My approach to photo editing is to nail the basics and get my photo about 80% of the way complete within the first couple of minutes. Then, I may spend an hour or two on the final 20%, shaping and crafting each are of the scene to tell the strongest story I can. The look for this black and white photo didn’t take hours, yet it was a combination of a few key adjustments partnered with a series of smaller nips and tucks.

Here is a list of the main adjustments made to this photo:

• Set the fundamentals of exposure, black point, white point, and white balance (leveraging the Auto buttons)

• Switch to a black & white camera profile

• Downplay brightness in the foreground

• Adjust the black and white mix to darken the blues and yellows in the photo

• Accentuate the main subject - the tree - with detail and contrast

• Darken and add drama to the sky

• Refine tone and texture in the foreground

• Refine overall contrast for the scene and address some halos

Watch the video for the complete rundown. I am also planning to post a video about dealing with halos in landscape photography - that is a topic worthy of a specific video.