Outdoor Photography

February 2018 Outdoor Photography 33

Creating dramatic black & white

landscapes can be as quick or

as time-consuming as you like.

Personally, I see post -processing

as a means to an end. I get

excited at the prosp ect of seeing

the fi nal image, but I can’t say

that I relish sp ending hours at

my computer processing Raw

fi les when I could be outdoors

with a camera. For that reason,

I try to keep my editing as

simple as possible.

To get from the original Raw

fi le to a fi nal, printable black &

white image I use a combination

of Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe

Photoshop CC and Silver Efex

Pro 2. I’m no expert when it

comes to editing and I’m sure

my workfl ow would make many

photographers break out into

a cold sweat. But for me it’s the

look and feel of the fi nal image

that counts, and not necessarily

how you got there.

I come from a background

of printing black & white

landscapes in a darkroom, where

localised exposure and contrast

control was achieved by waving

bits of card around beneath the

enlarger lens, so I use a similar

approach when I edit my digital

images. I fi nd that if you try to be

too technical and precise, the

fi nal image can appear clinical,

so I like to take creative risks,

follow my inst inct s and see

what happens. I’m a fan of bold,

brash black & white and I’d much

rather produce images that are

technically fl awed but evocative,

rather than perfect but boring –

I don’t mind blown highlights or

blocked shadows, and a bit of

noise never hurt anyone!

To give you an idea of what

I’m talking about, here’s a

walkthrough explaining how

I would typically get from an

original Raw fi le to a fi nal black

& white image.

1

The original shot was taken

into-the-light on a st ormy

winter’s day, so it’s naturally

high in contrast , the exposure is

uneven and there’s a big patch

of blown-out sky. No problem –

I’m sure there’s a great black &

CONVERSIONS

2

3

1

white image to be made!

2

Under the Basic menu in

Adobe Camera Raw, the

Highlight slider is dragged to

the left to reduce the size of the

blown-out area of sky. Next,

Lens Correct ions are applied

for the Zeiss 21mm lens used

and the image is opened in

Photoshop.

3

Using the Lasso Tool, I then

select diff erent areas of the

image and adjust the exposure

and contrast using Levels or

Curves. The feathering of the

Lasso is varied between 100 and

300 pixels depending on the

size of the area select ed.

4

More local adjust ments are

made to bring balance to

the exposure and tonality of the

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