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Chapter 18: Finally, a Paul Reid video on editing monochrome.
The Leica Q2 Monochrom journal.
One of the worst parts about shooting images with a monochrome camera (like the Leica Q2M) is that there were no decent videos that teach you how to edit black-and-white RAW files in Lightroom. The YouTube videos all focus on converting color files to monochrome. Useful for most, but it doesn’t help those of us shooting with a black-and-white sensor. A pure monochrome file is a different beast since the color controls don’t apply.
I’ve been following the stunning black-and-white portraits in Leica Q2M shooter Paul Reid’s videos for the last year and was disappointed that he had a tendency to show a lot of brilliant images, but never told how he edited them. Finally he put up a video on his editing technique. It’s short, but the most informative vid out there on true monochrome editing.
The three startling things in this video are (one) he doesn’t use curves, (two) he can do a complete edit through a simple workflow in less than five minutes and (three) he does most of his editing in Lightroom on an iPhone Pro. As I’m using a Leica Q2M and editing in Lightroom on an iPad or iPhone too, this makes it the first video I’ve seen that makes it easy for me to grasp exactly what someone is doing when editing shots from a monochrome sensor.
Paul offers a Monochrome Madness course for ₤︎50. His workflow is pretty much the same as the YouTube video above, but the course offers some good and rare insight in how to shoot and edit specifically with a monochrome sensor.
I’m hoping he posts more how-to videos on editing either on YouTube or behind the paywall of the Monochrome Madness course. And one of the best things is that watching Paul work is tension-free, a little like watching Bob Ross paint.
I make no money from recommending Paul’s course. If you’ve found this article helpful, please consider buying me a coffee below.
Photography Leica Q2 Monochrom