Matt Kloskowski details seven masking tips that will help you get better results and make your life easier in Lightroom and Camera Raw.
Watch more from Matt Kloskowski here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
“In this video, you’ll explore several ways to add vignette effects and simulate traditional film grain in Lightroom Classic.”
Watch more from Julianne Kost here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
“In this video, you’ll learn how to remove distortions caused by the camera lens using the Lens Correction panel as well as correct perspective distortions using the auto and guided upright options in the Transform Panel.”
Watch more from Julianne Kost here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
“In this video, Julieanne walks through the capture sharpening settings in the Detail panel in Lightroom Classic.”
Watch more from Julianne Kost here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
“In this video Julieanne explains the difference between the three Presence sliders: Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze and how they can be used to add contrast to an image.”
Watch more from Julianne Kost here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
Color grading can unify images of different subjects shot at different times and locations.
Correction Versus Grading
Many people use color correction and color grading interchangeably, but their intents are quite different, while both are post-production processes and often use the same tools. Color correction is an objective technical process where colors are adjusted to appear natural; color grading is a subjective artistic process where colors are enhanced to evoke time, atmosphere, physical sensations (like temperature), and/or emotions. Correction convinces minds (avoiding personal biases); grading provokes feelings (celebrating personal preferences).
Correct Before You Grade
For some (scientists, journalists, product photographers, and art reproduction), color correction is the first and last step. For others (artists, many fashion and portrait photographers), color correction is a necessary prelude to color grading. Producing a neutral base gets images ready for artistic effects. Clipped highlights and shadows, color casts, and too much or too little saturation can all get in the way of successfully color-grading images. Correction also produces consistency between multiple shots. You won’t need to customize the color grading for different images if they are first color-corrected. This can save a lot of time and confusion if you’re processing many images.
Things To Look For During Color Correction
1 Preserve shadow and highlight detail.
2 Remove color casts. Make neutrals truly neutral.
3 Set saturation neither too low nor too high.
Monitor memory colors: skin, blue sky, green grass, etc.
Read more on 4 Ways To Achieve Neutrality.
Tools To Create Color Grades With
“In this video we’ll look at a little-known/used tool with the selective adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop Camera Raw. It’s the Color tool and we’ll really dive in to how it’s different than just the normal white balance settings for changing or adding color to your photos.”
Watch more from Matt Kloskowski here.
Learn more with my Color Adjustment resources.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
“Julieanne walks through 10 tips for working in the Develop Module in Lightroom Classic, including shortcuts for sliders and panels, customizing the interface, unique zoom options, and more!”
Find more from Julianne Kost here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
Rushing towards perfect, you might miss it. Previsualization (seeing with your mind) is a fine start, but I recommend you use Lightroom to go further and visualize (see with your eyes). After exploring your options fully, you can perfect those results.
You can level up and speed up your game by using Lightroom’s Presets.
(Note, Camera Raw offers Presets that are identical to Lightroom.)
Virtual copies are the easiest way to make side-by-side comparisons.
Presets are the easiest way to preview the many possibilities one image contains.
Presets are also a great way to create a consistent look for two or more images. Once applied, you can tweak settings to optimize individual images while still preserving a unified style.
Presets can record any Edit setting(s) (one, many, or all) and apply them to any other image. A single click can produce results as subtle or dramatic as you like.
The many presets Adobe provides are a great starting point. You can make your own presets by customizing the defaults, by applying someone else’s, or by creating your own from scratch.
The Presets panel and the slider settings one preset produces.
How To Use Presets
Zero noise reduction
Adobe’s Camera Raw / Lightroom Manual Noise reduction
Imagenomic’s Noiseware
Adobe’s Camera Raw / Lightroom AI Noise Reduction
There’s noise in every file. This is why noise reduction is applied to every image you open in Camera Raw / Lightroom, unless you turn this default setting off. What tool you use to remove noise depends on how much noise there is. Moving from a little to a lot, here are the three options and why you would choose one over the other.
1 – A little
If you’ve got only a little noise Adobe’s Manual Noise Reduction is up to the task.
Read more on Lightroom Manual Noise Reduction here.
2 – Some
If you’ve got significant noise in non Raw file formats (like JPEGs) or in layers in a Photoshop file, use Imagenomic’s Noiseware.
Read more on reducing noise with Noiseware here.
3 – A lot
If you’ve got substantial noise in a Raw file, use Adobe’s AI Noise Reduction.
Read more on Adobe’s AI Noise Reduction here.
In a nutshell, for Raw files choose Manual Noise Reduction (a little noise) or AI Noise Reduction (more than a little noise). For other file types use Imagenomic’s Noiseware.
Read more about noise here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.