Why I Use Exposure X for Black and White

In Mastering Lightroom Classic: Book Four – Black & White I recommended Exposure X as one of my favorite black and white plugins. Today I thought I’d explain why I like it so much.

First, let’s take a quick look at Exposure X’s plus points.

• You can use Exposure X as a plugin with Lightroom Classic or Photoshop, or as a standalone program.
• It has a digital asset management system that makes it a potential rival to Lightroom Classic. If you’re looking for a Lightroom Classic alternative, Exposure X could be it.
• There are over 500 high quality presets.
• Exposure X has most of the core developing tools that you’re used to in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop.
• There are lots of creative tools, including ones that Lightroom Classic doesn’t have.
• Exposure X has layers.
• Exposure X uses LUTs (Look Up Tables).
• It’s easy to use.

Black and white in Exposure X

Now let me show you some of the ways that I use Exposure X for black and white photography.

Wet plate collodian

Photographer Jack Lowe is undertaking a multi-year project. He’s set himself the task of photographing the people who work at every lifeboat station in the UK. But Jack doesn’t do things the easy way. He uses a large format camera and the wet plate collodion process to make his portraits. You can learn more about the project, check out his photos and buy prints from the Lifeboat Station Project website.

It’s an inspirational project. Jack’s photos made using the wet plate collodion process are beautiful. But few photographers have the resources, energy or time to use vintage black and white processes.

That’s where plugins like Exposure X come in.

One of Jack’s galleries has photos taken in Clovelly, a village close to where I live. I wondered what my photos of the village would look like if I used Exposure X5 to emulate the wet plate collodian process.

Click here to see Jack’s photos

Here’s the result when I used the wet plate collodion emulation presets in Exposure X. I developed these photos with a preset called Wet Plate – Damaged.

Lith printing

Back when I used to make black and white prints in a darkroom (over 20 years ago!) I experimented with a process called lith printing. A friend of mine liked the process so much he developed all his black and white photos in lith.

Lith prints have smooth highlights and dark grainy shadows. A good lith print is a work of art.

I like lith printing but I know that not many photographers are going to build a darkroom to start experimenting with it. But instead you can use the lith printing presets in Exposure X5.

Lith printing is great for portraits. Check out the work of Martin Warlbauer, a German photographer who uses makes black and white prints using lith.

Here are some of my lith portraits. I made them all with the Lith – Grainy preset.

Printing black and white photos

You’ll appreciate these analog processes more if you have a printer, or get your photos printed in a lab. Home printing is better because you can experiment with textured papers. Photos emulating antique processes look beautiful when they’re printed on textured paper.

Not just presets

It’s important to note at this point that Exposure X isn’t just about presets. Presets are useful, especially if you want to emulate a specific film or vintage developing process.

But you should treat them as a starting point. From there you can adjust tonal values, and add, adjust or remove textures, frames and lighting effects.

Creative options in Exposure X

Let’s take a closer look at how this works.

Here’s a photo that I opened in Exposure X.

The user interface is simple. Presets are on the left, and your photo is in the middle. Just like Lightroom Classic there are panels on the right for adjusting the settings.

You can start by applying a preset, or skip the presets completely. The choice is yours.

In this case I applied the Cyanotype – Brushed (red) preset to the photo.

Borders in Exposure X

Now let’s say you like the look of a particular preset, but not the border. You can go to the Overlays panel and either turn the border off or pick another one.

The preset I chose applied a brush effect border to the photo. But I like the Platinum Frame 6 border better.

I also like the Damaged 12 border.

You can adjust the size and opacity of borders. This helps stop your photos looking like others.

Textures in Exposure X

You can also experiment with adding Textures in the Overlays panel. There’s lots to choose from, and you can add your own. You can even use layers to add textures on top of textures.

Here I’ve added a scratches texture to the photo so you can see what it looks like.

Light Effects in Exposure X

You can also experiment with adding lighting and flare effects. Exposure X’s lighting effects work better with color photos, but at least you can see how it works.

Summing up

Hopefully this tutorial has helped you see the potential of Exposure X for working in black and white. It has a lot of features that I haven’t touched on here, and don’t forget you can also use it for color.

The main idea behind Exposure X (and how the plugin started in its original versions) is to give you a tool that helps you bring the analog look to digital photos. If this idea appeals to you then you’ll enjoy using it.

For me, plugins bring fun and creativity to your photography. They let you experiment with different presets and effects without getting bogged down in lengthy and complicated Photoshop tutorials.

If you don’t own Exposure X already, then you can buy it or download a free 30 day trial here.