PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNEY.com

There are many great ways to remove color from your images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Not the least of which is the fantastic grayscale conversion process. But I want to show you one of my favorite methods for muting colors in a scene.

Obviously, this is just one technique and it doesn’t work for every image.

To begin with, I’ve found the most effective images for this technique are shot under cloud cover, and have at least some amount of red - and preferably a rusty red - in the scene somewhere. These are not essential elements, but images with those two things going for them almost always work.

For my example here, however, neither of those two things are present. This simple photograph was shot in late afternoon under fairly contrasty light at a cemetery behind one of the oldest churches in Virginia.

And here is the image I ended up with. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. How did I get there?

It’s a fairly simple process.

First, I shoot in RAW format. This allows me to make these changes in a nondestructive manner prior to image output.

Once the image is imported into Lightroom and I’ve decided to apply this technique, I move to the develop module and do the following:

Increase Fill Light to 100%
Increase Blacks to 100%
Drop both vibrance and saturation by about 50%

Now your image should be getting close. But because no two images are alike, this is where the tweaking comes in. Typically for me this involves slight adjustments to the contrast, and possibly some adjustments made to the vibrance. I rarely mess with the saturation at this point, as I’ve found it to be just about right as a starting point at -50%.

I may use the highlight recovery slider if there was a problem with exposure blowing out the highlights, but if I’m starting with a good image, that usually isn’t - and shouldn’t be - necessary.

Lastly, I use quite a bit more sharpening than I usually do with this effect. 60, as I’ve used in this image, is fairly typical. And while there’s no firm rule on the amount of Luminance Noise Reduction (it is dependent on your ISO and other factors) your image will need, I have found that it usually works best with the slider lined up fairly closely with the sharpening slider above it. There tends to be very little color noise present with this technique, but I usually move this slider to the point where no color noise is visible - and not an inch further.

Now, there are two things to note. One, using this method you will almost unavoidably lose some detail in the shadows. If it’s too much, back off on the black adustment. Two, you will end up with an “altered” look. If it’s purity you’re after, this probably isn’t something you’ll be interested in.

However, when you find a moody, overcast image, give it a shot or vary it according to your own taste.

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