Adobe LightRoom B&W Presets Anyone? :)

[dcsang]

Oh the joy of photography software.

I have been hunting, for quite some time now, for solutions for B&W conversions of digital images. There are many different methods that can be used. Folks who may not want to dilly dally in PhotoShop playing with all sorts of settings such as the Channel Mixer, Curves, or varying photographic modes (i.e. RGB to LAB colour) can always purchase plug-ins from SilverEfx, Imagenomic, and others.

If you have LightRoom there's actually quite a few free presets out there that seem to do the trick.

I wanted to adjust some of these freebies to create my own. I would have to say that these that you see here have a "base" in Neil Cowley's B&W Film Presets (found here and available por nada: http://makelightreal.com/bw_film_lightroom_presets_download/ ). I wanted mine to look a wee bit different than Neils because of my own personal preferences when it comes to B&W.

The "Smooth B&W" doesn't stray too far from Neil's original B&W setting (the name escapes me now)
The "Mocha B&W" is a warmer tone of the B&W
The "Mocha B&W Lite" is a little more cream than coffee 🙂
Finally the "Mocha B&W Lite" is shown with adjustments to the Exposure and Brightness in Lightroom.
The presets do not touch the exposure or brightness settings in Lightroom - these remain at "0" for additional minor adjustments if necessary.

I'm going to continue to tweak these so consider the presets a "first draft" rather than the "final product". I'll probably create a couple other "first draft" presets before finally tweaking them.

I'd love to hear your feedback on these I'm more interested in the "look and feel" from the B&W images. Feel free to comment on what you like and/or don't like about them. Suggestions are welcome and encouraged 🙂

Ultimately, the print is where I'll see if these are decent.

Cheers,
Dave

The Original File - Canon 5D, 50mm f1.2 L, ISO 3200

The "Smooth B&W" Preset

The "Mocha B&W" Preset

The "Mocha B&W Lite" Preset

The "Mocha B&W Lite" Preset with adjustments to the brightness (+60) and Exposure (+0.10)

 

[willie_901]

I use LR exclusively to convert color originals to B&W. I do this for Nikon Raw files and for Fuji Superia 800-S negative film scans. I also do it for Tri-X RGB scans where I generate flat, linear gamma tiff files.

I created my own preset. This trivial preset zeros all the Saturation sliders and centers the Hue and Luminance sliders in the HSL panel located in the Develop module .

Then the Color Temperature sliders, along with the Luminance sliders in the HSL panel, can be used to adjust the tonality as required.

I am very pleased with this method.

 

[dcsang]

Willie,

Are you printing your photos? if so, are you printing them yourself or having a lab do them?
I'm curious to find out how that works out for you if you print them yourself

Cheers,
Dave

 

[willie_901]

Dave,

To me, quality printing is very complicated and expensive, so I out source it all.

I print B&W using MPIX. Even though I'm quite pleased with them, I'm switching to a local photographer who has a high-end system in place (uses B&W inks) for my serious printing needs.

 

[KEH]

Michael Gray at http://www.lifeindigitalfilm.com/ has produced some very nice BW presets, emulating different film types. Recommended!

Cheers,
Kirk

 

[jmilkins]

Interesting Dave thanks for psoting these. For me, the smooth B&W actually works best for this image followed by the Mocha lite without presets. This suprised me somewhat as I often like tonings. Some of my own curves adjustments have ended up markedly different to what I'd thought I'd acheived becasuse of differently calibrated monitors (still very much in a learning curve with post processing.) I will need to get better as I have just purchased a heap of expired 120 film becasue it was very cheap and most of it I will convert form colour to B& W anyway.

 

[WDPictures]

I like the composition (eyes/head not centered, space for him to look into) and use of light/shadow... light under the hat yet an interesting shadow across his face and catch lights in his eyes. Good choice for b+w conversion.
Are his eyes the most in focus area? Almost looks like part(s) of his hat are more in focus...
Could totally be an illusion or something but the original and the smooth pre-set look more like film while the others look digital. Maybe add some noise/grain if you like the other pre-sets. A little grain could be good for this fellow.
Suggest playing with LR's vignette tool in the lower left corner on his hand, bright spot attracts my eye. The added vignette should work with what is already at the top edge. Also a bit of burn on the bright area over his shoulder so his face is now the brightest area. What do you think?

 

[Alex Krasotkin]

Hi Dave,
I use Exposure 2 plugin for selecting a proper simulation for BW (it uses different film profiles with/without grain).

Anyway your results look great!

Cheers,
Alex