whether or not to apply the monochrome effect. Mono conversion If you open the raw file in different raw processing software such as Lightroom, Photoshop or Elements, the software doesn't recognise the Picture Style information. This means the image will appear in colour and you’ll have to convert it manually. In the raw interface in Elements there aren’t any black-and-white conversion options, so open the image into the…

HOW TO... SHOOT IN JPEG AND RAW

STEP BY STEP: USE PICTURE STYLES

1 Set the picture style You can set the monochrome Picture Style or Picture Control in the camera settings menu of most cameras. For your first steps in black and white, leave it on the default settings, without any filters or toning applied to the image. 2 Switch to Live View Using Live View or an electronic viewfinder, instead of the optical viewfinder, will enable you to preview the scene in black and white. This makes it much easier to get a feel for how the tones and colours in the scene will translate into monochrome. 3 Take a test shot Even though Live View can give you a good idea of how the image will look, you will find that taking a test shot and reviewing it on the…

STEP BY STEP: USE PICTURE STYLES

What works black and white

The key to successful black-and-white images is a combination of finding the right subjects, the right lighting and also some simple camera techniques. Let’s start with how to spot subjects and scenes that will work well in mono. The first step is recognising the best lighting conditions. One of the essential elements in adding impact to your images is the contrast between light and shade. Bright sunlight is perfect for creating dark shadows, which create strong lines and graphic elements for your mono shots. To make the most of the shadows, try shooting with the sun just behind the subject so that the shadows are in the foreground of your image. You don’t have to stop there, though, as you can also use these shadows as a subject in themselves.…

What works black and white

Add drama to your shots in-camera

Back in the days of film, you could control the way that different colours were translated into black and white by using coloured filters in front of the lens. But these traditional filters don’t work with digital cameras. Instead, you can alter the contrast of your black-and-white images by using the filter effects that are available in your camera’s monochrome Picture Style/Picture Controls menu. Filter effects These filter effects give the same results as the traditional filters, so they lighten areas that are the same colour as the ‘filter’ and darken areas of the opposite colour. For example, using a red filter effect will produce a black-and-white image where the blue areas are dark, and yellow and red areas much lighter than a normal black and white image. You’ll find…

Add drama to your shots in-camera

USE ‘REAL’ FILTERS FOR BLACK AND WHITE

There are two main types of physical filter that you should still use to get the best results. The first is a polariser, which can help you to add contrast to skies and cut out reflections in non-metallic objects such as water. These two effects will help you to get much more punchy, high-contrast mono images in-camera. The other time-saver for shooting landscapes is a neutral density grad filter. This filter, which is half dark and half clear, is perfect for reducing the contrast between the sky and the foreground. ND GRAD FILTER Just like shooting colour images, a graduated neutral density filter will allow you to avoid over-exposing the sky, or under-exposing the foreground, in your black-and-white shots. This can save you loads of time processing and editing your…

USE ‘REAL’ FILTERS FOR BLACK AND WHITE

The inky black skies and high-contrast look of monochrome infrared is a surefire way to give your images impact, but you need the right conditions, and a special filter to get the best results in-camera. An infrared filter blocks out most of the visible light from entering the lens, but allows infrared light through, so it’s almost impossible to see through the camera to focus, and your camera’s meter will struggle to measure the infrared ‘light’ accurately. This means you’ll need to use a tripod and compose your shot before you fit the filter to the lens. You should then set the focus and exposure manually. Using an infrared filter will produce some odd-looking results if you shoot in colour. The image will be completely red, with no other colours,…

USE CONVERTED CAMERAS

While you can shoot infrared with your normal camera and a filter, you’ll need to use a tripod to deal with the very long exposures and blacking out of the viewfinder when you put the filter in place on the lens. There are several companies that will convert DSLRs so that they can capture infrared images without these drawbacks. This involves removing the low-pass filter that’s normally fixed in front of the sensor, and replacing this with an infrared filter. Because you don’t need to use a filter over the lens, you can operate the camera more easily. The camera will no longer be able to shoot normal images though. Conversion costs vary according to the camera and the size of the sensor, but it starts at about £250 for…

USE CONVERTED CAMERAS

STEP BY STEP: INFRARED FILTERS

How to frame your shot, fit the filter and adjust your settings to get the perfect infrared image 1 Frame your shot With the infrared filter over the lens it is extremely difficult to see through the viewfinder. This means that you need to put your camera on a tripod and then frame your shot before fitting the filter in place. 2 Fit the filter Once you’ve fixed the camera in position, you can fit the infrared filter. If you are using one of the square filter systems, slot the filter in place without moving the camera. For a screw-in filter, you need to attach the filter carefully. 3 Camera settings Set the camera to manual focus, and also manual exposure mode. With the ISO set to 200, set an…

STEP BY STEP: INFRARED FILTERS

Software techniques

Although you can save time and effort when converting your images by using the right shooting techniques, you’ll still need to use some adjustments to get the most from your black-and-white images. The key skills that will transform the impact of your shots are selectively darkening and lightening areas of the image. In the traditional darkroom these are known as dodging and burning, and Photoshop and Elements have Dodge and Burn tools to replicate these techniques. The Dodge tool allows you to lighten tones, while the Burn tool darkens them. You can choose whether it affects the shadows, midtones or highlights, giving you the option of increasing or decreasing the contrast in these areas. To increase the contrast, you can use the Dodge tool to lighten the highlights and the…

Software techniques

INCREASE OR REDUCE CONTRAST

USE THE DODGE TOOL ON THE HIGHLIGHTS The Dodge tool will lighten the tones. To increase the contrast, you need to set the Range to Highlights. However, when using this control you need to take great care to avoid losing any of the highlight detail. USE THE DODGE TOOL ON THE SHADOWS If you want to use the Dodge tool to reduce contrast, you need to set the Range to Shadows. It’s essential that you watch out for increased noise if you try to lighten the shadows a great deal. USE THE BURN TOOL ON THE SHADOWS You need to set the Range of Burn tool to Shadows, and then very carefully use the brush to increase the contrast. You do this by darkening the shadows in the required areas…

INCREASE OR REDUCE CONTRAST

Adobe Camera Raw has featured an Adjustment Brush since 2012, which you can use to selectively lighten or darken areas of a raw image, rather than using the Dodge and Burn tools in the main Photoshop interface. However, these brushes aren’t available in Elements. In the Adjustment Brush dialog, you can alter the effect of the brush to achieve different effects. The simplest way is to use the Exposure slider to either lighten or darken areas of the image. You can also control the contrast by using the Highlights and Shadows sliders. It’s best to slowly build up these adjustments, so set the Feather control to a large amount such as 60, and the Flow and Density to a lower amount such as 20. INCREASE THE CONTRAST Similar to using…

SHOOT BLACK & WHITE FINE-ART NUDES

The nude form has been a popular subject since the very beginnings of photography, and even before the invention of the camera the nude played a significant role in all the visual arts. There’s nothing ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ about this: it’s a celebration of the human form; a study of the body’s landscape in all its beauty. Fine-art (or art-nude) photography is, however, one of the more challenging and intimidating genres for the amateur to explore. It can be hard to find willing subjects and a place to shoot. Simply not knowing where to start can put most people off, and so in this feature we’ll show you everything you need to know to get started in artnude photography, and achieve stunning results with the minimum of fuss. Discover…

SHOOT BLACK & WHITE FINE-ART NUDES

Getting started

Finding a willing model to pose for your art-nude photography is perhaps one of the biggest challenges you’ll have. If you’re lucky you’ll have a partner who’s willing to assume the role, but if not, the best place to find local models is online, at sites like www.modelmayhem.com, www.onemodelplace.com and www.purestorm.com. These sites are a meeting point for models and photographers. You’ll usually be able to find a local model who’s willing to work in exchange for prints or a disc of the images. If you do decide to go down this route, it’s good to be absolutely clear on what’s expected from both parties, especially if there’s no financial exchange. Experienced models will most likely charge for their time, but if you want to boost your portfolio, working with…

Getting started

MODEL LIGHTING GUIDE

BASIC This basic setup is a good start for a fine-art nude shoot. Place two studio lights at a 45-degree angle to the model, at a distance of about four to six feet. Set one light as the main light by positioning it a little higher (about six feet high) and increase the intensity of the flash using the dial. Locate the other light a little lower than the main light, and reduce the intensity of the flash. If you only have one studio light a simple reflector makes a good alternative to the second light. HIGH KEY To create a soft, even light, position one light with a softbox attached in front of the model on the floor pointing upwards. Position a second softbox above the first – at…

MODEL LIGHTING GUIDE

If you’re renting a studio and paying a model by the hour, you don’t want to waste time working out what to do next; apart from stifling the creative process, it will make you look unprofessional. So have a plan – it doesn’t matter if you deviate from it, but have it in place before you start. Devise a workflow that flows; for example, if you plan to do three setups against a black background and two against a white, you only need to change the background once. There’s nothing worse than having to spend hours in the digital darkroom removing unwanted marks. Perhaps the worst offenders are the marks imprinted on skin from elasticated underwear. These can take a while to disappear, so it’s best if your model arrives…

Mono or colour?

1 PATTERNS Monochrome is perfect for emphasising patterns. The patterns of dappled light through out-of-focus trees looks fantastic when given the black-and-white treatment 2 COLOUR VERSION Although we’re used to seeing the world in colour, it can sometimes be an unnecessary distraction. Monochrome is a great simplifier, so if a scene is dominated by one colour, or if the background is distractingly colourful, consider converting it to mono. 3 SHADES OF GREY It sounds obvious, but a black-and-white image is made up of shades of grey, so try to view the world in this way – brown hair, for example, is a dark grey tone. Think about the brightness of parts of a scene and forget the colour. If you’re finding this difficult, try setting the monochrome picture style, found…

Mono or colour?

Make punchy mono portraits

There are lots of ways to convert your images to monochrome, but the most effective offer more than just a one-click solution. The best methods give us tonal control over colours. This might sound strange. After all, we’re getting rid of the colour aren’t we? But we can still use the colour information to fine-tune the black-and-white conversion. With our image here, for example, we can lift the orange colours to lighten the skin and drop the greens slightly to darken the out-of-focus trees. This allows us to increase the contrast between the subject and the background, which helps to make her stand out. Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin and Lightroom’s Develop Module both offer tools within the powerful HSL/Grayscale panel that make it easy to control colour brightness when converting…

Make punchy mono portraits

Take to the streets

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO If there’s one genre that seems made for the black-and-white treatment, it’s street photography. Black and white helps to emphasise character, so it’s the perfect medium to present characters from the streets. It’s also a good simplifier. The absence of colour de-emphasises the distracting clutter of the street, and allows the viewer to concentrate on the most essential elements of the image. Interest in street photography is sky high at the moment. Exhibitions are popping up everywhere, and there’s a new generation of cameras designed with discretion and speed in mind. It’s an intoxicating and rewarding genre of photography. And it’s an opportunity to create atmospheric portraits that say something not just about a person, but also about the time and place. Before you take…

Take to the streets

The art of posed street portraits

The posed approach to street portraits can seem a little daunting to begin with, but a simple “Excuse me, can I take your picture,” usually does the trick. Some people might ignore you, others politely decline, some will ask why you want to do it, while most will be in bemused agreement. Of the 30 or so people we asked during our morning shoot in Bristol, well over half were willing. In some cases, interesting characters will be used to being asked for their picture. The tattooed man here may look a bit intimidating, but when we asked, he simply gave a wry smile and a nod, almost like a celebrity who gets this kind of thing all the time. If you’re feeling a little nervous about asking people, buskers…

The art of posed street portraits

Shoot urban abstract angles

B y isolating and removing the context of your subject you can create an intense abstract result. When you start to look at the form and structure of a building, it gets more interesting the closer you come in. Modern architecture is particularly effective for this type of photo shoot, and it helps to look for repetitive patterns in the building. On our photo shoot we used a wide-angle 16-35mm lens. This enabled us to get in close and capture a creative view. The wide angle, however, did cause a problem with lens distortion, because the straight lines at the edges of the frame bend slightly. We can easily fix this flaw at the editing stage, however, using the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop. Although we opted for a wide-angle…

Shoot urban abstract angles

Create stunning black and white HDR images

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO Those photographers who dislike high dynamic range (HDR) imaging complain of gaudy colours, haloed edges and overcooked tones. But by using HDR for black-and-white photography, you don’t need to worry about unnatural colours, so you can concentrate on processing your images to take advantage of the increased dynamic range. HDR is a very useful tool for the monochrome photographer. The ability to tease out detail, enhance texture and control the play of light and shade are all things that can lead to more punchy black-and-white images. If you’re new to HDR and wondering how it works, it’s very easy. You simply take several frames of the same scene while varying exposure to record extra detail in the highlights and shadows. It’s particularly useful for high-contrast…

Create stunning black and white HDR images

Shoot for an HDR

1 Use a tripod HDR images require two or more frames in alignment with one another, so use a tripod. As well as helping to keep the camera position consistent between exposures, a tripod is also essential if a longer shutter speed is required, which is often the case when shooting the over-exposed frames in your HDR sequence. 2 Bracket the exposures The easiest way to set your camera up to record a range of frames at different exposures is to use bracketing. On some SLRs (including the Nikon D800 pictured here), the bracketing button is found on the top left dial, allowing you to set up to nine bracketed exposures, each one stop apart. On others (including most Canons) you can set up bracketing through the menus. Your SLR…

Shoot for an HDR

Shoot stunning still life subjects

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO With its emphasis on form, black and white is the perfect medium for still life photography. Removing colour focuses attention on composition and shape. Which is ideal for still life, where every decision on composition is within your creative control, from the positioning and angle of the subject, to where the shadows fall, and the look of the background. In essence, a still life photograph can be of any inanimate object or grouping of objects. Some of the greatest examples of the genre are successful because they transform seemingly mundane objects into something surprising beautiful. In the 1930s photographer Edward Weston turned a simple green pepper into a study of shape and form with a series of iconic still life images. We’ve taken inspiration from…

Shoot stunning still life subjects

Shoot dramatic light and shade

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO When you remove the colour from a scene, the structure and form of the subject becomes intensified. You can use this to your advantage when shooting shadows. In the middle of the day when the sun is high, it can be tricky to capture a correctly exposed scene. The highlights are bright and the shadows are dark, and often you can’t see any detail in them. Usually, this would be a problem, but in this instance this is what we’re after. We’re looking to create a surreal image from harsh light contrasting against dark areas. We found a stairwell on the side of an industrial building for our photo shoot. It helps if the stairs have gaps because this creates the interesting shadows. In most…

Shoot dramatic light and shade

Backlight for beautiful results

Backlighting looks extremely effective when shot in the monochrome medium. By lighting your subject from behind, you capture a silhouetted object with a halo outline. Once you remove the colour from the image, the silhouette and halo effect is enhanced even further. For this tutorial we used an external flashgun and picked a wild flower from a hedge. We also had a reflector to hand to bounce some light back into the top part of the subject. You may also need to do this depending on the size of your subject. We also placed our flashgun onto a pile of books to bring the light closer to the flower. There are many different techniques you can use when backlighting a subject. In our example we’ve kept it simple, but if…

Backlight for beautiful results

Shoot and edit a monochrome baby compilation

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO Newborn babies are photographed by parents, relatives and family friends with a frequency usually reserved for A-list celebrities. But if you want your baby photos to look more refined than the average smartphone snap, a little more care and attention is required. Over the next few pages we’ll show you how to approach a baby shoot and come away with a beautiful set of images. We’ll then go on to explain how to present them in an eye-catching compilation. Knowing how to make a compilation – either for printing or for the web – is a hugely useful skill. Successful compilations are all about balance. For colour images, it’s a case of pairing colours that don’t clash, whereas in black and white, a balance of…

Shoot and edit a monochrome baby compilation

Set up a baby photo shoot

1 Blankets and backdrops Blankets are very useful for newborn baby photos. You can either get the baby to lie on them, or instead prop them up for a makeshift background. Use simple light or dark blankets and avoid patterns. Furry textures work very well – babies like the feel of them on their skin, and textures become more important when converting to mono. 2 Window light To light our portraits here, we used simple window light, coming from a large bay door to the right. Where possible, get the faces turned towards the window light. When shooting the baby on its back, position it so that the window light is coming from an angle above the head. Light coming from above is more natural, even if the subject is…

Set up a baby photo shoot

Add drama to skies with a polariser

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO Polarising filters are normally thought of as a colour-boosting or glare-reducing aid. Attach a polariser to your lens and skies can look more intensely blue, haziness is reduced, and reflective surfaces display greater detail. But it’s not just colour photography where polarisers show their worth; the same intensified colour and increase in contrast can benefit your black-and-white photography too. Polarisers work by restricting certain types of light from entering the lens, such as the kind you see in a clear blue sky. The polariser absorbs these light waves, making blue skies darker and more saturated, and increasing the contrast with white clouds. The same is true with reflections. When sunlight bounces off a surface, the light waves vibrate in a certain way. The polariser is…

Add drama to skies with a polariser

Create and print a fine-art portrait

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO For this tutorial we’re going to take you through the entire process of creating a fine-art monochrome portrait, from the shoot to producing a high-quality print. We’ll be printing our image on fine-art matte paper, using the Canon PIXMA PRO-10, which is an A3+ photo printer. While we’ll be editing the image in Elements, the shoot and printing stages make use of the free software that comes with your Canon SLR and printer. If you have a different make of camera or printer you can still follow this tutorial, but you’ll need to refer to your camera and printer’s manual to obtain the correct settings. For our model shoot we’re going to use a simple home setup and a studio flash light. If you don’t…

Create and print a fine-art portrait

Set up a pro home studio

1 Model and styling We’re going to shoot a vintage style sepia-toned monochrome portrait, so we’ve accessorised our model with vintage clothes, props and styled their hair and make up; you could go for a similar style, or a Hollywood starlet look (in which case straight mono will look better than sepia), or stick with a straightforward portrait. We’re using a plain white wall for our backdrop. 2 EOS Utility We’re using Canon’s EOS Utility to shoot tethered to a computer. Set your camera up on a tripod and connect the camera and computer using a USB cable. Set your camera to manual mode, then open EOS Utility (or equivalent for your camera) and select the Camera Settings/Remote Shooting option. You can now control your camera settings via the shooting…

Set up a pro home studio

CALIBRATE YOUR SCREEN AND PRINTER

To ensure that the colours produced by your printer match the colours you see on your screen you need to calibrate both devices. However, you need to bear in mind that your printer and display use different colour models. A computer screen displays colours using the RGB model while a printer produces colours using the CMYK process, so even if your devices are properly calibrated, you’ll always need to produce a couple of test prints. To calibrate your screen you can use Canon’s free Color Management tool, which comes on the CD with your printer. You’ll also need an instrument to read the colours produced by your printer. There are several on the market, and popular and affordable options include ColorMunki (www.colormunki.com) and the Spyder range from Datacolor (http://spyder.datacolor.com).…

CALIBRATE YOUR SCREEN AND PRINTER

Make a split toned twilight cityscape

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/ tybwp17 Cityscapes make fantastic photographic subjects, and they’re especially captivating at night, when buildings, bridges and other structures are illuminated, bringing the scene to life. The best time to shoot is during twilight, after the sun has set but before dark, because there’s still enough ambient light to capture detail but you’ll also have the added interest of the street lights and light trails. And while the inky blue sky and colourful lights make for a great colour image, black and white can work just as well, giving your city scene a moody mono feel. For our shoot we photographed Bristol’s iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge, which spans the spectacular Avon Gorge and is lit up at night to create a dramatic and…

Make a split toned twilight cityscape

Shoot the city lights show

1 Pick a location Choose a city location with a landmark that will make an interesting focal point. We used the Clifton Suspension Bridge as the centrepiece of our shot – not only is the bridge itself lit up, there are plenty of twinkling lights from nearby buildings and street lamps, and we can also capture light trails from the traffic and the reflection in the river. If you’re photographing a body of water that’s tidal, check the tide times – you want to shoot at high tide to capture a good reflection. 2 Set a narrow aperture Set your camera to manual to give you full control over the exposure. Set a narrow aperture of f/16. This will ensure front-to-back sharpness, and will also stop down the light to…

Shoot the city lights show

Shoot moody mono seascapes

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO When you’re photographing the sea or other bodies of water, you can get wonderful results by using a slow shutter speed to blur the movement of the water for a soft, dreamy effect. Team this with streaks of blurred cloud in a moody, overcast sky, convert to mono – and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece! We’ll show you how to create just such an effect. For our shoot we headed to Paignton in Devon to photograph the town’s Victorian pier. To blur the water we used a neutral density (ND) filter to stop down the light, because although we were shooting at the end of the day we wanted to use a shutter speed of between 30 seconds and two minutes. We’ll show you how…

Shoot moody mono seascapes

Make a slow shutter speed street scene

GET THE FILES HERE: http://bit.ly/PMZ39_MONO WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/ tybwp17 The black-and-white medium lends itself well to urban and ‘street’ photography. When you strip the colour from a scene you’re left with an image in which shapes, textures and the contrast between light and shade become the focus of the viewer’s attention, and with the right subject matter you can produce striking images. This scene, which contains a wealth of interesting outlines and detail, but not much in the way of colour, is a good example. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to shoot and edit a monochrome street scene. There’s a twist, however: we’re using a slow shutter speed to turn passersby into ghostly blurs while the subject remains still. The result is that she appears to be frozen…

Make a slow shutter speed street scene

Setting the street scene

1 Find the right spot Choose a location where there are lots of people walking past. We set up our shoot in the centre of Bath, using one of the entrances to the city’s famous Roman Baths as the backdrop; old buildings, with their intricate details and textured surfaces, convert particularly well to mono. 2 Use a tripod and compose You’ll be using a slow shutter speed so you’ll need to use a tripod to support your camera. Set your tripod up so you’re positioned out of the way of the flow of people. It helps to use a versatile lens, such as a 24-70mm, so that you can try out different compositions. 3 Set the scene You’ll need to get your model to stand very still in order for…

Setting the street scene

ADD SPOT COLOUR

1. CONVERT TO MONO Make any necessary adjustments in ACR, but don’t desaturate the image. Then, in Elements, duplicate the Background layer and go to Enhance>Convert to Black and White to create the desired mono effect. 2. REVEAL SOME COLOUR Next, add a layer mask to the mono layer, and select the Brush tool. Use a black brush at 100% opacity to pick out particular details or areas in colour – in this example it’s the subject’s red hat. 3. TWEAK THE CONTRAST When you’re happy with the colour-pop effect, you can adjust the overall exposure and contrast. Avoid making key details very dark or very light, because you want the viewer’s eye to be drawn to the colour.…

ADD SPOT COLOUR

Create a dramatic photo sequence

Creating a photo sequence is a great way of conveying a sense of movement and speed in a static shot, and they’re particularly effective for capturing sporting action. The technique involves shooting a series of images in quick succession to capture a piece of action, and then combining the images using layers and masks in Elements. We’re photographing a judo throw, and the technique also works well for sports such as gymnastics, bike or motorcycle stunt riding, snowboarding, and even track events such as hurdles or the long jump – anything involving dramatic bursts of action. In this project we’ll show you how to capture a sequence of images using the high-speed continuous drive mode on your camera. This will ensure that you capture all the action. You don’t necessarily…

Create a dramatic photo sequence

Shoot abstract architecture

In this tutorial we’re going to show you how to capture striking abstract architectural shots by photographing modern buildings from unusual angles and picking out interesting patterns and features. For our shoot we went to the ATRiuM building at the University of South Wales in Cardiff. The building is not only impressive from the outside, it has a spectacular spiral staircase inside. If you can’t gain access to the interior of a building, you can still get lots of great shots from the outside by looking for interesting perspectives or zooming in on features to take them out of context. Modern sculptures and even street furniture can also work well, so have a good look around your local area for potential subjects. We used a Sigma 10-20mm wide-angle lens to…

Shoot abstract architecture

Laying the foundations

1 Pick a location We selected the ATRiuM building in Cardiff for this shoot, which is part of the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of South Wales. Interesting or unusual buildings make the best subjects, but even simple glass and steel office blocks can make striking shots. If you’re shooting indoors you’ll need to seek permission; if you’re outdoors, then as long as you’re not on private property and not causing an obstruction, you’re allowed to photograph most buildings. 2 Use a remote Set your camera up on a tripod. We used a remote control to take the shots so there was no risk of the camera moving during an exposure. Simply plug the remote into the side of your DSLR, and press the button…

Laying the foundations

Create a fine-art trio

Txhere are times where less is more, and this is exactly one of those occasions! By eliminating distractions and setting up a simple shoot you can end up with an arty masterpiece to hang up on your wall. In this shooting and editing project we’ll show you how to capture a beautiful and simplistic monochrome image. But when it comes to shooting flowers in the black-and-white medium then you’ll want to stay clear of your normal pretty bright and perfectly formed type, and start to look at the grasses and weeds! It’s about structure and shape when it comes to black-andwhite flowers, and weeds and hedgerow species make particularly interesting subjects to photograph. It’s best to set up your shoot in a clean, bright room or next to a large…

Create a fine-art trio

Build a paper sculpture

The great thing about abstract macro photography is it enables you to engage with the viewer on a surreal level. Part of the fun of the image is the mystery behind it, and how you can turn something everyday into something special. The minimalistic effect is easy to produce. We used a 105mm macro lens, a remote shutter release, a tripod and some plain white A4 paper to create our paper sculpture. We didn’t do any fancy origami, but if you do have the skills to do this, you can create some wonderful results. To preview the monochrome finish we’re going to use the monochrome picture style/ control setting in-camera, and engage the Live View feature. Although we’re going to shoot in raw, it’s useful to be able to see…

Build a paper sculpture

Make a surreal portrait

For this tutorial we set out to shoot a mid-air self-portrait inspired by an image of Salvador Dali, taken by one of the greatest portrait photographers, Phillippe Halsman. Halsman captured Dali mid-air among flying cats, canvas, chairs and a plume of water. 28 attempts were needed before the combination of flying objects looked right, with everything having to be cleared and reset after each attempt. Here, rather than doing it all at once, we’ll show you how to capture several levitating objects separately, then combine the frames in Photoshop using simple masking and selection skills. Read on to find out how it’s done… 1 Shoot the images To shoot images for this effect, use a tripod and keep the focal length, focus point and exposure consistent. We used a remote…

Make a surreal portrait

Create stunning mono landscapes

When you want to add drama to a landscape shot, nothing beats a punchy black-andwhite treatment, and here we’ll show you how to convert to mono using Elements’ Convert to Black and White command. But converting to mono is only half the job – to enhance the image you need to improve the contrast, both across the image as a whole, and locally, to bring out detail in particular areas. In the darkroom photographers would do this by dodging (lightening) parts of a print and burning (darkening) other areas, and we can do the same thing with a masked Levels adjustment and the Dodge and Burn tools. Our scene was captured from the back of a moving train, and even though a fast shutter speed of 1/1000 sec was used…

Create stunning mono landscapes

Layers in Elements

Unlike Photoshop where you can convert your image to black and white using an adjustment layer or the Grayscale tab in Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop Elements doesn’t have options for black and white adjustment layers. The basic way to convert your image to black and white in Elements is to go to Enhance>Convert to Black and White. This is a good feature but you are limited in what you can do. For starters the feature only works by applying the effect to a layer (not an adjustment layer), and in the pop-out box there are only three colour channels (red, green, and blue) to adjust. In this tutorial we’ve come up with a clever workaround technique using a Gradient Map and Hue/Saturation adjustment layers. The biggest benefit of using an…

Layers in Elements

Add some punch!

One of the most effective ways to convert your image to monochrome is with a Black and White command. As you’d expect, the command removes colour to give you a monochrome result. But it’s the way the colour is removed that’s so clever. The settings offer six colour sliders that let you control the brightness of different colour ranges during the conversion. So you could, for example, darken the blues for a dramatic sky or increase the oranges to give skin tones a lift. As well as offering these six colour sliders, there’s also a useful hand icon that allows you to make on-image adjustments to colour brightness. The Black and White command can be applied directly to an image layer, but using it as an adjustment layer gives you…

Add some punch!

Convert raw files

These days we find we spend as much time in Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin as we do in the main program. With a near-identical set of controls to Lightroom’s Develop module, Camera Raw is the ideal place for photographers to begin editing their images, and you’ll often find no need to even open Photoshop. As well as basic controls over things like exposure, colour and sharpening, you can also apply more advanced edits, including the ability to make controlled black-and-white conversions. What’s more, making changes to your image in Camera Raw is a smart way to work, especially (but not exclusively) if you shoot raw. You can work directly on your raw files, because any changes are applied as extra ‘sidecar’ data that just affects the way the raw file…

Convert raw files

Black and white effects in Lightroom

Like most Photoshop techniques, when it comes to creating blackand- white images, there are several ways to skin a cat. Every photographer has his own favourite method of doing this, and as Photoshop has evolved, so the choices and methods for black-and-white conversion have grown. Over the years these have ranged from the rudimentary (like greyscale or desaturate) to the more advanced (Channel Mixer, Gradient Maps) to the long-winded (Lab Color). In recent times, two commands have emerged as the most effective: Photoshop’s Black and White adjustment layer, and the HSL/Grayscale panel (available in both Camera Raw and Lightroom). Like the best of the earlier techniques, these two commands share a common theme: they allow you to control the brightness of individual colours during the conversion, in much the same…

Black and white effects in Lightroom

Save time with Lightroom presets

Do you find yourself making the same edits and applying the same settings over and over to your photographs? If so, the chances are you can cut down your screen time dramatically by making use of Lightroom presets. Presets are simply saved settings from one image that can then be used on any other image. They are great time-savers, and the way Lightroom is set up makes them easy to master. You can create, manage and apply presets via the Preset panel in the Develop Module. What’s more, you can also apply them through the Library Module’s Quick Develop panel, and even when you first import your images. In fact, presets are so easy to get to grips with and apply, that once you’ve made a particular effect or treated…

Save time with Lightroom presets

Six ways to dodge and burn

Converting an image to mono is just the first step in creating great black-and-white pictures. It’s important to get the conversion right, but what you do to the image after converting is equally important. Whenever we look at an image, our eyes are naturally drawn to the lightest parts first. So by controlling the lightness of different areas, a photographer can guide the eye on a journey around the image. This is true of all images, but especially so with black and white, where colours are replaced by simple shades of grey. One big advantage with black and white is we can lighten or darken those greys to draw the eye, and push the tones to an extent that would look overly processed on colour images. Photographers have been ‘dodging’…

Six ways to dodge and burn

Dodge and burn your portraits

People with weathered faces make an excellent subject matter to photograph. Their deep set wrinkles and twine-like hair convert perfectly to the monochrome medium. There are a few technical difficulties to get around when shooting a portrait like this. The eyes are often set back into the face and produce strong shadows. To correct this we can do a few editing tricks. Dodging and burning is a technique from the film days and was used in the darkroom to lighten or darken areas in the image. Photographers used pieces of card or their hands to block areas or let more light through onto the paper. In Photoshop we have two brush-like tools that do the same effect. We can further control the Range (Highlights, Shadows or Midtones) we’re applying the…

Dodge and burn your portraits

Dodge and burn landscapes

Dodging and burning is one of the most important skills a monochrome landscape photographer can learn. The ability to lighten and darken different areas of the image is a useful compositional aid, because we can draw attention to the part of the frame while detracting from other areas. Somewhat nostalgically, we still refer to the technique as ‘dodging and burning’, but a more accurate (if slightly less catchy) name would be ‘selective adjustments’, because there’s far more on offer in image-editing software than simple lightening or darkening. We can selectively change contrast, crisp up details and even apply filter effects. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to reveal detail and focus attention in different areas of an image with a range of selective adjustment techniques. We’ll begin by using…

Dodge and burn landscapes

Make your mono subjects stand out

Stripping an image of colour denies the viewer one of the key signifiers that helps them to comprehend the scene, so the differences in light between objects in the frame become more important. In general, successful compositions will have good separation between the subject and their surroundings. With colour images there are several million colours to help create that separation, but with black and white we only have 256 shades of grey to work with. So contrast is key. Take our starting image here. The subject’s dress is very similar to the surrounding scene, both in its light green colour and its dappled texture. In colour, the skin tones and subtle differences between the greens help her stand out. But when converted to mono, like a soldier in full camo,…

Make your mono subjects stand out

Add vintage toning to images

The term colour toning comes from the analogue days, and the technique was used by photographers to add a colour tint to their black-and-white images. Traditionally, these colours were blue and sepia. Photographers would let their prints sit in solutions and soak up the tinted colour. How long the prints were in the solution meant the results could vary greatly. This art form dates back to the late 1800s, and is still replicated by many photographers today. There are many different ways you can replicate the traditional colour-toning effect in Photoshop, but in this tutorial we’re going to show you using a Gradient Map adjustment layer. The great thing about this feature is that it has lots of preset options that you can further tweak using the Gradient Editor option.…

Add vintage toning to images

Split tone in Camera Raw

Split toning is a traditional process that comes from the film days. The process enables us to tint our black-and-white images using hue and saturation sliders. In this tutorial we’re going to show you how to edit the entire process in the Camera Raw editor with the Split Toning feature. For our final dramatic landscape scene we’ve produced a traditional blue-toned tint using the blue and yellow sliders. There are two sets of sliders under the Highlights and Shadows settings. The Hue slider controls the colour output, and the Saturation slider controls the intensity. There’s also the Balance slider, which defines the setting the effect is more biased towards. If you push it left, it will favour the Shadows, and right will favour the Highlights. If you use opposite colours…

Split tone in Camera Raw

Get a retro look

Back in the film days, grain was a consequence of using a film that was more sensitive to light. Grain, unlike digital noise caused by high ISO settings, has a certain charm, and this look can be replicated in Photoshop. It has a small, speckled appearance that almost appears textured. Ironically, we’ll be using the Add Noise filter to achieve the effect, but we can do so in a controlled way. For the starting image we’ve selected a newlywed couple walking off into the distance. The image is intentionally blurred, which adds to the overall retro charm. For this tutorial you’ll need to edit your image in either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. If you’re using the latter, you’ll first need to convert the image to black and white in the…

Get a retro look

Be selective about colour

Making selective colour effects in Lightroom is a quick and easy task. The key to success is the HSL panel. The eight colour sliders enable you to zero in on different colours in the image. You can adjust the Hue, Luminance or (as in this case) the Saturation to remove any colours you don’t need. The HSL sliders target colour ranges rather than specific areas, so you’ll probably need to mop up any remaining colour. For example, in this image, removing saturation in everything but the reds and oranges almost does the job of leaving the phone box in colour while the rest of the image is in black and white. However, there’s still some orange present in the buildings. It’s a quick fix: a few strokes of the Adjustment…

Be selective about colour

Solarisation in Camera Raw

Achance darkroom discovery in the early days of photography led to the development of one of the most iconic darkroom special effects. Solarisation is a photographic phenomenon whereby part of the image appears inverted to negative, while other areas are normal. In the traditional darkroom it often occurred when someone accidently turned on the light during the developing of film or a print. The technique was transformed from a mistake into an art form by the photographer Man Ray, who created beautiful solarised portraits of his partner and muse Lee Miller. The solarisation effect is very simple to recreate in Camera Raw (or with the near-identical controls in Lightroom’s Develop Module). All we need to do is invert one half of the tonal range. We can do this using Curves.…

Solarisation in Camera Raw

There’s a certain charm to old photographs. The creases, tears and faded appearance makes them seem a bit more precious and intriguing. You’ll be pleased to know that you don’t need to wait 50 years to get that look in your new digital images! You can do it instantly in Photoshop Elements by following a few simple steps. It helps to have a starting image that’s going to age well. So in our example, the model has a classic appearance, where she looks like she could be from the 1940s. This image was taken in the garden using a hose pipe to create the rain. We also back-lit the water using an external flashgun and opened up the aperture to a wide setting of f/2.8 to get the bokeh effect…

Past and present

With a little preparation and basic Photoshop skills, two versions of a scene taken decades apart can be merged together to create a compelling blend of old and new. It makes for an enjoyable photo project that involves a little detective work – you have to find the exact spot where the original photo was taken, then figure out things like camera angle and focal length so your new shot lines up with the old scene. Sometimes this won’t be possible. For example, nowadays, Piccadilly Circus’s famous Statue of Eros sits outside the entrance to the tube station,its steps scattered with weary tourists. But once it was at the centre of the Circus (it was moved after the Second World War). So in some cases it’s impossible tocompose everything just…

Past and present

Get the Ansel Adams look

When we talk about great landscape photographers, Ansel Adams has to be the first name on the list. His starkly beautiful images of the American wilderness displayed flawless technique and a uniquely crafted vision. Most of his work made use of monochrome film, lens-mounted filters (usually yellow or red) to emphasise skies, and darkroom techniques that added contrast and controlled detail. All of these great effects are simple to recreate. The first step is to convert the image to monochrome. Some methods for this are better than others. The best tools give you control over the brightness of individual colour ranges in the image during the mono conversion. One such tool is the HSL panel in Camera Raw. Just as Adams used filters, we can use HSL to control colour…

Get the Ansel Adams look

Breathe new life into old photos

Even the most carefully looked-after photographs will eventually start to show their age. Damage caused by moisture, dirt and mould can ruin prints, chemicals can fade or shift colours over time, and handling can cause all kinds of damage. We can breathe new life into these treasured images with a few simple Photoshop tricks. The first step is to digitise the old print. Although you can use a camera, this is best done with a flatbed scanner (even the most basic scanners are capable of capturing highquality images). Once scanned, we can begin the restoration. We’ve picked an image with lots of common problems. Most obviously, we’re missing part of the face. We can build a new face by copying and flipping the other side, and then altering the tones…

Breathe new life into old photos

Get cool cyanotypes with Lightroom

Today’s cameras offer us picture clarity never before achievable, but there’s a certain charm that goes with imperfections and flaws. Perhaps this explains why making new images look old is all the rage at the moment. As the rise of apps like Instagram shows, adding retro filters and effects to photos has never been more popular. If you want more control than that offered by smartphone apps, there are lots of ways to make retro effects in Lightroom. Not only does it offer a range of tools to add creative colour and tonal shifts, it also lets you quickly create and apply presets, so your custom-made retro effects can be used on any image with the click of a button. There are even a few handy readymade retro effects. The…

Get cool cyanotypes with Lightroom

Create a stylish washed-out look

Although punching up the contrast and enhancing the saturation can look effective, it can also work well the other way around. We’re talking about washing out the contrast and almost removing the colour to get a cool vintage-style effect. This technique works really well with wedding photography, and many wedding photographers edit their images to this desaturated style. In this tutorial we’ll be using three separate adjustment layers. The best thing about this technique is that it’s a non-destructive method, meaning you can return to it at a later date and tweak the individual settings. The starting image is a newlywed couple posing for a photo shoot on the beach. To ensure we captured an even exposure we placed a diffuser over the top of their heads to soften the…

Create a stylish washed-out look

Make a retro contact sheet

Contact sheets were once a very common sight on the desks of picture editors and fashion photographers. By making a positive print from all the negatives on a roll of film, it was easy to see which images were the best for enlarging. This technique required a darkroom, a contact printing frame, an enlarger, chemicals, trays and paper. With digital imaging, things are a lot simpler. To recreate the look, we need only crop the images and arrange them in the template. If you’re planning on using your own images to build the contact sheet, you could try shooting with your camera in burst mode while someone is talking or gesturing. Alternatively, you could crop one image in 16 different ways and use the contact sheet border to make a…

Make a retro contact sheet

Make dramatic rays of light

Professional landscape photographers will often visit the same scene over and over, waiting for the perfect moment when the clouds partially obscure direct sunlight and the scene is flooded with breathtaking rays of light through mist or haze. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have that luxury, or indeed, the patience or funds. But if you think a sky in one of your landscapes would benefit from moody clouds and a few ‘God rays’, as they are called, then you could create the effect in Photoshop very, very easily. Photoshop even creates the clouds for you! Follow the four quick steps below to give oneof your monochrome landscapes a shot in the arm using Render Clouds and layer masks. 1 Select the sky Open the starting image and grab the QuickSelection…

Make dramatic rays of light

Give portraits a mystic twist

The Radial Blur filter in Photoshop enables you to create a zoom blur effect that you can use to focus attention on the central element in a photo. You do this by creating the blur effect ona duplicate layer so you apply it to the entire image. Then you can reveal the parts of the image that you want to be free of the effect using a layer mask. Paint on the mask with black to reveal the unblurred image fromthe layer below. This effect not only reduces the impact of a busy background, but for an image such as the one we’re using, it adds a spiritual vibe that suits the subject matter. 1 Convert for Smart Filters Open the starting image in Photoshop. Right click the Background layer…

Give portraits a mystic twist

The double exposure effect

Photographers have been combining two or more exposures into a single image since the early days of film, but in the age of Photoshop we’ve never had so many options. Traditionally, double exposures are created by disengaging the wind-on motor and exposing the same frame of film twice. Some digital cameras offer a similar in-camera multiple exposure function, but it’s easier to do in Photoshop, and you have far greater control over the blended image. Fusing two exposures in Photoshop is simple, and the method for blending them stays true to the analogue roots that make double exposures such an unpredictable joy. We’ve provided the images here, but of course, the beauty of using Photoshop is that you can try any image you like. While the basic principles of multiplying…

The double exposure effect

Make a surreal scene

If you’re into Photoshop montage, then a simple landscape base image can prove useful as a backdrop for a huge range of surreal subjects. This is something we see time and time again: a plain shot of grass, concrete or any other textured surface that recedes into the distance, eventually meeting a hazy horizon and moody sky. It’s an effective mood setter, and they are surprisingly easy to make. Open the three ‘surreal’ images (sky, carpark, and tree) then make a rectangular selection of the car park. Copy and paste it onto the sky image and position it over the bottom. Add a layer mask and plot a black-towhite gradient on it to blend the land and sky together. Next, make a new layer, then plot a white-to-transparent reflected gradient…

Make a surreal scene

Changing Trains

Using Photoshop CC 2014 ’m based in London, where I was born. My photographic style is highly representative of my personality. I have always been obsessed with clean lines and the geometrical appearance of things. I find people captivating, and my work explores our relationship with the world and how we interact with our environment. Changing Trains is from my ongoing series, Urbanites. The series is an exploration of the city, its urban spaces, and the human presence within it. www.rupertvandervell.co.uk…

Changing Trains

Having fun at the end of the wedding

Using Photoshop CS6 I studied management at the Economics Academy of Bucharest, but I considered that this wasn’t one of my goals in life, so I decided to find my path towards a career in journalism. This is all I’ve wanted since childhood. I have worked for some Romanian media companies, and at the same time I have managed several blogs. In late 2009, I met my partner Gabriela, and found my passion for photography. Shortly after, I bought my first professional camera, and haven’t looked back since. In this wedding photo, the bride and groom wanted to have some fun, and sang a song for their guests. I used three external flashes and a white umbrella to take the picture. www.mariustudor.com Woman in Red Using Lightroom 5.5 I’m a…

Having fun at the end of the wedding

Hunter in The Fog

Using Lightroom 5, Photoshop CC, Color Efex Pro 4, and Silver Efex Pro 4 I got started in photography in 1980. I like everything of photography: from portraits to reportage, from landscapes to macro. Mountains are my second passion, and I shot this photo in the Lombard Prealps. It was an autumn morning, and from the underlying valleys, a light mist created infinite planes that vanished towards the horizon. Along the trail, in strong backlight, some hunters scrutinised the area in search of prey. It was an idyllic situation to shoot pictures. www.vitoguarino.com…

Hunter in The Fog

Using Photoshop CS6 My professional work started in 2010 in Latin America, where I gained knowledge and skills taking photos of local celebrities and models. I have since built my reputation in Slovakia and in many other countries. My photography can be seen on the front pages of magazines and newspapers in Paraguay, Argentina, and New York. This photo of a mother and child is from my Sensual Beauty Collection, which earned me a Qualified European Photographer Certificate from The Federation of European Photographers in June 2014. www.martinkrystynek.com…

Using Photoshop CC I’m an advertising and fine-art photographer, focusing on photographic illustration. I was the principal photographer and photo editor for Modernist Cuisine, and a co-founder of ChefSteps.com. My recent fine artwork has been influenced by giving structure to otherwise organic elements. In Smoke Radial 3, a single photo of smoke is replicated and rotated on the same axis to get a symmetrical image out of an organic shape. http://ryanmatthewsmith.com…

Using Lightroom 5.5, Photoshop CC, and Silver Efex Pro 2 I am a fine-art photographer based in the New England region of the United States. I have been shooting for over 30 years, although not full-time until 2010, at which time I also added digital photography and processing to my resume. I don't do commercial work. Rather, I use photography strictly as art to express life as I see it: to capture what is below the surface and what is often hidden, and to expose what we all feel but hesitate to show out of fear of being judged. My image, Citadel, reflects the unwavering protectiveness of a father over his child. www.scianghettiphotography.com…

Prisoned into Light

Using Photoshop CS5 I’m a professional photographer from The Netherlands. My photographical style mainly manifests itself in model photography in an emotive style that emphasises expression and pose. Black-and-white photography is my preference, but recently I’ve also been using colour. Working with black and white achieves the feeling I'm looking for in my pictures. I'm not aiming to present a finished idea, but merely hand the spectators a framework, challenging them to form their own stories. For this photo, I selected a big empty urban monastery, where I’ve worked for several years. The old monastery with its atmosphere brought me back to a much simpler time, where the pace of the world slows down. www.photographernl.com…

Prisoned into Light

I am a Melbourne based artist and designer using a variety of mediums including photography. This image combines my interest in photography and design. The triangular masking of the cloud suggests a number of interpretations: high walls in perspective, a geometric valley, or an edible cloud in a cone. This angular masking approach has led to a number of other works, some contained by the black triangular shapes and others where the cloud wraps around or floats in front of the mask. www.neilchenery.com…

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