Intstructor intro - Toning Intent
Lesson 5 from: Transform Your Images with Color GradingLindsay Adler
Intstructor intro - Toning Intent
Lesson 5 from: Transform Your Images with Color GradingLindsay Adler
Lessons
Introduction to Color Grading: Preparing for the Shoot
18:35 2Shooting for Color Grading: Clean Timeless Beauty
37:56 3Shooting for Color Grading: Simple but Dramatic Look
15:44 4Shooting for Color Grading: Gold Elegant Look
05:33 5Intstructor intro - Toning Intent
08:29 6Basic Color and Toning in Lightroom
09:03 7Toning with Selective Color Photoshop
07:51 8Color Look Up Tables in Photoshop
06:24Lesson Info
Intstructor intro - Toning Intent
But where I wanted to begin was talking about the difference between fixing white balance and color grading. So taking a look at these three images the photo in the middle is when I did auto white balance. And, as I said before, what happened is the camera thinks everything should be neutral. When you're in auto, it sees red skin tone, warm background, warm, warm, warm. And so it thinks. Okay, there's something going on here. Maybe it thinks that there's tungsten light like it's just seen too much warm and it sucks it out. And so you get that middle shot, which you some with the background, looked like. This is not what that photo should be. This is why I said first, you want to control your white balance and then you want to go ahead and handle your color grading. So that's a picture in the middle with auto. The picture on the right here is when I did, uh, corrected my white balance. So using the color checker that I showed you will show you how this works. But the color checker that ...
we photographed, what I did is once we got the light all set. I'll show you examples. This is what the white balance was doing on auto, which is horrendous. So what I need to Dio is in develop module. I ain't to grab my white balance dropper, my white balance selector, because I can click on it and then I can select one of thes neutral tones on the bottom. And so I'm telling light room, this is neutral. There should be no Calder cast. I can click on it and watch the difference in her skin night and day. So if you're shooting on auto, you're doing it wrong thoughts. What? It's so what I can do now as I can apply this white balance forward to any other photos that I want. So what? Aiken Dio is clicking on that first shot I can select whichever other ones I want the correct white balance applied to. So I clicked. I held shift, I clicked again and then in the right bottom right hand corner, I'm sinking the setting, so this will correctly give me the right white ballots. You just have to make sure that you have the white balance selected so I can get that all synchronized give everyone the right white balance. So that's what I have in these bottom three. 1st A middle one was auto white balance. This is when I corrected the white pounds within the left is what fit my vision. The left is what I did. Color grading, too. So in other words, keep in mind color grading isn't correct. White balance Not correct toning. It's toning for mood. So that's why when I get everyone set up on, because if you're really fixated on the numbers and there's a lot of books or tutorials that, I'll tell you the ratios of color that need to be in the skin. Oh yeah, I know the one on the left would be totally wrong, but it looks good. So who cares? That takes me to the next point of the importance of calibration. Make sure that when you are working that you have everything calibrated in your system. So the first part of calibration is taking the picture of the great card or the color checker, and the next part is using something like ah, color monkey or three I one display. It depends on what system use. I personally use the X ray system. So I use a color monkey. Um, so that gets everything right? Because if my screen is wrong and I'm doing these funky edits and then I send it off to print, they'll look even more messed up. So let me show you I'm going to reset this picture, okay to where it is correct white balance. And we're going to mess it up. And so I told you that different approaches you can take as you can warm things up, cool things down. Have ah, color shift for mood. Or you could do complementary colors. So this is an example where I'm going to purposely warm things up beyond where they're supposed to be. This is not a color greeting rule. I just want to you what I do. I do this all the time. When I want warm, I do that. So on the right hand side in our develop module, we're going to go to the very top, and I am going to over warm the picture, so I'm giving it in correct white balance. But it's correct, because I wanted to look like that. Don't worry. So we're gonna warm up the white balance. So I'm gonna drag it and I'm going to drag it to a point where clearly it is too saturated. But I want to add this kind of warmth toe all the tones. The problem is that your skin just gets too warm. So the next thing I usually dio is I Then either pull up some vibrance or some saturation. Basically, it warms everything up. It makes it not so Eso supersaturated. So I warmed it up by just dragging the white Bowne slider to the right And then I'm going to go to my vibrance and just pull out some tones. So if you can see so far, this is the picture. Well, you guys can't tell so much on the screen, but I can see it on mine. Ah, the picture on the right was what I captured the picture on the left. It just warms everything up. Another approach is you could pull out the saturation just a bit. I tend to mess around with vibrance little more so I think something like that, uh, taking a look at the shot. The next thing that I see is that the highlights on her dresser really bright, but her skin looks a little flat. I want to add a little bit more pop. So I go in to my highlights. Shadows, white balance, white and blacks. This is where I control things a lot. There other places to control exposure. But this is where I tend to do it. So I'm gonna just pop my whites a little bit. I am highly. It's just a bit bring up my shadows and what I'm looking for is, I just want everything to be warm without blocking up like I don't want anything too dark and too orange. So again, kind of where we're going is everything's nice and warm, believably as if she was bathed in warm light, not like super super saturated. So I would get something about here, and I would sink it up with other photos. What you do have to know is you have to know how your printing it It's really great if you have the control. For example, if you're printing the printer I use is that is that the Cannon Pro 1000? Because then I can make sure that's calibrated. Check everything. If you're sending out to a printer and you do supersaturated colors. You just need to know your your lab. Well, like, how do they handle these colors? So let's see, I'm going to something like that. So just to summarize, I warmed up the white balance, pulled out the vibrance and increase the contrast. That's how I got this warm photo. But this is what I got. Nancy, this is what I had. A camera is a picture on the right. So that's an example of super warming things up. Now I'm going to take a look at a completely different example, and we're actually going to go back to the very beginning. Very, very top here. We're gonna pick a photo of this girl. Okay, Super cute girl. And this is a nice starting point cause I can warm this up a lot or I can cool it down. How I would do this in light room is I would create virtual copies, and what that means is it's not duplicating the file. It's just duplicating the way that light room would interpret your file. So it's just give me different previous. Basically, it doesn't actually create that effect until you open the file up in photo shop and save it, but it will never overwrite your original one. All right, So for example, for her, I could absolutely go super warm, warm up my white balance, pull out some vibrance, pop the way it's pops of clarity a little bit. So here's a warm version of it, okay? And that's totally doable. It is just, like, very warm in the tones. But I'm gonna create a virtual copy if you right click on it, create a virtual copy. I'm gonna go totally different formula. And now I'm gonna go opposite. I'm gonna cool things down, Pop The highlights increase the contrast. So taking a look at these two photos side by side, both of them are completely right. But they've totally different moods. Which is why I said start with your color grading intent. Are you trying to go for warm and approachable software? Trying to go for dark, mysterious and moody notice that I'm popping highlights and shadows and contrast as well as messing with white balance. So the first way in light room to mess with color is to adjust the white balance. The right white balance is the white balance you think looks best
Ratings and Reviews
Sean
Fantastic course. Lindsay Adler is a such a photography Rock Star. She can do it all, shooting in and out of study, lighting, posing, teaching and very amazing, Photoshop guru. Thanks for getting Lindsay, in the beginning I never knew that she was so skilled in all these aspects. As you progress in your photography, you learn lighting, skin tones and white balance, then skin retouching, then you learn color grading and analogous colors, complimentary colors, color triads, etc. Color Grading is so key to that final polished and "expensive" look. Lindsay did a terrific job teaching this course. I watched it 3 to 4 times to really pick up how to use these tools. Lindsay is a phenomenal teacher and photographer. Thanks for getting her Creativelive.
Elizabeth Haen
This is a great class to learn many options for color grading images. Lindsay gives comprehensive options for use in both LIghtroom and Photoshop. She has a style of teaching that is easy to follow and does an excellent job of summarizing each technique after introducing it to help the process sink in fully before she moves on. I love how she goes over everything she does thoroughly in a way that clearly explains each step without assuming everyone knows what she is doing. There is never a time when I thought "wait, what did she just do there?!:". Just really great information that is well taught.
David Babcock
Awesome class - Lindsay is a wonderful teacher. It might be nice to have a list of the equipment used, I had to go back a couple of times to find all of what Lindsay was using. Excellent and well done!!
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