When you click in an image with the Spot Removal tool, Lightroom sets down the source spot (where you clicked) and automatically selects an area to sample from. If you click and drag with the Spot Removal tool, Lighroom sets down the source spot (where you clicked), but by keeping the mouse down and dragging, you are able to control the area (dragging to reposition) from which Lightroom selects its source information.
Don’t forget that you can use the Spot Removal tool in Lightroom and Camera Raw in either the Clone mode (where you will get an exact copy of the retouched area) or the Heal mode (where Lightroom automatically adjusts the tonality of the sampled information to evenly blend the retouched area). And both of these modes support variable opacity so that next time you’re using the Spot Removal tool to retouch an image (as opposed to removing dust from the sensor), you might want to try decreasing the opacity of the retouched spot so that you’re simply reducing a distracting element, not removing it.
When you save a snapshot in the Develop module in Lightroom, that snapshot is automatically made available in every Virtual Copy of the image.
In this episode of The Complete Picture (Controlling Selective Color Changes in Lightroom), Julieanne demonstrates how to use Hue, Saturation, Luminance and the Adjustment Brush to selectively control color in Lighroom. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6.
• Command + U (Mac) | Control + U (Win) applies Auto Tone (which can help set black and white points and increase dynamic range for flat images).
• Command + Shift + U (Mac) | Control + Shift + U (Win) applies Auto White Balance.
• To apply an auto adjustment to every image, enable Apply Auto Tone Adjustments in the Preferences > Presets.
In addition to new camera support, Lightroom also includes HiDPI within the Library and Develop Modules. Click here for all of the details…
The other day I needed to scan several hundred photographs when I remembered a tip that Kevin Connor suggested. To increase productivity, instead of scanning each image individually (because this can take a long time if you have lots of little photos), place as many images as you can on the scanner and scan them all at once. Then, import those scans into Lightoom, Create Virtual copies for each individual image, and refine as needed.
In this episode of The Complete Picture (Toning Black and White Photographs in Lightroom 4 ), Julieanne explains the best way to add a color tone to an image using the Split Tone and Tone Curve panels as well as demonstrates how to save presets to increase your productivity.
Single Color Toning using the Split Tone panel. Examples include the Original Auto B/W Mix, Antique, Blue, Mustard, Sepia Midtones, Sepia Shadows, Blue, Cyan, Green, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Red, and Yellow presets.
Although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6. Click to download the Toning presets for Lightroom 4 (JKost_Toning.zip) and Photoshop CS6 (PS_JKost Toning.zip).
Note: here is an updated version of the Toning Presets for Lightroom 4 (Windows versions)JKostToningWin. I had use and asterisk in the file names which has now been changed to “0_” to keep the “reset” presets at the top of the list.
Color Toning using the Split Tone and Tone Curve panels. Examples include the Original Auto B/W Mix, Coffee Stain, Cyan/Yellow, Forest Horror, Orange/Yellow, Red/Cyan, Warm Strong, Warm Medium, Warm Subtle, Stark Winter, Warm Chocolate, and Weathered Marble presets.
To install: download and unzip the presets for Lightroom 4 or Photoshop CS6 (above) and place them in the following location:
Lightroom
• Mac (user)/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Develop Presets
• Win (user)/Application Data/Adobe/Lightroom/Develop Presets
Photoshop
• Mac(user)/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Camera Raw / Settings
• Win (user)/Application Data/Adobe/Camera Raw/Settings
If you are on a Mac running Lion, the Library menu is hidden by default. To reveal it, hold the option key down while selecting the “Go” menu in the Finder.
Note: The preset names differ slightly for each product as ACR does not support folders in the Presets tab and I wanted similar presets grouped together.
In this episode of The Complete Picture (Converting Images to Black and White), Julieanne demonstrates the best way to convert images to Black and White as well as how to save presets to increase your productivity. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6. Click here to download the presets for Lightroom 4 (JKost Black & White.zip) and Photoshop CS6 (PS_JKost Black White.zip).
Original Image, Default B/W Mix, Auto B/W Mix, Portrait B/W Mix +ROY
B/W Sat-100, B/W Sat-100 Lum+ROYP, B/W Sat -75 Vintage Look
Note: The preset names differ slightly for Photoshop and Lightroom as ACR does not support folders in the Presets tab and I wanted all of the Black and White presets grouped together.
To install: download and unzip the presets for Lightroom/Photoshop (link above) and place them in the following location:
Lightroom
• Mac (user)/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Develop Presets
• Win (user)/Application Data/Adobe/Lightroom/Develop Presets
Photoshop
• Mac(user)/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Camera Raw /Settings (put the presets loose in the Settings folder – not in a subfolder)
• Win (user)/Application Data/Adobe/Camera Raw/Settings
Note: If you are on a Mac running Lion, the (user)/Library folder is hidden by default. To reveal it, hold the Option key down while selecting the “Go” menu in the Finder.
If you capture images as JPEGs, and then make changes to JPEG files in the Develop Module (or in Quick Develop) in Lightroom or in Camera Raw in Photoshop ,and post those original JPEG files online, the adjustment changes will not be displayed. You must have Lightroom or Photoshop render a new version of the JPEG with your changes applied (via Export, the output modules and/or publish services).
Why? Well, when you make changes to your files in Lightroom (or Camera Raw), you can choose to push settings such as copyright and keywords into JPEG files. In Lightroom you do this by choosing Metadata > Save Metadata to File or by checking “Automatically write changes to XMP” in Catalog Settings > Metadata. In Photoshop, you add your information in File Info or in the appropriate panels in Bridge. Most other programs, (if they’re savvy enough to read IPTC data) can read information such as copyright and keyword and display this information.
But other programs (including browsers) are not able to read changes made in Quick Develop or in the Develop Module in Lightroom or in Camera Raw in Photoshop and render it, so you need to export your modified files (in order to render a new file with the changes applied) and post those files instead of the original JPEGs.
In this episode of The Complete Picture (The Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush), discover the power of making selective adjustments like dodging and burning, color corrections and noise removal using the Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6.
Adobe has released 2 pre-production plug-ins that extend existing functionality inside the Develop Module in Lightroom: Adobe DNG Flat Field and Adobe DNG Recover Edge. These plug-ins are provided free of charge, but without an official support program.
• Adobe DNG Flat Field plug-in in a tool used to correct an optical phenomenon called shading, also known as “lens cast”.
• Adobe DNG Recover Edge plug-in is a tool used to recover image data typically lost when using the in-camera crop mode.
Like other technologies on Adobe Labs, these tools are not finished products, but rather beta or prototype utilities that may work in your particular environment. To download the plug-ins and for more information, please visit Adobe Labs.
When working with the Point Curve (in the Tone Curve panel in Lightroom 4), it can be difficult to set a point on the curve and just nudge it up or down ever-so-slightly. Instead, use the Targeted Adjustment Tool to click on the tone that needs to be changed in the image area .This will set a point on the curve. Then, use the arrow keys to nudge the point into place. Add the shift key to move the point in greater increments.
As many of you know, double-clicking on the name of a slider (on a panel in Lightroom’s Develop module) will reset the slider to its default value. Although this might have been obvious to you, it had to be pointed out to me that in order to reset the Point Curve (in the Tone Curve panel) you simply need to double-click on the words “Point Curve”. (I was trying to drag the individual points off of the curve, which was taking much longer!)
There are two sliders in the Basic panel (in the Develop module in Lightroom and in the Camera Raw dialog in Photoshop), which can be used to quickly adjust color – Vibrance and Saturation. Lately I have overheard a number of people “arguing” over which adjustment is better. So to put that argument to rest, I’m going to say that both adjustments have their strengths! Although I will agree that it’s a good rule of thumb to use the Vibrance slider to increase (or decrease) saturation in images (especially portraits because not only is Vibrance a relative slider, it is also biased to leave “skin-tones” alone), there are also times when I prefer to use Saturation to set the mood in my images. In fact, there are many times when I use a combination of BOTH sliders to reduce colors that are too overbearing – I will make a negative adjustment using Vibrance and then increase the resulting (more “even” color palette) with Saturation. Since the sliders are nondestructive don’t be afraid to experiment!
(Yes, sometimes I run with scissors too. )
