How To Make Dramatic Black and White Images in Adobe Lightroom

Black and white images have been revered in photography since they were the only option and continue to do so today. What makes a great black and white image, however, can often come down to post-production.

As Serge Ramelli goes into in this video, post-production has been crucial to black and white images for decades, far pre-dating digital cameras. Arguably one of the most famous photographers of all time — and certainly one of the most famous landscape photographers of all time — was Ansel Adams, and post-production was central to his brilliant work. Adams saw dodging and burning his images in the darkroom as an art form in itself. While we have swapped the darkroom for Lightroom, for the most part, the process is strikingly similar.

Black and white images, as a result of lacking color, rely on other aspects to tell a story. Sometimes that is texture, sometimes that is depth, but most often, it's contrast. Great black and white images usually capture great light, but even when they don't, the right dodging and burning can bring about that drama through contrast. If your black and white images are lacking the impact and punch you were hoping for, it could come down to something as simple as how you are processing them in post.

While post-production can make a huge difference, one tip I would offer for taking better black and white images is looking for contrast out in the world. Large disparities in exposure in an image can work perfectly with the absence of color.