Can Lightroom apply RGB tone curves before black-and-white conversion?

Asked 12/4/2016

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In Lightroom, can the Develop processing order be changed so separate red, green, and blue tone curves are applied before converting an image to black and white? For example, if I adjust only the blue curve after enabling black-and-white, Lightroom produces a tinted monochrome image. I’m trying to alter each channel’s contribution before the monochrome conversion, ideally in a non-destructive way, rather than exporting a TIFF and re-importing it.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

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Not without leaving Lightroom. As you correctly noted, Lightroom does not currently offer any facility for re-ordering the Develop module's order of operations. If you have decided that Lightroom is the only program in which you will be editing images, you may have to resign yourself to the destructive (and somewhat naïve) method of exporting and re-importing.

However, Photoshop is built to do exactly what you require (any similar layer-oriented editor such as GIMP would likely suffice, but Photoshop has particular advantages mentioned below). By using a curves layer underneath a black-and-white layer, you could readily achieve the results you seek.

If you are particularly reluctant to leave the Lightroom interface, and require non-destructive editing without losing the ease of Lightroom's cataloging functions, the next-best option is using Photoshop itself. Adobe have made it very easy to edit your files in other applications, Photoshop being one of many such other editors.

The advantage to using Photoshop is that Lightroom is already programmed to read Photoshop documents, so your layers are preserved upstream of any edits you make in Lightroom thereafter. To return to the Photoshop file and alter your edits non-destructively, all you need to do is select the newly-imported image in your catalog and "Edit in…"

Note that, later on, you can only alter edits that were originally made in a non-destructive fashion!

The workflow will likely look something like this if you opt to use Photoshop:

  1. Upload files from your camera/cards to your computer by your means of choice
  2. Add one, some, or all of the files to your Lightroom catalog
  3. Optionally, use Lightroom to make basic changes such as lens corrections and color profiling. (These edits will be rendered to a copy of your file before sending it off to Photoshop, so consider them to be destructive!)
  4. Use "Edit in…" to edit the image in Photoshop to add curves, and decide whether you need a color or black-and-white image downstream in Lightroom's edit module — black-and-white conversion can be done either here or later with little to no difference in the results.
  5. Save the file, whereupon Lightroom will automatically add the image to the catalog alongside the original.
  6. Optionally, edit the image further in Lightroom, possibly including a black-and-white conversion, according to your ordinary workflow.

To see exactly how Lightroom handles the transfer of files into your application of choice (especially if colorspace and bit depth are of concern to you) check out the "External Editing" tab of Lightroom's preferences.

Originally by user62096. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user62096

9y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

No—Lightroom does not let you reorder the Develop pipeline to place RGB tone-curve adjustments before its black-and-white conversion. If you apply a single color-channel curve after switching to B&W, Lightroom will give you a tinted result rather than changing that channel’s pre-conversion contribution in the way you want.

Within Lightroom, your closest option is to use the Black & White Mix sliders to control how color channels map into grayscale, and Split Toning if you actually want toning. But that is not the same as applying separate RGB curves before monochrome conversion.

If you specifically need curves first, then B&W second, you’ll need to leave Lightroom for a layer-based editor such as Photoshop (or similar software) where you can stack a Curves adjustment below a Black & White adjustment. Otherwise, the Lightroom-only workaround is to export a rendered file and re-import it, which breaks the fully non-destructive workflow.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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