34 14 March 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Technique
Claire Gillo shares her top tips and
tricks for getting her documentary
monochrome image ready for print
C
ollectively around
the globe we
shoot trillions of
images a nnua lly.
Although many images are
not worthy of printing there
are some that will benefit
greatly, and will transform
from being a nice image on
screen to a great work of art.
The problem with printing
your images is that itBehind the
3
I need to bring out the
detail in the shadows
to create a subtle blend
from dark to light.4
I don’t want to push the
highlights too far so they
overexpose but I also need to
exaggerate the strip of light.2
I will also reduce the
noise in the image as it
was shot at a high ISO.1
To make the most of this
image I am going to
convert it to black & white.Claire Gillo
Claire is a very
experienced
photography
journalist and a
former Technique
Editor on AP. She
now works as a
freelancer from her base in Devon and
enjoys taking and editing a wide range
of images. For more information see her
website at http://www.clairegillo.comGETTING IT JUST RIGHT
1 The basics
To make the basic edits to my image I imported
it into Adobe Lightroom Classic. I then
converted it to black & white, and boosted the
Exposure, Contrast, Highlights and Shadow
sliders to ensure the highlights and shadows
had enough detail. I finally tweaked the Clarity
to boost the midtone contrast.
2 Noise
As my image was a tad noisy I scrolled down to
the Noise Reduction panel and played around
with the Luminance slider. When you reduce
noise it comes at the expense of losing detail, so
keep zooming in and out until you are happy. It’s
often a compromise between keeping the
image a little grainy and maintaining fine detail.3 Soft proofing
I don’t have a printer at home that will do my
images justice, so I send my images to an
external printing service. However you still need
to soft proof them. Check the Soft Proofing
box (in the Develop module on the bottom
bar). Press Create Proof Copy so you can work
on a duplicated copy and save your original.