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LinkedIn Learning

Creating Black-and-White Landscape Photos with Photoshop

via LinkedIn Learning

Overview

Learn how to evaluate and adjust color landscapes and transform them into majestic black-and-white landscapes with Photoshop.

Photographers like Ansel Adams taught us to look differently at nature: not in terms of color, but instead emphasizing tone and contrast. Converting images to black-and-white reveals these hidden depths of composition and focus a viewer's attention on forms, textures, and fabrics. In this course, Taz Tally teaches you how to use modern techniques to transform color images into majestic black-and-white landscapes, using the modern photographer's favorite tool: Photoshop. Learn how to evaluate images with the Info tool, convert RGB color images using Photoshop's time-saving black-and-white presets, and make more advanced adjustments with the black-and-white custom sliders, masks, and adjustment layers. Plus, learn finishing techniques, like sharpening, that will make your images look their best when it comes time to print.

Syllabus

Introduction
  • Welcome
  • Using the exercise files
  • Choosing images with the right composition for black and white
1. Basic Black-and-White Conversions
  • Exploring methods for creating grayscale images
  • Using the Black & White adjustment layer for basic grayscale conversion
  • Measuring grayscale values using the Histogram and Info panels
  • Adjusting Highlight and Shadow values to improve brightness and contrast
  • Fine-tuning a basic conversion
  • Challenge: Convert a color image to black and white
  • Solution: Convert a color image to black and white
2. Fine-Tuning Black-and-White Conversions
  • Creating contrast from colors
  • Improving overall brightness and contrast
  • Adding punch to the sky with layer blending
  • Enhancing foreground-background separation and contrast
  • Saturating sky contrast
  • Challenge: Create a fine-tuned black-and-white conversion
  • Solution: Create a fine-tuned black-and-white conversion
3. Advanced Black-and-White Techniques
  • Creating contrast with masks
  • Controlling contrast with masks
  • Enhancing contrast with gradient masks and clipping-masked curves
  • Fine-tuning results by editing masks and balancing adjustments
  • Using overlapping masks to blend complex areas
  • Challenge: Using masks to perform a complex black-and-white conversion
  • Solution: Using masks to perform a complex black-and-white conversion
4. Finishing and Printing Black-and-White Images in Photoshop
  • Sharpening with nondestructive tools
  • Performing selective sharpening
  • Performing selective blurring and sharpening
  • Best practices for exporting and printing black-and-white landscapes
Conclusion
  • Next steps

Taught by

Taz Tally

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