How can I make digital black-and-white photos look more like black-and-white film in Lightroom?
Asked 3/19/2013
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I’d like my digital photos to have more of the look and feel of black-and-white film, especially in prints. I’ve tried Lightroom’s black-and-white conversions, but they still don’t look much like film to me, particularly in terms of contrast and grain. Can Lightroom get reasonably close to a black-and-white film look, and what settings or shooting approach help most?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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Some black and white films have greater dynamic range than digital, so unless you have a good sensor to start with you won't be able to get the same results. As far as for printing, unless you have a full frame sensor you won't get the same results as printing 35mm professional film, and unless you have a Hasselblad or something with a big sensor you won't get close to the results of printing 120mm film.
You can emulate dyanamic range messing with lightning and contrast settings on lightroom. People tend to shoot high ISO black and white film so it's usually grainy, you can emulate that by adding grain to your pictures, or using a high ISO to start with.
Why don't you just shoot film in the first place? A SLR with a nifty fifty can be less than $40 on eBay, and low ISO black and white film doesn't age very fast, you can get refrigerated expired professional film on eBay for less than a dollar a roll, and you can't tell a difference from non-expired unless it's ages old.
Originally by user17831. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user17831
13y ago
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Yes—Lightroom can get you reasonably close to a black-and-white film look, but it won’t be identical to actual film. The main differences are tonal response and grain character.
A practical approach is:
- Shoot in RAW.
- Convert to black and white in Lightroom.
- Use a stronger contrast curve, such as an S-curve in the Tone Curve panel.
- Adjust exposure and contrast to taste.
- Add grain in post.
If you want a grittier film-like look, starting with a higher ISO can help. One method is to shoot at high ISO, process from RAW, and reduce or disable noise reduction so the noise remains visible; after converting to black and white, that noise can resemble grain more pleasantly than it does in color.
Keep in mind that digital noise is not exactly the same as film grain, and the source image matters: sensor size, dynamic range, and lighting all affect how close you can get. Good lighting and careful tonal adjustments are as important as the black-and-white conversion itself.
So: Lightroom is enough to approximate the look, especially with tone-curve work and added grain, but if you want the exact rendering of film, shooting real black-and-white film is still the most accurate path.
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