Moody B&W Editing | Lightroom Tutorial

Hey guys!! I just wanted to share a little knowledge with you. Esp. those of you that are just starting out in Lightroom.

Do you LOVE moody B&W edits like this one? Yeah....me too! Some might say I'm a little obsessed with moody photos. If I could edit every photo like this, I probably would! :P

In this post, I'm going to share with you how *I* achieve this look. Please, keep in mind that everyone has a different technique they use while processing an image.

I always start by converting the image to Black/White first.

From there I increase the exposure and adjust all the other "Basic" settings to my personal liking.

I then make some adjustments the the "Tone Curve". I start my clicking dead-center on the tone curve grid.

I then adjust the curve from both ends. 

-Lighten Blacks (left) by clicking the lower left corner of the line and dragging upwards until you reach your desired look.

-Darken Whites (right) by clicking on the top right corner of the line and dragging downwards until you reach a point of your liking.

You should be getting close to the Matte b&w look your going for. You may also decide stop there if you are pleased with the resulting image. But I like to give my Moody B&W's a more vintage, old world feel.

So, from there I click on the brush tool. And choose "clarity". I pull the amount all the way to -100 so I get a strong softening effect coming from the brush. I then brush the entire image, staying clear of facial features. ( to keep your eye drawn to that area of the photo.)

I then choose a *NEW* brush and change the effect to Burn (Darken). I then brush around the subject to give the photo some depth. 

Then I choose ANOTHER new brush, change the effect to "noise", bring the amount down to -100, and add a bit of noise to the whole photo. (also steering clear of the face with this brush.)

This is the resulting image after the brushes. Yes, subtle changes. But even the smallest of changes can change the look AND feel of a photo.

But since I personally LOOOVE a more aged look photos, I always head back the the tone curve and bring down the whites a tad more. 

Ta-da..... 

Please remember that anything can be changed to fit your unique taste in final edits.  Play around, have some fun!!

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Here are a few other photos I edited using this same technique, all with some changes in basic settings and tone curve. 

:)