3.19. The black-and-white landscape

Aclassic black-and-white landscape shot seems so natural and realistic, it's easy to imagine all you need to do is find Ansel Adams's viewpoint in Yosemite, expose your picture, and convert it to grayscale. The reality is not quite so straightforward. Colored lens filters first control how the camera records the light on film, and the final print is the product of much darkroom manipulation. Adams was a master of such techniques, and imitating his style is a great way to appreciate the true art of black-andwhite photography.

Adams's prints contain a full range of black-and-white tones, with visible detail in the deepest shadows and the most brilliant highlights. Clouds stand out against dark blue skies, and shades of foliage are distinguished in monochrome. Such tonal separation results from using colored lens filters to manipulate the light, and it's a fair guess that Adams would have applied similar techniques to today's digital color images. Instead of making lazy grayscale conversions, or simply shooting with a camera's black-and-white mode, he would have taken his time on the computer and used the images' color channels to produce these stunning effects.

Famous photographs tempt photography enthusiasts to visit locations such as Yosemite Falls in the hope of matching the quality of the original.

Add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer and check the Monochrome checkbox. The dialog box defaults to Red 100%this means Photoshop will only use Red channel values to output the black-and-white picture. Click OK. Since blue sky contains little red light, the sky is now dark and the clouds much clearer. The effect is akin to using a red lens filter. If you want to increase the effect, double-click the Channel Mixer adjustment layer and push the Red channel above 100%. You will probably have to reduce the Green and Blue channel values. Here, the sky benefits from exaggerating the Red channel. While boosting the Red channel makes the sky look great, the green trees have become exceptionally dark and lifeless-they need their own black-and-white conversion. Temporarily hide the existing Channel Mixer adjustment layer and add another one, as you've done in steps 1 and 2, but using the Green channel. Examine the image carefully and identify the areas that are now improved. Here, the Green channel has lightened the foliage and brought out a fuller range of tones in the trees. It's like using a green lens filter on the camera. Make both Channel Mixer adjustment layers visible. The lower, red-biased layer now makes the image black and white, and the greenbiased layer has no effect. Activate the red layer's mask and use a brush to paint black over the trees so the red layer doesn't affect their color. On the green layer, use a Gradient Fill so that it doesn't affect the sky. In case any color shows where the masks overlap, add a Hue/Saturation layer with Saturation at -100%. Again, examine the result carefully because you can infinitely fine-tune the Channel Mixer adjustment layers. Add to each channel or repaint the maskswhatever produces the most pleasing result. In his darkroom, Adams extensively dodged and burned prints, lightening some areas to reveal more detail and darkening others to create contrast. To enliven the reflections in the river, make a copy of the original image layer, select the Dodge tool, set its range to the Highlights option, and then drag over and brighten the water. Try the Burn tool on the cliffs. Sometimes it's difficult to dodge some pixels while burning their neighbors. Here, the river's highlights still aren't strong enough, but further dodging would damage the weak shadow tones in the water. Instead, add a Curves adjustment layer and drag points on the curve until the contrast and brightness of the problem area look right. Ignore the curve's effect on the rest of the imageyou can always paint black on the adjustment layer's mask. Darkroom printmakers often subtly darken the edges to balance or "hold in" the picture. Add a new layer and set its blending mode to Multiply, then paint with black around the edges. Reduce the Brush opacity to 20% before you begin painting. If the effect is still too strong, reduce the layer opacity to 50%. Don't just throw away the color. Today, black-and-white landscape photography is about shooting in color and using the color channel values to produce the best tonal balance.