Black and white photography lives or dies by how well you handle contrast. The right balance of tones separates lifeless gray from depth and emotion. When editing, three tools in Lightroom decide which side your images fall on: clarity, texture, and dehaze.
Coming to you from Jeff Ascough and Sarah G Ascough of Walk Like Alice, this detailed video focuses on the precision needed to use these sliders. Ascough shows how clarity targets the midtones, giving structure and shape to details without overpowering them. Texture, on the other hand, works on finer detail: skin, fabric, the subtle edge of light wrapping around glass. Dehaze pulls out contrast in misty or flat skies but can easily overpower a scene if used too aggressively. Ascough demonstrates this through a Leica M Monochrom image from Blackpool, explaining how each adjustment alters not just contrast but the photograph’s mood. You see exactly how a delicate shift transforms flat gray tones into layered depth.
Ascough uses a profile to begin his edit, immediately showing how profiles shape the base of a black and white conversion. By setting a solid black point early, he ensures the image maintains real shadows instead of a washed-out look. He then uses a tone curve to pull back highlights and refine exposure before painting adjustments across the frame. Brushes become his main tool. Precision isn’t his priority, authenticity is. He compares the process to the tactile nature of darkroom printing, preferring a handmade quality over sterile digital perfection. When he lifts clarity in select areas, the scene comes alive, textured but not brittle. When he pushes dehaze too far, it turns harsh and unnatural. The demonstration reveals not just the sliders’ mechanics but how restraint defines craftsmanship in digital monochrome work.
The second half of the video turns to Sarah Ascough’s photograph, shot with a Leica 28mm lens, taken at a county show. The scene includes a variety of subjects all competing for tonal balance. Jeff uses the same profile and repeats the process of setting blacks and toning highlights, this time emphasizing how clarity and texture bring animal fur to life without introducing artifacts. The difference between using curves versus sliders becomes clear: curves create smoother tonal transitions, while heavy slider use can produce odd, gray patches. Through careful brushing, he balances the scene without flattening the atmosphere. Medium grain adds texture to the final image, echoing film’s tactile imperfections.
The video walks you through what separates technically correct black and white images from emotionally engaging ones. Every step builds toward understanding how to shape light digitally without losing the feeling of film. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Ascough.
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