Landscape black and white photo of a mountain range

B&W Landscape


B&W Landscape is a free Lightroom preset that converts colored images to black and white with crisp and balanced tones. Its monochrome settings are optimized for landscape and nature, making the preset ideal for most outdoor scenes. Not only does it emphasize details and tones, but it also gives images a vintage film charm.

Collection: Black and White PresetsLandscape Presets
Best for: Landscapes, Detailed Scenes
Style: Bright, Strong Midtones, Soft Highlights

This is the classic preset to use whenever you need an elegant and timeless aesthetic. If you want to give your Instagram feed a professional look, for example, you can apply B&W Landscape to all your photos. It will also give your photos a cohesive look. Alternatively, you can also use the preset when enhancing images to be printed.

Brightens Landscapes

A black and white photo of a beach

Bright Outdoors. The preset begins its processing by switching to black and white mode. This enables it to set the necessary parameters for a monochrome look. It then brightens the scene by increasing the warm temperature; in a black and white image, this means that it illuminates select tones based on their corresponding original colors.

In the example above, you can see how this adjustment defines the contrast. Notice how warm colors of the beach appear brighter in monochrome, while the cool colors appear darker. This also serves as the basis for finer luminance enhancements later on.

Softens the Intensity of Whites and Highlights

A black and white photo of a highway leading to the mountains

Moderate Whites. The preset more finely sets the intensity of tones by softening bright whites and highlights. Because of the adjustment, no bright area can look overblown. This, consequently, helps preserve details and richness in grays.

You can examine this in the After photo above. Compare the mountain ranges; the monochrome image retains much depth and definition.

Produces Deep Blacks

A vivid black and white photo of a mountain range

Crisp Blacks. To balance out its softening of light tones, B&W Landscape darkens blacks further. It then does the same for shadows, but only subtly. The finer adjustments can be seen in the tone curve.

In the example above, notice how the darkened tones add depth and dimension to the mountain landscape. It seems more 3-dimensional now. The contrast between light and dark tones are more pronounced; see how the photo now has augmented and more nuanced dark grays. Also, observe how the preset transformed the blue sky into almost black tones.

Intensifies Midtones

A crisp and vivid black and white photo of a man sitting in the field with a dog beside him

Vivid Monochrome. To complement the adjustments in the previous example, B&W Landscape also amplifies midtones. This includes improved intensity through clarity and contrast. It goes hand in hand with the previous darkening and draws out more details. The preset then refines textures by adding some sharpening. It is, after all, important to show as much detail as possible in a landscape image.

You can examine the example above. See how dramatic the tones now look in the After photo. Even in the absence of color, the picture remains expressive. Because of its classic style, too, it now gives off a nostalgic feel.

Applies Complex Luminance Adjustments

A black and white photo of a hand pointing towards a stream cutting across the landscape

Brilliant Mids. The preset increases the luminance of purple tones. This ensures that skin tones, and other neutral shades, look well illuminated. Being a monochrome preset, this is of course done in Lightroom’s B&W mix channels.

Varied Brilliance. The preset then lowers the luminance of all other colors in various levels. Unlike purple, these tones are made to look less brilliant; in contrast, these tones look rich and deep.

In the After photo above, you can notice how the deepened tones blend with the darkened blacks and shadows. As a result, see how the softened whites of the waterfall look subdued yet somehow accentuated against the contrasting and vivid tones.

B&W Landscape is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use B&W Landscape 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
Black and White Free Lightroom Presets

Free Lightroom Preset by PresetLove.com

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