Comments on: Day 6 of “I’m Giving Up Photoshop” Month (Black & White)

By: salsaguy

salsaguy — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 21:45:51 +0000

Andrea, check out the youtube videos on Learning Lightroom 5 by ANTHONY MORGANTI, where he shows exactly how to set the white and black point in every single one of his videos. Matt is not making it easy for a new person to understand what he means by just his post. You need to see it done on a video to understand completely how it’s done. Once understood its very easy and important.

Andrea said: “. In many of your edits you state that you adjust the White and Black sliders while holding down the option/alt key. I am wondering what this does?”

By: Matt K

Matt K — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 23:34:53 +0000

In reply to Andrea B.

Hi Andrea – You’re very welcome.
1) It shows you the white and black point which helps get a good overall tonal range in the photo.
2) I think it’s great. It’s awesome for portraits. Not sure how it works for stray hairs, but I would download the free trial and give it a test before you buy it, to see if it does what you need. But I’m a big fan of onOne so they’ve got my recommendation.
Thanks 🙂

By: Andrea B

Andrea B — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:09:35 +0000

Thank you for this series. I just started using Lightroom and my biggest debate has always been if I should edit with Lightroom or Photoshop.
I have 2 questions for you:
1. In many of your edits you state that you adjust the White and Black sliders while holding down the option/alt key. I am wondering what this does?
2. You have also mentioned using Perfect Photo Suite. Would this be a good alternative to use with Lightroom, then to adding Photoshop? I am primarily a portrait photographer and what I have seen on their website it looks like this would be a great solution to some of my shortfalls with Lightroom. Example: stray hairs…

Thank you for your time.

By: Robin Horton

Robin Horton — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 13:34:00 +0000

Really enjoyed this series Matt, learned a lot and appreciate the time you took to pass on your knowledge.

By: Jon Reid

Jon Reid — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 08:41:55 +0000

Very nicely done – one of the best mono conversions I’ve seen. And I used to think that black and white was one of the reasons to go into Photoshop.

At the Lightroom guru, maybe you can answer this question. When I open an image in Photoshop, it seems slightly darker than the version in Lightroom. What I see in Photoshop is more consistent with how the image appears in a web browser or other picture viewers. Am I imagining this?

By: Irene

Irene — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 21:04:28 +0000

Another great post – what would you do with the color photo if you had decided to process it? It would be great to see both the finished color photo with the finished B&W.

By: Matt K

Matt K — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 17:06:22 +0000

In reply to Pete.

Hey Pete – the halos are a result of the Shadows/Highlights/Clarity adjustments. I had mentioned it in a revision on the post, but maybe you caught an earlier version before I updated it 🙂

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 13:56:08 +0000

Was the halo around the pier a definite choice for processing or is it a by-product of Lightroom?