Adobe Lightroom 2.x offers a great deal of flexibility and ease when it comes to creating dynamic monochrome images. Using a variety of standard tools within Lightroom 2.x allows you to play with color channels, dodge & burn, add vignettes, etc. intuitively. Here's a basic workflow that I usually follow when I convert my images to monochrome in Lightroom.

One of the keys to a good monochrome image is to select the right photograph to use. There are no hard rules in choosing an image, but it's best to have an image with good tonality and lots of midtones to work with rather than using a really high-contrast image unless the purpose is intentional high contrast.

Images with ample texture and tones usually make great monochrome images.

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Technorati Tags: Adobe Lightroom, dynamic monochrome images, basic workflow, monochrome

by David Tong

Level: Advanced

While most people do shoot RAW and can tinker their white balance settings (WB) by GUI sliders from their software (such as Lightroom, and PhotoShop), sometimes, it's beneficial to know how to do it from scratch as well.

Of course, it'll be best to make sure your WB is accurate to begin with, but the world is not perfect, hence image editing software are made available.

Portraits, in general, require a certain level of color accuracy to make the skin of the subjects flattering. Light skinned subjects has a tendency to look too pink with wrong WB, while dark skinned people can be too orangey.

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Technorati Tags: David Tong, RAW, white balance, Lightroom, PhotoShop, accurate, Portraits, color accuracy