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Lesson Info

Adjusting Images: The Light Panel

1 So now that we've selected our images, 2 it's time to adjust. 3 We don't want to adjust anything 4 that we're not going to use. 5 That's why we do the selection first. 6 I have actually turned my attention to a self portrait 7 that I did while I was testing some lighting 8 for a portrait that I was doing. 9 So this is my self portrait, 10 which is actually a lighting test. 11 I've gone through and made the selections the same way 12 that I did on the previous lesson. 13 But I'm going to start adjusting. 14 So when we are inside of Lightroom, 15 the only way for us to adjust those images 16 is to look at them in full size. 17 So by double clicking 18 or by going over to the right hand side 19 and clicking on the switch to detail view, 20 either one of those will get you into the full view 21 where we can see the entire image and start working on it. 22 Now, our goal here in adjusting the images 23 in this lesson is to teach you all of the different tools 24 that you have in the adju...

stment area 25 and also how to apply those images 26 or those adjustments across the board. 27 And we've talked a little bit about that, 28 but we'll go into further detail. 29 Okay, so the first thing I'm gonna do 30 is I'm gonna highlight one image. 31 I could highlight a set of images like this, 32 but the problem is, is inside of Lightroom, 33 Lightroom Classic, you can actually turn on 34 what's called autosync mode. 35 That doesn't exist inside of Lightroom. I wish it did. 36 I've been asking for it for a very long time. 37 So if you happen to agree with me 38 and you want to be able to auto synchronize all 39 of the adjustments that you make on one image 40 to all the other ones like you can in Lightroom Classic, 41 please, go on the Adobe Lightroom forms 42 and shout at the top of your lungs because I want that too. 43 And I've been shouting for years. 44 But for now, I'm gonna teach you how 45 to do the best possible way of getting your images adjusted. 46 'Cause if I just go in to the light area 47 and I increase the exposure on this thing, 48 and I'm just gonna increase it way up. 49 Notice that it doesn't apply it 50 to any of the other selected images. 51 And so I'm gonna hit command Z to undo. 52 So we are just going to apply it to one image 53 and then we will copy and paste to all the other images. 54 So let's start with this image. 55 The first thing that we wanna do with an image 56 is we want to choose a profile. 57 Now, a lot of people will apply a profile after the fact. 58 So they'll go in and they'll do all their adjustments, 59 and then they'll apply some kind of a profile. 60 I prefer to actually apply the profile before 61 because it's almost like choosing the film stock. 62 So I'm gonna go up here to this area right up at the top, 63 and at the top you see profile. 64 And then it says camera faithful. 65 So if you click this little chevron, 66 you'll get things like Adobe Color, Adobe Landscape, 67 and you can see my image over on the left hand side is 68 changing as I do this. 69 So Adobe Color, Adobe Landscape Portrait, 70 these are all things that seek to mimic 71 what you saw on the back of your camera. 72 But then you can also choose other profiles down here 73 that you can install. 74 You can create your own and then install them. 75 And so I'm just gonna kind of look through these 76 and see if one of 'em is interesting to me. 77 And I actually like this JP-color warm art, shift one. 78 And don't worry, I'm actually going to give you a set 79 of these profiles as a gift for purchasing the class. 80 So if you've purchased this class or you have rights to, 81 or maybe you're a subscriber, 82 as long as you have access to this class, 83 you will have access to my profiles, 84 if you purchase it or become a subscriber. 85 So there's gonna be presets and profiles there for you. 86 So in this case, I've got JP-color warm art shift, 87 and if I click on that, now, 88 right below the profile, 89 you'll notice that this amount slider comes up. 90 That amount slider allows you to go back down to 0%. 91 So see, now I'm back to the original profile 92 that I was on before. 93 And that's really useful 94 because it's designed such that 95 you can go full bore with the profile, 96 or you can kind of just warm up the image a little bit 97 and soften the image a bit. 98 I think I like that. So I'm at like 38%, there. 99 That looks pretty good to me. 100 So now that I have the profile, 101 now I'm gonna adjust the image 102 because now I have the film stock, 103 and now I'm going to play with the image 104 based on what is going on in the photo. 105 Now that I've changed the underlying color definitions, 106 and that's what a profile does. 107 Profile is not a preset, it doesn't- 108 A preset, when you click on a preset, 109 it just moves sliders around to adjust the image. 110 That's not what a profile does. 111 A profile changes the underlying color 112 and contrast definitions of the image itself. 113 And so it's pre-image. 114 So here's the raw image, 115 and then on top of that image is the profile. 116 And then on top of the profile is all of your adjustments, 117 including presets and things like that. 118 So everything you do to the images on top of that profile. 119 So we want to apply the profile first, 120 then adjust the images 121 because then we get a better image in the end. 122 If you adjust the image and then apply the profile, 123 you might have to go back and readjust the image 124 because the profile might not make sense 125 for the adjustments that you've just made. 126 Now, that's not to say you can't do it, 127 it doesn't destroy the image, 128 it doesn't hurt to do it that way, 129 the opposite way of what I'm saying, 130 it just costs you a little bit more time. 131 Okay, so I've applied my preset, I've taken it down to 38%. 132 Now I'm gonna zoom back out 133 and I'm gonna look at the entire image. 134 Lemme just zoom in here. 135 Actually, I'm gonna hit the command minus key. 136 So command or control minus allows me to zoom out 137 and in at various stages. 138 So I'm gonna go to that 139 just so that I can see the image pretty well, 140 but I'm not at a hundred percent. 141 And I'm just going to play around with- 142 The exposure is fine. 143 I like the exposure. 144 What I don't like is the shadows. 145 I want a little bit more shadow in that suit. 146 So I'm gonna take the shadows up just a bit, 147 see how I'm playing with those shadows? 148 And that actually makes the shadows on my face 149 a little bit better as well. 150 So I'm enjoying that. 151 And then I'm gonna take 152 the highlights down just a little bit. 153 So I'm gonna go up here to the highlights 154 that's right above the shadows 155 and bring them down and see how the shadow 156 or the highlights are just kind of calming, 157 that brightness on my head. 158 And of course, because I'm bald, 159 I have a lot of shine and things like that. 160 But that's something we can play with later. 161 I just want to take care of any kind 162 of hot spots on the nose or on the forehead. 163 So I'm just pulling that down a little bit. 164 The other thing that I can do, 165 and I actually like doing this quite a bit, 166 is taking the contrast down just a little bit. 167 A lot of people, you know, jack the contrast up, 168 but I think that makes an image look 169 a little bit too punchy, too rough. 170 And so I'm gonna bring the contrast down a little bit, 171 which actually is going to brighten up my shadows. 172 It's gonna bring my highlights down. 173 It's kind of gonna even everything back up. Okay. 174 So I think I like everything that is here, 175 and I'm just scrolling with my mouse on the finger 176 in order to move around the image. 177 And I really, really like the soft nature 178 of the dark areas here. 179 That's really a pleasant look. 180 I like that. 181 It looks a lot like film, 182 which is what this art profile 183 is supposed to be looking like. 184 Now I'm gonna take the blacks 185 and play with them for just a little bit. 186 So I'm gonna grab them and bring them down, bring them up. 187 And by the way, if you hit the option key 188 and then you start dragging, 189 you're gonna start seeing some weird little things. 190 Now, normally on a regular image, 191 so if I went to this image instead 192 and I grab the blacks and I push the option key 193 or the alt key on a PC, 194 and I drag this, do you see those shadows there? 195 It's telling you where the shadow is kind of getting, 196 that's the deepest area of the shadow, under that collar. 197 See that? So we're identifying exactly where. 198 So if I go up here, there's no real shadows, 199 there's no real- 200 Or sorry, blacks. There's no real blacks. 201 But as I go down, it starts to identify the areas 202 of the photograph that are actually becoming pure black. 203 So that's a good way to see exactly 204 where those black points are coming in. 205 And if I go to the shadows 206 and do the same thing, same thing happens with the shadows. 207 And I can go up to the exposure and do the same thing. 208 And you're gonna see exactly the same thing 209 that at some point, oh, there it is. 210 So as we get too bright, now it's saying, oh, 211 we've just hit that point where we're peaking. 212 So the idea is that if you want to see specifically, 213 rather than trying to figure out 214 what the histogram is telling you, 215 if you hold down the option or the alt key 216 and start dragging some of these exposure knobs around, 217 you're actually gonna see 218 those specific areas that are clipping. 219 And that's a good thing. 220 You can also come up to the histogram 221 and click on these warning signs 222 that are right at the top corners. 223 So if I click on this one 224 and this one, now I'm gonna have, 225 do you notice those? 226 That shadow, it's the same thing 227 that we were seeing when we were dragging 228 the blacks up and down. 229 It's the same areas. 230 So you see that that is a clipping shadow, or black, 231 but there's no clipping highlights. 232 If I take the exposure up, 233 at some point we're gonna see the exposure clip. 234 There it is. So you see how we're clipping there. 235 Okay, so that's just two ways 236 that you can see your exposure in more detail. 237 The histogram is really useful, 238 but oftentimes a shadow or a highlight warning 239 is also very useful. 240 I'm gonna turn these off for now, 241 and I'm gonna go back to our image that we're working on. 242 The reason that that option key doesn't do anything 243 in the black area is because the underlying definitions 244 that we changed because of that profile, 245 that color warm art profile, 246 that profile is created with a curve 247 that doesn't allow black to exist. 248 It also doesn't allow pure white to exist. 249 So what it does is it traps all of the deepest black 250 in the photograph, it traps it at about 10% of black. 251 So it's a little bit brighter. 252 And so you get a thinner black point 253 and it can never actually truly hit zero. 254 And that's what makes it this kind of milky look. 255 So anyway, you can't hit pure black 256 and you can't hit pure white on this particular profile. 257 Okay, so I'm gonna just play with this black point 258 and see if there's some place 259 that I prefer seeing that black point. 260 And I think I preferred it at about negative three. 261 Okay, so now I have my photograph adjusted 262 the way I like it, I could go in and work on the curve. 263 So right at the bottom of the light area, there's a curve. 264 And the curve, if I drop that down, 265 you'll see that it has several things involved in the curve. 266 So the first thing that's involved is the tone curve itself. 267 So this is all colors adjusted at the same time. 268 So as I work on this particular image, 269 I'm gonna drag myself right over there. 270 I can brighten up the midtones. 271 So if I grab and pull in the middle, 272 it's brightening up the midtones, 273 but notice that it's locking down 274 the white and the black area. 275 Those are locked down. 276 If I double click that, it disappears. 277 So I get rid of that point. 278 I can take the black and bring it up 279 and see how it's getting rid of all possible black. 280 Or I can deepen all possible black 281 by going the opposite direction. 282 See how I'm bringing the black in? 283 Okay, same thing's true for white. 284 I could bring it down, which doesn't allow any white, 285 or I can bring it over, which is gonna clip all that white. 286 So a lot of the times we do what's called an S-curve. 287 So we'll brighten up, or sorry, 288 we'll darken down the darker areas 289 and we'll brighten back up the lighter areas 290 so that the areas that are brighter look the same. 291 They look like what they did before, 292 but the shadows start to get a little darker. 293 But notice that the black point is still where it was. 294 So we don't change the black, 295 we don't change the white, 296 we just change that kind of in-between. 297 Darkening the shadows, 298 brightening back up the highlights 299 so that it's got a little bit more punch to it. 300 So there's also this dial called refined saturation. 301 And the best way to see this 302 is if I were to really make some severe adjustments, 303 see how this saturation occurs? 304 So because the curve is so severe, 305 it's creating intense contrast. 306 And when you create intense contrast, 307 you're actually creating intense colors as well. 308 'Cause color also is a contrast. 309 And so by creating that intense color, I, 310 or by creating that intense contrast, 311 I create too much saturation. 312 And so I can go into this little curve- 313 Or this refined saturation slider, 314 grab onto that and drag it. 315 And by doing that, I can kind of diminish 316 the amount of saturation that happened 317 as a result of the curve. 318 So this is actually a fairly new tool 319 that I think is a really important addition 320 to the curve area. 321 And that is allowing us 322 to have a much more subtle approach to adding a curve. 323 Now, I'm not really a big fan of the super extra contrast, 324 and so I'm gonna right click this curve 325 and I'm gonna reset all the channels. 326 So now we're back to my original image, 327 the way it looked before we started the curve, 328 I wanna show you this R, G and B, 329 so the red, green, and blue channels. 330 So if I click on red channel here, 331 now we're going to be affecting the red 332 and the cyan channel. 333 And so as I bring up the curve, 334 I'm adding red, 335 and as I bring it down, I'm kind of adding cyan. 336 The great thing is, is that I can play with the colors 337 in the shadows and in the highlights, 338 and I can kind of create my own look. 339 This is a great place if you wanna do kind of 340 a cross-process film look, this is a great place to do it. 341 So I can take my shadows 342 and say I want to add a little bit of warmth in the shadows, 343 but I don't want to add that warmth in the highlight. 344 So I'm gonna bring that back down, 345 but I don't want it to become cyan. 346 So I'm just gonna kind of bring it 347 right back to where it was. 348 Now you can see there's a little warmth. 349 Then I can go to the green 350 and I can say, 351 I want to add a little bit of green in the highlights, 352 and I want to add a little magenta in the shadows. 353 And then I can go to the blue 354 and I say, I want to add a little bit more blue 355 in the highlights. 356 And we're gonna go quite a bit. 357 And then I'm gonna take the shadows 358 and I'm gonna go back to kind of a yellow. 359 There. And remember, we're subtle. 360 You didn't see me, you know, 361 jacking it up and down, moving all over. 362 I just did very subtle movements. 363 And if I zoom out now, 364 and let me zoom out of that; there. 365 Do you see how I've got this interesting cross process? 366 Look, let me show you what it looks like. 367 And by the way, all of these areas inside 368 of Lightroom have this little eyeball option. 369 And if I click that eyeball option, 370 it allows me to turn it on and off. 371 So that is my new look 372 that I created based on curves working 373 in the R, G, B channels. 374 So those are really helpful. 375 Also, you'll notice that you've got another curve here. 376 So this is the tone curve, the whole tone curve. 377 So that's all the colors together, which by the way, 378 you can click on that one now 379 and you can work, let me zoom in on this again, 380 and move me over a bit. 381 So you can also work on the tone curve as well. 382 So I can take just the tonalities up and down, 383 I can play with those based 384 on having those R, G and B channels. 385 The red, green, and blue channels 386 are also in play on this curve. 387 So if I use this tool here, 388 I'm actually working 389 on a completely different kind of curve. 390 Notice that it's identifying, here are the shadows, 391 here are the dark areas, here are the light areas, 392 and these are the highlight areas. 393 And so I can grab onto this 394 and it drags that specific area up and down, see? 395 So it's a little bit more user-friendly, I suppose. 396 If you don't know exactly what you wanna work on, 397 you can just grab that general tonality area 398 in the photograph, 399 and you can choose where these segments are divided. 400 So this is technically the highlights, 401 but if I wanted to, I could make the highlights 402 by dragging this little point over. 403 I could say, instead of having the highlights 404 start at about 75%, 405 I'm gonna have 'em start at about 89%. 406 So only the highlights, they only happen way up 407 in the really bright areas. 408 And then I can do the same thing for the shadows. 409 I can say, okay, this area here in the shadows, 410 that is only in the deep, deep shadows. 411 Instead of, if I were to drag this to the right, 412 now, the shadows is a very large area 413 and so if I drag it down, 414 it's actually affecting 415 a fairly large area of the photograph. 416 So this allows you to do kind of a user-friendly version 417 of the curve. 418 Again, I can right click this and I can reset that curve. 419 So we're back to zero. 420 I'm gonna go back over to the tone curve and reset that 421 because I don't necessarily want that to be changed. 422 And then I've got these, this R, G, B curves 423 that are in play to create this like warm, 424 cool cross-process look. 425 Okay, now, I don't actually want to apply that either, 426 so I'm gonna right click this 427 and I'm going to reset all channels. 428 Okay, so now let's go to one more tool inside 429 of the curve area. 430 And that is the target adjustments. 431 So the target adjustment tool allows me to click on it 432 and now I can come over to the photograph itself 433 and I can click on a thing. 434 So somewhere in this curve, 435 and right now we're on the red channel. 436 So I'm gonna go back to the, just the normal curve, 437 click on the target adjustment tool. 438 And now as I drag, see how that little circle, 439 as I point at a specific area, 440 is showing me that specific tone. 441 So if I go down to this area in the photograph, 442 you'll see that it's the really dark tones. 443 So I can go way down here 444 and point at the shadows under my lapel. 445 And if I click on it now I can brighten those shadows up, 446 which creates a solarization kind of look, 447 which is actually pretty funky and interesting, 448 but most of the time I would bring those down 449 to add a little bit of contrast. 450 And you see what's happening, 451 the curve itself has automatically made its own points. 452 So it's kind of intelligently figuring out 453 what should be the points in order 454 to affect this one specific tonality. 455 And then I can go over here to the highlight area 456 and click on that. 457 And then I say, I want to drag that up, 458 or I want to drag it down. 459 I can play with the tonality of that specific area. 460 So that is the target adjustment tool. 461 So if you don't know exactly what tone you're trying to fix, 462 that's a really easy way to find it out. 463 Right click that, reset all the channels again, 464 and that is the curve area. 465 So everything that we've just covered 466 is what we call the basics inside of Lightroom Classic, 467 but here it's just called Light. 468 So we covered how to apply a profile, 469 how to adjust that profile, and then the light area, 470 which includes all of your basic exposure functions.