A black and white photo of a road lined with trees

Sharp B&W


Sharp B&W is a free Lightroom preset that transforms your photos into sharp monochrome black and white. The preset make custom adjustments on highlights, contrasts, clarity, and noise to produce textured, focused, sharp images. It also plays on soft blue tones adding it to the shadows as well as illuminating it creating vivid contrasts and highlights.

Collection: Black and White PresetsPortrait Presets, Landscape Presets
Best for: Headshots, Portraits, Landscapes, Versatile (Indoor and Outdoor)
Style: Bright and Detailed

The Sharp B&W preset works well on both outdoor or indoor images, whether landscape or portrait as it is able to produce cold black and white images. If you’re looking at adding a sharp, crisp black and white vintage vibe on your Instagram feed or social media posts, try this preset out!

Frames Your Images

A vivid black and white photo of a woman sitting in a field wearing a white top and sunglasses

Soft Frame. The Sharp B&W preset incorporates a vignette in its settings. This sets faded borders around the image adding a soft frame throughout. The vignette also helps add focus on the subject and adds to the analog photo look.

A vivid black and white portrait of a girl sitting on stool

Focused Subjects. This example above shows how the vignette is implemented on the preset. You can see how the corners of the image are darker and gradually fades towards the middle of the preset. This creates a gradient effect that also adds focus on the girl, emphasizing sharper lines and clean tones. The vignette also helps complete the classic black and white look.

Illuminates Blue Tones

A vivid black and white photo of a woman wearing a blue long-sleeved top at a coast

Brighter Blues. The preset adds blue tones in its shadows and is also heightened in the preset’s custom tone curve. This means having brighter and illuminated blue elements once the preset is applied. The photo above is perfect, as it shows how different shades of blue react to the preset. For starters, you can see how the blue sky turns into light gray shades in the After image. The woman’s blue longsleeved shirt and jeans appear lighter but distinct in monochrome.

A vivid black and white photo of a coast

Incorporates Blue Shades. The preset’s play on blue tones is also quite evident in the example above. Focusing on the After photo, you can distinctly see how the sea is depicted showing darker and lighter elements on the water. These details are important, as these naturally indicate if the water is shallow or deeper. Having these elements in a monochrome image makes it look crisp, sharp, and distinct. Some details such as the shore and the rocks are also depicted well, showing more details and texture all throughout.

Brings Out Details

A vivid black and white photo of structures lining a dock

Sharp Details. The preset adjusts its lighting setting by reducing highlights and whites and adds contrast and darks. This enables the preset to reveal more details as brighter elements tone down. The photo above is a great example of how these details are slowly being revealed. First, the monochrome filter was able to highlight tiny aspects such as the water on the river. The ripples are more evident in the monochrome setting, showing that the water is moving and not still. The different dark colors of the buildings also show how each building has a different design and not just one look. And lastly, the texture of the trees is heightened, revealing the sparse leaves on its branches.

Sharp B&W preset is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use Sharp B&W preset as is, right out of the box. With any preset, you might need to make adjustments to accommodate your specific camera, settings, lighting, and subject matter.

If you want more presets like this, check out our Lightroom black and white presets and Lightroom landscape presets.

  • Entirely Adjustable
  • Compatible with Lightroom 4, 5, 6 and CC
  • Performs with both PC, Mac, and Mobile
  • Applicable to both RAW and JPG images
  • 100% Free
modern Free Lightroom Presets

Free Lightroom Preset by Presetpro

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