lightroom problems!

Nebulous2

I've just got a new camera, which came with a free version of lightroom version 5.7.1. I haven't begun to tap its possibilities but am gradually becoming more adventurous.

I'm trying to turn a photo black and white with a colour highlight, following these instructions.

Except it doesn't work. Brushing over the picture lightens it a bit and gives it a reddish cast but doesn't turn it black and white.

I'm not sure what I've done as there are so many buttons and settings but I may have turned off or on something that shouldn't be off or on.

Any lightroom experts got any brainwaves?

Thanks

Johnmcl7

I'm not sure what's going wrong, setting the brush to -100 saturation should turn it black and white and I can't think of another setting that would prevent that from happening. When you apply the effect it may put a red tinge on with a small circle (that shows the settings for the marked area) but you should see the effect as you apply it.

John

Nebulous2

Thanks - I've got it. There is a slider called density and it was right down, I'm not sure how that happened. I've bumped it up to 100 and suddenly it is working fine.

A wee bit of colour in a black and white photo looks like it is something to be used sparingly though. People would very quickly get fed-up of it!

wongataa

Be aware that reducing the saturation to convert to black and white is rarely the best way to do a B&W conversion. Much better results can be had using other methods.

Nebulous2

wongataa wrote: »

Be aware that reducing the saturation to convert to black and white is rarely the best way to do a B&W conversion. Much better results can be had using other methods.

Any guides, or links to information on that?

That guide did say it could be quite lacklustre and to adjust the settings afterwards.

There are some black and white presets in lightroom that do well, but I don't think I would then be able to erase them selectively.

I'm very much an amateur, but keen to learn. Here's a couple of my efforts over the weekend. Poppy and scooter.

lemontart

I have pm'd you details of tutorials

Le_Kirk

I like the Poppy, I particularly like that you have blurred the background, either by adjusting aperture when taking photo or Gaussian blur. The technique is called colour popping. I don't have Lightroom, just Photoshop Elements (the poor man's Photoshop!) and my technique is to duplicate the photo to a new layer, desaturate it or convert to B&W (whichever is to your taste) and then add a layer mask to remove part of the B&W to reveal the colour beneath.
Scooter is also good.