lightroom Archives - Infrared Conversions, IR Modifications & Photography Tutorials

6 Lightroom Tips For Editing Your Blue Hour Shots

The blue hour is a wonderful time for photography, especially in cities. This is a time when the twinkling lights of a city can bring a photo alive. The great thing about blue hour photography is that it is relatively easy to do. As long as you have a tripod you won’t need much else. It is certainly easier than capturing sunrises and sunsets when the contrast in the light will mean filters are a must. Once you have captured your blue hour images, an important element in making them look as great as they can be is to edit them properly. So here are 6 quick Lightroom tips to help you edit your blue hour photos.

When is the blue hour?

Before going through the editing tips, it is important to know when the blue hour is. Because a common misconception for newbie photographers is that the blue hour is at night.

Firstly, the blue hour does not actually last for an hour. The exact amount of time it lasts will vary depending on the time of year and your location. It is also not at night. There is a big difference between “night” and the “blue hour”.

The blue hour occurs for a period of time before sunrise and after sunset. The difference between the blue hour and night time is that during the blue hour there is a cool bright blue hue in the sky. At night the sky becomes much darker. To know the exact time, it is best to download one of the many apps that shows the exact time and duration of the blue hour for that day, based on your location.

Now that you hopefully have a better understanding of the blue hour, here are some tips on how to edit your photos from it.

White balance

This is always one of the first things that I notice when I look at blue hour shots. If you have your camera set to Auto White balance, it will be more than likely that you will need to tweak your white balance a little when editing. Ideally, you should be aiming for a natural-looking photo which is neither too warm nor too cool (as per the example below). Generally, I would err on the cool side slightly as you will find that any areas which are artificially lit will look very saturated if too warm. The middle photo in the 3 images below is roughly what I like for this particular image.

Highlights, shadows and more

Looking at the histogram of this image, I can see that the histogram is slightly bunched up on the left. When looking at the image it is clear that some areas look a little dark. So, my next step is to tweak the sliders so that I have a better overall contrast in the image. By clicking the two arrows on either side of the histogram I can see on the image that there is some clipping happening.

At this point, I’m not too worried about the highlights clipping (in the bright areas) as I’ll come back to this later. For now, I’m going to add some brightness to the shadows area by using the “shadow” slider as well as some overall brightness.

For this image, I would then move the white slider to the left just to remove some of the clipping in the reflection of the light in the river. I will come back to the clipped areas in the lights later. You can of course play around with the sliders more for different levels of contrast.

Contrast with curves

The tone curve is a really useful way of adjusting the contrast of an image. You can either use the actual graph to tweak the contrast of an image or the sliders below it.

Generally, most photos (not all) will benefit from what is known as an “S Curve”. It is when the line on the graph is curved like the letter “S”. The important thing here is subtlety, so you only want very slight curves. This will mean your “highlights” and “lights” sliders will be further right than the “darks” and “shadows” sliders. Again, you can tweak these as much as you want for the desired result.

Saturation

At this point, I would also just add a small amount of clarity to the image, but again, be incredibly careful using this slider. Too much, and the image will look unrealistic and almost cartoon-like.

The “vibrancy” and “saturation” sliders are useful in all photos including blue hour shots. Keep in mind that you don’t always have to add saturation or vibrancy. Sometimes more muted colours in an image will make it look better.

For this image I have will add a little bit of saturation and vibrancy as I want a bit more colour in the sky and on the cathedral. One of the biggest mistakes I see in blue hour shots is when the photographer has pushed these sliders too far and the image just doesn’t look right. Look at comparisons below. Which do you prefer? The subtle version or the oversaturated version?

Local editing

One of the most powerful attributes of Lightroom is the ability to edit at micro level. In that, you can tweak the smallest areas without affecting the whole image. This is what I will use to remove the clipped areas in the image. You don’t need to worry too much about clipped areas in light sources such as street lamps but if like me you care about the smallest details, then read on.

Press the “K” on your keyboard and the panel on the right will change to the adjustment brush panel. From here you can change the attributes of the brush you are going to use. For this image, I’m looking to remove the clipped areas so I will pull the “whites” slider to the left and then with a small brush paint over the effected clipped areas. You can now see how the highlighted red bits on the image have disappeared.

Straighten and crop

There is of course much more editing that can be done, but as a minimum, these should make your blue hour photo look better. The last part which is equally important is to straighten your image and crop if needed. This is really important in cityscapes or whenever there are buildings as you will usually find that vertical lines are not straight.

It is easy to straighten your image in Lightroom. Simply scroll down to the “transform” section of the editing panel and press “Auto”. For the vast majority of images, this will straighten the image with nothing else needed from you. However, there may be times when you may have to tweak things or even manually straighten the image using the sliders.

Just these simple Lightroom editing steps will make a big difference to your blue hour shots. Don’t skip the editing part of your workflow as this is equally as important for those amazing blue hour photos as actually taking the photo.

6 Photography Editing Techniques To Make A Photo Look Different

There are some people who prefer not to make any dramatic changes to their images and that is fine. On the other hand, some people look at their photos in the same way as an artist paints a piece of art. So, manipulating a photo is something they will want to do. Whatever your personal preference is will be up to you. What is for certain is that editing software gives a whole world of opportunity. So here are 6 ideas for ways to edit your photos to give it completely different looks.

Crop

One of the quickest and easiest ways to transform an image is by simply cropping it differently. The great thing about digital photography is that you can crop as much as you want and always return to the previous version. So, don’t be afraid to give it a try and keep in mind that it doesn’t always have to be in a 4:3 ratio. For example, cropping in a panoramic ratio can make a photo look very different.

If you are using Lightroom, simply press “R” on your keyboard and you’ll be able to start trying out different crops. A useful tip to know is that when you have pressed “R” if you then press “O” you can toggle through different overlays (i.e. rule of thirds, golden ratio etc).

Black & white

Another quick but dramatic change to a photo can be made by switching the photo to monochrome (i.e. black and white). You will need to adjust some of the settings after converting to black and white as the image might look a little flat. Black and white images generally work best if there is some contrast in the shot so you may find boosting these will give a more pleasing result. Keep in mind that some images will work better in black and white than others but there is no harm in simply trying it out. You can always revert back to the previous colour version.

Low saturation

There are lots of different ways in which you can treat a photo. Most photographers tend to boost saturation and vibrancy as RAW files will generally be more muted in colours. So, boosting saturation will often give a pleasing result. But there are times when reducing the saturation for a more muted look will look great. This works well in shots where you have flat colours like landscapes on a cloudy day. Don’t pull the sliders all the way to the left as this will basically make your photo monochrome.

You can also combine (or instead) of this “global” saturation and vibrancy, use the sliders in the “HSL” section in Lightroom to selectively add or remove saturation from specific colours. Play around and see what you can come up with.

Hue

These sliders in editing software basically move a colour tone from one to another. For example, the Blue slider can make blues look purple or aqua at either end of the slider. While this might seem useless as most of the time these extremes make photos look unrealistic, sometimes a little bit of movement can really help an image.

Say for example you have a scene with yellow, dried grass. Moving the yellow slider to the right will make the grass appear greener. But keep in mind that if other parts of your image also have yellows in it, it will also make them green. You can use these sliders to make some subtle (or more dramatic) changes to your images.

An example of how using the Hue sliders can change an image. Here I’ve added more green to the grass areas.

Vignettes

Vignettes are another easy and quick way to add a little something extra to a photo. While the change won’t be dramatic with vignettes, it will still make a photo look different. Vignettes are great for occasions when you want to bring more focus on the subject in the centre of the shot. For example, in portrait photography, vignettes can work really nicely.

The important thing when using vignettes is subtlety. I have often seen examples of really dark vignettes of almost black, which for me seem to take away the focus from the subject. So my advice would be to just add a small amount, but ultimately it will be down to you and your desired effect.

Sky replacement

Replacing skies in photos isn’t something new. Luminar have had the function for a number of years. Now Photoshop has also introduced it to their interface. Obviously changing sky has always been possible in Photoshop, but the new automated function does make things a lot easier. Like any kind of editing, whether you are OK with replacing a sky will come down to your personal preference and the purpose of the photo.

If it’s just for personal use, then there’s no issue about replacing a sky. But for example, if you want to enter the photo into a competition you will find that replacing a sky isn’t allowed. But what the sky replacement technique does give you is a completely new way to show a photo.

There is no harm in trying it out. Make sure you have an image open in Photoshop then click Edit => Sky Replacement. It is self-explanatory from that point onwards.

Editing is an important part of the photography process. While like most photographers I would advocate that you get as much correct when taking a photo, there is nothing wrong with using editing techniques to achieve the desired effect. Photography is after all an art and an expression of your creativity. At the very least you can play around with the techniques above to see what you can come up with.

What Is The Lightroom Map Module And How To Use It?

One of my favourite advances in photography equipment has been the introduction of Geotagging on photos. As a stock photographer adding location information is vital to my work. Before I purchased my Canon 5D Mark IV, I would have to take notes on the location that photos were taken when I was away. This is so that I could then fill in the relevant descriptions, Keywords and location information when I submitted my work. If I ever forgot to take notes of the location it was down to me to try and find it on a map. Whilst this wasn’t an issue for the famous landmarks, a random street was a bit more difficult to remember. Geotagging has made this whole thing a lot more simple. As a result, the Lightroom map module has become a really useful part of my workflow process. So what exactly is the Lightroom map module and how do you go about using it?

What is the Lightroom map module?

If you look along the top of your Lightroom screen you will notice that the word “Map” appears between “Develop” and “Book”. When you click on the map module you will see a map of the world (which is pulled in from Google). If your Photos have Geotagging or in other words GPS coordinates they will appear as orange squares on a map. These orange squares might have numbers in them. These numbers indicate how many photos were taken in that particular location.

How to use the map module?

The easiest way to use the map module is to have a camera that has Geotagging functionality. For example, the Canon 5D Mark IV has this function. This means every time a photo is taken as long as you have enabled Geotagging in your camera settings that photo will be tagged with the GPS coordinates in the EXIF data of the photo.

So when you import those photos into Lightroom, it automatically read the EXIF data and assigns that photo to a location on the map. Whilst it may not always be accurate to the exact place that you were standing, it is usually pretty accurate. As Lightroom is using Google maps it does mean that you need to be connected to the Internet for the map to work.

How to use the map module?

Once your photos have been imported into Lightroom and placed on the map you are able to view the details. Hovering over a folder on a map will show the images that have the GPS coordinates in that spot. If you zoom into the map you may find that the location of the photos differs slightly and so you are able to get a closer look at the exact location that the photo was taken.

If you click on the photo on the film strip along the bottom you’ll notice that one of the orange squares will become yellow. This is the location that photo that you have selected was taken at.

If you hover over any of the orange squares you will see a thumbnail image appear. You can use the arrows to scroll through the other images that were taken at that location.

If you zoom right into the map so that each photo represents its own orange triangle you can move the location of the photo to somewhere else. This is useful if, for example, the Geotagging hasn’t placed the photo in the right place.

Whenever you have clicked on any of the orange squares you will notice that on the right-hand side panel there is some information about the exact location written in the metadata. This is another area where you can change the details of the photo.

What if your camera doesn’t have Geotagging?

If your camera doesn’t have Geotagging you can still add GPS data to a photo. But it’s a little more inconvenient. You would either have to purchase an external unit that connects to your camera that records GPS coordinates. Or you would have to record the GPS coordinates using something like your mobile phone and then add them in manually. So it might not actually be worth doing it.

For anyone that needs to record the exact location of photos, the Geotagging function can be a real time saver both in the field and back in front of your computer. The great thing about Geotagging is that you don’t have to worry about knowing where a photo was taken at the time of taking it. As you will always have the information on EXIF data. This means that when you’re out in the field you can focus on the most important element which is actually capturing the photos. Keep in mind though that some countries don’t allow GPS to be activated on your camera. So make sure you check regulations and turn it off if it’s not allowed. If you already have a camera that has GPS functionality start using it and you might see a huge difference in how much quicker your workflow becomes.

6 Simple Lightroom Edits That Will Improve Your Photos

You will probably hear most photographers utter the words “I’d rather get my shots right when taking the photo rather than fix them in post-production”. Whilst this is absolutely the way to approach photography, sometimes it isn’t possible. At other times you may just make a mistake that you need to correct. Or it could just simply come down to your preference and how you want your image to look. Whatever the reason is, there’s no doubt that every photo will benefit from some level of post-production. Here are 5 simple Lightroom edits that will improve your photos.

White Balance

Adobe Lightroom is a brilliant photo editing software. For a lot of photographers, it is the go-to software for their editing. Of course, more complex tasks need to still be done in Photoshop but for most tasks Lightroom will work perfectly fine.

One of these is the White Balance (WB). This is a key component of photography and one of the main reasons that often photos don’t look right when you look back on them. The science behind it can seem daunting to understand. But in simple terms, you need to learn that different light sources produce a different colour light. What makes this difficult to judge is that our eyes adjust so that often we don’t notice much of a difference. However, cameras are not as advanced as the human eye so cannot always make the correction accurately. For example, if you take a photo during the day you may find that your photo has a blue tint to it.

One of the first and easiest things that you can adjust on your photos is the white balance (as long as you are photographing in RAW format). Simply move the slider left or right until you get the desired effect. Generally, when your photo seems too blue you need to add more “warmth”. Alternately if it feels too orange you may need to add blue to make it feel cooler. Ideally, you need to aim for a natural look for the photo.

Brightness & Contrast

Another really simple edit that can transform an image is by adjusting the brightness and contrast of the photo. There are several ways that you can do this moving the relevant sliders:

You can either brighten the entire image by moving the exposure slider
Add more contrast to the image by moving the contrast slider
The “Whites” slider works on the highlights parts of the image (useful when your highlights are clipped and you need to recover them)
Shadows – similar to highlight but focusing on the dark areas (again useful when your shadows/blacks are clipped)

By combining these sliders you are able to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image to make it stand out more. Like all editing, the key is to create a natural look. Too much contrast in your image and it will look cartoon-like.

Vibrance & Saturation

Another great tool in Lightroom to help your images stand out is the vibrancy and saturation sliders. By tweaking these you can really make an image that looks flat pop out. But it’s important that you use these in moderation as too much saturation in an image will make it look posterized and simply won’t work. When assessing the image after adding vibrancy and saturation ask yourself if the scene looks real. In other words, if those colours are something that you would see. If not, then scale back.

Straightening and Cropping

The one thing that I always find astonishing is when I see photos from photographers where the image hasn’t been straightened. Whether you are an amateur, semi-pro or even professional photographer, if you do nothing else in post-processing you should at least ensure that your images are straight. This is even more vital when there are vertical or horizontal lines like photographing cityscapes or landscape shots where there is a horizon.

The other part of straightening your shot is also to look at the crop. Sometimes you will find that simply cropping an image differently will be the difference from an image that doesn’t work to one that does. The great thing about cropping in Lightroom is that it is non-destructive. That means that you always have your previous versions of the photo that you can go back to (or even the original). So, play around with the crop of your image considering things like the rule of thirds to see if it makes a difference to the end result.

Burn & Dodge

These are terms that are left over from the days of film and involve being able to alter a specific area of the image without it impacting the whole photo. For example, it might be that you have a composition where your subject is a little underexposed and so you want to brighten it up. Using the traditional brightness slider will brighten the entire image which might not be what you want. By selecting the “dodge” tool you can select the area of an image that you want to brighten and use the sliders to implement the change to just that area. The “burn” tool does the opposite and darkens the part of the image that you want to alter. You can also use these tools to adjust other elements such as saturation, contrast, clarity and many more.

Spot removal

If you use your camera f0r long enough you will get dust and dirt on your lens. These show themselves as black dots on your image. They are especially visible in flat colour areas such as blue skies. Lightroom has an easy spot removal tool that allows you to clean up your image. Select the tool as indicated in the image below and click on the spot you want removing. Lightroom will remove that spot by copying from a nearby spot on your image.

There’s no doubt that digital photography has allowed photographers possibilities that didn’t exist before. Part of this change has also meant that you are now able to manipulate photos in post-production more than ever before. Sometimes a photo might just require small tweaks whereas at other times it will be more complex. How much post-processing you apply will come down to the photo and personal choice. These 6 simple and very quick edits will improve any photo even if you do nothing else. So don’t be afraid to use them to get the photo you want.

The Case for Black and White Photography

Brace yourself because here it comes…it’s another discussion about black and white photography. Don’t worry, it’s not going to be the same old “which is better?” or even worse, another “how to convert your photos to black and white” type of articles. Admittedly, I have written on both of those subjects extensively before but this time will be a little different.

Today, we’re going to strip down the idea of black and white photography and attempt to locate how this tried and true area of photography has managed to maintain its status in an arguably over saturated(pun intended) world of photographic modernism.

Monochrome and the Film Difference

It’s not secret that the black and white side of photo work is deeply rooted in film. Still, even though it makes for a solid title for this section, the term “monochrome” has been somehow mismanaged to the point where it is widely considered synonymous with black and white. This is wrong. Monochrome means “one color” or essentially an image made of shades of only one color. This color could be anything from black, yellow, red or pink. Grayscale might actually be a more appropriate term for true black and white. Even then the lines become somewhat blurred because it’s incredibly difficult to completely abolish all color toning from a black and white film negative. Take a look at these images of a 4×5 black and white negative(complete with film borders)and I’ll show you what I mean.

The first photo is a color rendition of the negative. You’ll notice that is is toned quite blue based on the development. This is due to a few factors but the point is virtually all black and white photographs aren’t exactly black and white. Rather, they are toned based on the type of film emulsion and the development techniques used. Now, look at that same piece of film after I have digitally converted it to black and white in Lightroom.

See the difference? I say all of that to say this: modern digital photography often paints a one dimensional representation of black and white images. True black and white photographs aren’t usually black and white at all or not even monochromatic. Instead, they are a carefully mapped presentation of tonal ranges. Remember this the next time you click a button to make your photo black and white. Sure, it might remove the color but the work shouldn’t stop there.

Speaking of color…

Is Color Necessary?

Yes, color is needed. Is it always needed? Absolutely not. There are times when a photo is suited to black and white and times when it is not. Well, who decides? That question is also deceptively simple to answer. It’s you, you’re the one who decides. Does the color play a role in the emotion or feeling you mean to convey or does it get in the way? These are most certainly murky waters to wade.

Today, we don’t even have to approach color or black and white photography the same way as we did thirty or even twenty years ago. Take the very site you’re reading this article on right now. LifePixel specializes in infrared converted cameras that brings the world of color into a new realm of creative exchange. Infrared cameras see light differently than our own eyes. As a result, completely familiar colors become foreign and black and white pictures take on a completely new feel. When you think about color and how it relates to photography you must understand that even the things we see are wholly subjective to our own perception.

Some Closing Thoughts…

If you haven’t been able to tell by now the purpose of this article isn’t to promote the merits of one type of photo over another. There’s plenty of room even now for both color and black and white photography. In fact, a lot of it comes down to personal taste and how we perceive the world around us. At the same time, remember to look deeper into your work and find what gives it meaning to you. Does color play a part? Does it make more of a connection in black and white? Whatever direction you choose just make sure that the original intent of the photo shines through.

Speed Up Your Processing with Lightroom Import Presets

We all know about presets in Lightroom and all the great things they can do your post processing. Presets help make your editing easier and make achieving a constant styling much more efficient. The biggest benefit of using presets is that they speed up your post processing so you can get back to making photographs, baking muffins, building model airplanes, or whatever it is you might rather be doing instead of sitting in front of your computer screen. But did you know you can use presets jumpstart your post processing efforts before you even import your photos into Lightroom?

In this article I’m going to show you how easy it is to apply presets to your photos as they import into Lightroom. These presets aren’t even limited to develop presets…oh no. You can even add in metadata presets like copyright information and keywording along with camera and lens profile information. This is the kind of thing that the pros use and you should as well. If you find yourself editing large batches(weddings, portraits, events) of similar photos then you’re going to love using import presets in Lightroom. Let’s get started.

Applying Presets on Import

It all starts here in the Import screen of Adobe Lightroom.

If you look to the right you’ll notice an ‘Apply During Import’ panel.

This is where all the magic will happen. Click on that tab to open up your options. From here we’ll have a few choices.

Develop Presets and Camera Calibration

Applying develop and camera calibration* presets as you import your photos into Lightroom couldn’t be easier. The process is essentially the same as it is while editing your images in the Develop Module. To begin, make sure you have the photos you wish to import with the preset. Next, click the ‘Develop Settings’ drop down. This will bring up a list of all the develop presets you have currently installed in Lightroom.

From here it’s simply a matter of selecting the preset you want to apply to the images you’re importing. After you’ve made you’ve made your choice click ‘Import’ and your photos will be brought into Lightroom with the chosen develop preset freshly applied.

**To apply camera calibration settings to your photos on import simply save them in a develop preset and then use the same steps as above.

Copyright and Metadata

Import presets aren’t limited to develop settings. We can also apply keywording and metadata(copyright information/location/creator) to each and every image we import. This helps to better organize or photos and perhaps more importantly, it allows us to protect them from unwanted use. Adding in keywords is super easy as you can type them right into the keyword box. Alternatively, you can add in keywords alongside your other metadata.

Assigning metadata to images is just as easy as applying develop presets. To start, click the ‘Metadata’ drop down arrow.

Select your preset or to add a new one click ‘New’. This launches the new metadata preset dialog box.

It’s here where you can add in virtually any information imaginable. When you’re finished be sure to name your new metadata preset. In the example above I’ve left the title as ‘Untitled Preset’ (I’m lazy) but it’s always a good idea to title any preset you make in such a way that you can immediately know what it contains. Once you’ve created the new preset it will then become selectable from the metadata preset drop down menu. After you’ve applied it, click ‘Import’. Your new metadata information will automatically be applied to each image you selected to import just as the develop settings were in the previous example.

Some Final Thoughts….

Import presets are a great way to easily jump start your processing workflow. By applying certain develop and metadata presets on import you can yourself a lot of time by having the settings you use the most already applied before any work actually begins. This becomes especially useful when you find yourself editing a large number of photos at once. Not only can import presets making editing a breeze but they can also play a big part in protecting your photos by attaching important copyright information to your photos. If you haven’t already give import presets a try and see just how much they can help you and your photography.

Smarter Sharpening with the High Pass Filter in Photoshop

What if I told you that sharpening as we know it in photography isn’t real? That might be a little hard to believe but the truth is that it is actually impossible to make an image physically sharper after it has already been made. Sharpening a photo is simply an illusion. We can make a photograph appear to be sharper. Our digital images can be made to look sharper by adjusting the contrast of the pixels around the edges of shapes within the photo and this is what we are going to talk about today. We will look at how you can easily make your photos more sharp quickly using the high pass filter in Photoshop.

What is the High Pass Filter?

The high pass filter is just a method of creating a sharpening effect to your photo based on the pixels surrounding the contrasted edges of the elements within the image. While Photoshop has some dedicated sharpening tools(unsharp mask, smart sharpening) the high pass filter is the method I tend to use the most because I love the total control it gives me over my sharpening.

Using the High Pass Filter

To get started with sharpening using the high pass filter it is highly recommended that you complete ALL of your edits prior to performing the sharpening. This means that if you’re like me and do most of your processing in Lightroom and then export to Photoshop for finishing you will leave your high pass sharpening for the very last step. When you’re ready to sharpen, open your image in Photoshop.

Next, duplicate the layer by using keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J(Cmd+J for Mac). This is the layer where the high pass filter will be applied. I’ve renamed it “High Pass Layer” so it’s easier to see.

Make sure the new high pass layer is selected and then click on the ‘Filter’ tab and then ‘Other’ and lastly select ‘High Pass’.

You’ll notice an abrupt change to your image. It will essentially go completely grey. Don’t panic because this is exactly what we want to happen. But we have a choice to make and that is what radius we set for the high pass filter.

The radius controls the amount of pixels which are targeted around the edges where the sharpening will be applied. There’s a lot of wiggle room here and it generally is based on the resolution of your camera. The higher megapixel your camera the higher you can set the radius without causing unsightly effects such as halos and glowing edges. Let me show you what I mean. Here is the high pass filter with a radius of ‘1’…

And now here it is with a radius of ‘36’.

The higher the radius the more of the image will be affected. This particular photo was made with a 36.4 megapixel camera and I find a radius of ‘4’ to be the proverbial sweet spot. Adjust your radius accordingly.

Click ‘OK’ to apply the high pass.

But wait, this still looks horrible and gray and not at all what we want.

The next step is key. We have to change the blend mode of our sharpening layer. There are multiple choices here but the ‘Overlay’ option tends to work best with virtually all images and is the blend mode I use. After the overlay blend mode is selected we have what is essentially our final sharpened image.

Have a look at the difference the high pass filter has made in terms of sharpness. Here is the unsharpened photo….

And now the freshly sharpened version….

Closing Thoughts on Sharpening with the High Pass Filter

Don’t forget, not only can the high pass filter be applied easily but like any other layer adjustment in Photoshop the opacity can be adjusted until you reach the exact level of desired sharpness. Furthermore, adding in a layer mask to the sharpening layer can allow you to take complete control over the sharpening effect and only apply it to the areas of the photo you choose.

The best bit of advice when it comes to sharpening an image using any method is that less is usually more. Always remember that an over sharpened image is often less appealing than one that is slightly soft. Enjoy using the high pass filter in Photoshop!

A Quick Guide to Local Adjustment Presets in Lightroom

If you use Adobe Lightroom, I’m sure you’ve heard of develop presets and how they can jump start your creativity. But did you know that you can also create and save local adjustment presets just as easily? In this article I’m going to show you how to create and save your own local adjustment presets so you can make the most of your editing time in Lightroom.

What are Local Adjustments?

Local adjustment presets work a lot like develop presets in that they allow you to save certain combinations of edits for quick application later. The biggest difference between the two types of presets is that normal development presets generally work globally(affects the entire image) whereas local presets affect only the portions of the image you choose. These edits are applied either with either the local adjustment brush, graduated filter, radial filter, or a combination of the three. The great thing about local adjustment presets is that each preset can be applied by any of the local adjustment tools in Lightroom.

Here’s an example using the picture above. This is how it looked originally.

Let’s say we want to only lighten the leaf without disturbing the rest of the photo. Not only that, but the area could also use a little bit of a boost in clarity and sharpening. We can use the local adjustment brush and combine all this edits into one and apply them at the same time.

Now, that looks better.

This is an edit you might have use for in the future since adding a little exposure and clarity can might an image really pop. Instead of taking the time to go back in and adjust the sliders each and every time why not save this adjust as a preset? Saving local adjustments is even easier than saving a regular development preset because there’s no new folder to make and name, no check boxes to tick or untick. Everything is already set up for you and all you’ll need to do is make your adjustments and then name your new preset.

Saving the Preset

First, click the ‘custom’ drop down at the top of the local adjustments panel….

Find the bottom of the ‘Save current settings as new preset’ option at the bottom of the drop down menu and click on that.

Now it’s time to name your awesome new local adjustment preset. Just as with any other type of preset it’s a good idea to come up with a descriptive name that immediately tells you what the preset does. For this preset I’ve chosen ‘+Exp Clarity Sharp’.

And that’s it! Your new preset will appear as a freshly made preset name in the local adjustment presets dropdown menu.

Final Thoughts on Local Adjustment Presets…

Like any other preset in Lightroom, local adjustment presets save you time by eliminating the need to change multiple adjustment sliders each and every time you want to use a particular edit. Making a local adjustment preset is one of the easiest tricks you can use to speed up your post processing. Remember, every preset you make can be used with all the local adjustment tools in Lightroom. That means the adjustment preset we made above can also be applied using the radial and graduated filter as well. Local adjustment presets are great. Use this guide and find out for yourself!

How to Use the Clarity Slider in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC

If you reach way back to Adobe’s Lightroom 1.1 build you will find the clarity slider. After its introduction wayyyy back then the clarity slider has been a favorite weapon of most landscape and even portrait photographers. This slider is a personal favorite of mine just as it is the professed secret love of many Lightroom users. It adds a little “punch” to your photographs and can work wonders with portraits, landscapes, and virtually any other image that appears to be a little visually flat. And now in Lightroom Classic CC, the clarity slider is still going strong.

But what does the clarity slider do specifically? In this article we’re going to talk about how the clarity slider works and how you can use it more effectively to bring out the full potential of your images.

How Does the Clarity Slider Work?

When we adjust clarity, we are essentially adjusting the contrast of our photo.The difference is that instead of the entire tonal range being adjusted, the clarity slider targets the midtones only. This give the overall illusion of the image become more clear. Look at this histogram of the image above before the clarity was increased by+60…

Now, look at that same histogram after the boost in clarity

The blacks and highlights haven’t been affected very much but the midtones certainly have. And that’s the great thing about the clarity slider: it is far less likely to wash out detail in the areas which are already bright or already dark. This makes it a great tool when working with textures(insert link to texture article) with scenes which need a good bit more contrast without going into overkill in the shadows and highlights. Speaking of overkill…or rather over’clear’(haha)…the next section will talk about some things to watch out for when using the clarity slider.

How NOT to Apply Clarity

Granted, every photo is going to be different, so there are no real “rules” when it comes to using the clarity slider(or anything else in photography) to adjust your images. That being said, a general guideline that will help you immensely is the good ol’ fashioned “less is more” approach. While there clarity slider works great to add some extra power in your photograph it can also cause some unsightly side effects if abused.

Here’s a photo where the clarity has been cranked to +100. Notice anything?

On top of the entire scene now looking a little unnatural, when we zoom in we can see the real problem with using the clarity slider too liberally.

Zoomed to 3:1

Those dreaded halos. I hate them, and honestly, you probably should as well. They are caused by the pixels around high contrast areas becoming too separated from the pixels surrounding them which adds up to the bright banding around those areas. To remedy this, try adjusting clarity locally using the radial or graduated filter or the adjustment brush. If all else falls, simply back off the clarity a bit. In almost all cases less contrast will be more preferable than that dastardly halo effect.While Adobe has drastically refined the performance of the clarity slider in recent years the over clearing a photo can still be problematic. Also note the halo effect is worsened when coupling too much clarity along with too much sharpening as happened with the image above..

Final thoughts on Clarity

The clarity slider is a great tool. It helps us to increase contrast in the midtone luminosity range while avoiding blown out highlights and burnt out shadows. I use it to some extent in virtually every photograph I process. That being said, as awesome as the clarity slider can be, it can also work against you if you push it too far. Always remember to keep things in the scope of the reality you wish to present to the viewer and don’t over clarify your images. On the flip side of that you should also not be afraid to actually lessen the clarity in some of your images. It can actually smooth out skin tones and impart a nice soft contrast to a landscape. With a little bit of knowledge the clarity slider can open up entirely new post processing opportunities that you might not have considered!

How to Add Instant Contrast in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a beautiful thing. It allows an incredibly wide range of artists, designers, creatives, and especially us photographers to inject a little bit of creative juice into their work and see it come to life. And while Photoshop can be enormously complex there are so many simple, straightforward edits you can use to instantly transform your photographs.

One of these goes back to the basics of photo editing: exposure and contrast. There is a great way to quickly add contrast to your images by using PS blend modes, more specifically the “soft light” blend mode. You may be thinking “But why not just add contrast with the contrast adjustment?” Well, you can for sure…but it’s not exactly the same. And why not expand your photographic editing horizons to try something new?

Soft Light Blend Mode

The soft light blend mode is one of seven PS blends that make up the “contrast” group. These modes all use varying mathematical wizardry to accomplish a similar effect which is to make darks darker and lights lighter in relation to one another. While that is an incredible over-simplification it’s not entirely inaccurate.

The soft light blend mode bases itself on whether pixels are lighter or darker than 50% gray. If a pixel in your image is darker than 50% gray it will be darkened further. If a pixel is whiter than 50% gray it will be lightened. The result? More contrast. Not only that, but this contrast is wholly dependent on image and it’s tonal makeup.

Adding Contrast with Soft Light Blend Mode

First, duplicate your base photo layer by using the keyboard shortcut ‘Ctrl+J’(Cmd+J for Mac).

Next, select the soft light blend mode from the blend mode drop down list. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut ‘Ctrl+F’ to do the same thing a little faster. You will instantly notice a fairly drastic change to your photo. Namely the increased amount of contrast.

To really control the amount of contrast I highly recommend adjusting your layer opacity until you reach the overall level of contrast for your particular image. In the case of soft light the opacity and fill accomplish the same outcome so it is your choice which to use.

The real fun begins when you decide to add a layer mask. Don’t worry! Masks aren’t something to be afraid of(in most cases) and they allow you to completely take charge of how an edit is applied in PS. You’re about to see how easy it is right now.

Adding a Layer Mask

To add a layer mask to your soft light blend layer simply click on the “add a mask” icon at the bottom of the layer panel.

Guess what? You’ve just added a layer mask! It’s that simple. Now, you’re free to paint in or out the soft light contrast to virtually any degree and location you choose. Just adjust the size and opacity of your brush to achieve the desired effect.

Add in some a quick increase in exposure and we’re left with the finished product. All done within a matter of minutes.

Some Final Thoughts….

One of the fun and interesting aspects of post processing is discovering all the different methods of achieving certain editing effects. Adding contrast to a photograph is one of the most basic edits a photographer can make to instantly add power to a photo. There are many ways to do this and you’ve just learned one. Try using the soft light blend mode technique to add contrast in a smarter, more controlled way. The soft light blend mode in PS makes it easy to quickly and effectively add punch to your images and it is something I use to some extent on virtually every photograph I process.

Making Fall Colors Pop with Adobe Lightroom

Here in the Northern hemisphere Autumn is in full swing. The colors of the leaves are changing and giving their last big show as we head into winter. The frosty mornings and golden hues offer outstanding opportunities for photographers to capture these beautiful Fall colors before they’re gone until next year.

In this article we’re going to talk about how you can make those bright Fall colors really pop in Adobe Lightroom! It doesn’t take much to make your images of the season standout. Let’s get started!

Bringing Out the Color

The main focus of majority of Autumnal photos is of course color. Bright Earth-tones and muted flavors of of brown and gray intermingle together to produce an incredible palate of gold. Here’s how to make all those beautiful tones come to the forefront in your image. We’ll begin with the Vibrance and Saturation sliders in the basic Development Panel of Lightroom.

Vibrance

The vibrance slider brings out the mid tone saturation of colors. It comes in handy when you want only the less saturated colors in the photo to be amplified. Look at this image before the vibrance was adjusted.

And now after

With +50 Vibrance

The key use of increasing the vibrancy of a photo is to maintain a natural and pleasing look to the colors that need to be intensified.

Saturation

Saturation and vibrance are closely related but at the same time affect different aspects of your image. Whereas vibrance boosts the colors which are less saturated, the saturation slider increases the color saturation of all the colors. This means that if a color is already well saturated it will become even more so when this slider is used. Here we have an image with color already well saturated.

If we boost the overall saturation, it leaves the image looking overly saturated with the color appearing fake and unnatural.

With +40 Saturation

The saturation is increased to the point of looking gaudy. So, be very careful when applying the saturation slider to the entire image.

The HSL Panel

If you want to get a little more advanced when edited your Fall photos then look no further than the HSL panel in Lightroom. It’s here where you can take full control of color.

The aptly named HSL panel adjusts the hue, saturation, and luminance of color. This is the master control station for color within your photo. Use this to not only affect the brightness and saturation of specific colors but also their hue. Here’s a photo before any HSL adjustments.

And now with the orange luminance and saturation increased…

The hue adjustments make colors appear more or less true to their original tone. For example, blue can appear more green or more purple; oranges more yellow or more red. Here we’ve changed the oranges to a lighter, more yellow hue.

While here, to a darker red hue.

Some Final Thoughts on Fall Photos…

Fall is a wonderful time of year for photography. If you’re seeking to make your images of Autumn to stand out from the crowd, try these simple tips that will help all those beautiful colors of the season shine through! Don’t be afraid to adjust the hues of the colors until they reflect how you felt about the scene. Likewise, don’t hesitate to actually DECREASE the saturation and vibrance of the colors in order to reach the final look that you want.

Editing Secrets Revealed!: Five Lightroom Tricks

Adobe Lightroom is one of the most widely used software programs out there. When it comes to editing your digital photos it’s extremely difficult to beat Lightroom when it comes to ease of use, versatility, and powerful post processing tools. It’s safe to say that most of you reading this likely have had some experience using Lightroom but do you know about some of the hidden capabilities of the software? Well, maybe I shouldn’t say hidden. Perhaps “lesser known” is a better way for my point to be phrased.

In this article, we’re going to show you five lesser known tricks to be found in Adobe Lightroom. You might even wonder how you’ve managed without them for so long!

#1: Direct Histogram Adjustments

You know how to adjust exposure using the adjustment sliders in Lightroom but did you know that you can make exposure adjustments directly to the histogram?

Yeah, really! Not only that, but you can work with the blacks, shadows, and highlights independently. To do it, simply hover over different areas of the histogram and pay attention to the bottom left corner of the histogram. This tells you which area of the histogram you will be adjustment. At the far left is the blacks region…

And to the far right will be the whites region.

To adjust an area, click on it and hold as you drag left or right on the histogram.

In the middle areas you will have shadows highlights and overall exposure. All independently adjustable in the exact same way.

#2 Visualizing Spots in Clone/Heal Mode

The clone and healing tools are a great way to remove unsightly dust and dirt specks that show up on your finished digital photo. It’s easy to just make some of those things go away with a click or two.

Did you know that there’s a super easy way to make removing those spots a lot more precise? It’s aptly called the “visualize spots” mode and to access it click…you guessed it, the visualize spots box at the bottom of the view window when in clone/heal mode. You can also use keyboard shortcut (A).

Your image is instantly converted to a black and white relief. Spots show up in white.

You can control the sensitivity of the spot revelation by using the slider.

#3 Sharpening Mask

Don’t introduce unwanted noise by sharpening your entire photo! There’s a smarter way and it’s by using the masking slider when sharpening your images in Lightroom.

Holding down the ‘Alt’ key(Option key on Mac) while adjusting the masking slider sensitivity will convert the image to a black and white relief similar to the visualize spots mode from earlier.

Now it’s just a matter of healing or cloning out the spots!

#4 Developing Video

For some, the downside of Lightroom is that it doesn’t work well with video editing. Video isn’t supported in the Develop Module so you have to rely on quick develop settings and presets to process any of your video files. Or do you? There is in fact a work around to help you edit your videos more precisely in Lightroom. First, make an image capture from your video.

Then make any adjustments to that image capture just as you would a normal photo. When finished, go back to the Library module. Then hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key(Command on Mac) and be sure both your edited image capture AND the video thumbnail are selected.

Now, click on ‘Sync Settings’

A dialog box will appear showing the available settings which can be synced. Make your selections and click ‘OK’. And boom! You’ve just developed your video.

#5 Custom Name Plate

This last trick is possibly the easiest…and the most arbitrary. You can customize the “name plate” in Lightroom along with a couple other things. The name plate is that little bit of text in the upper left hand corner of the view window.

Here’s how to change it. Simply right click on the name plate and choose ‘Edit identity plate’ from the drop down.

This will open the identity plate edit dialog box.

Select ‘Personalize’ from the dropdown at the top left.

Now change the font color, style, and size to whatever you want! You can even upload a custom logo image form here as well!

Final Thoughts…

Lightroom, as powerful as it is, offers some hidden gems if you just know where and how to find them. The secrets of Lightroom aren’t limited to just the ones we’ve shown here! Have your own tricks that you’d like to share with the class? Post them in the comments below!

Effective Black and White Conversion in Lightroom

In a way, black and white photographs were part of the reason I became interested in photography. I was no more than twelve or thirteen when my parents bought me a black and white Kodak disposable film camera. Remember those? It contained one roll of black and white 35mm film. Everything was set for you…just wind, click, and repeat. The thirty six exposures from that roll of film displayed an alien world. No colors, just shades of grey and contrasts of light. I was dumbfounded at the power that even these simple images could convey.

A picture from that magic roll of film….

Fast forward over twenty years and we find ourselves in the middle of the roaring age of digital photography. Now, we can see the world with two different sets of eyes: one in color, one in black and white. In our digital darkrooms it’s easier than ever to make professional quality black and white conversions from your RAW image files. In this tutorial we’re going to show you how to take your images beyond black and white using Adobe Lightroom.

More than Desaturation

There is more than one way to convert your images to black and white in Lightroom. We start with this image….

Sure you can grab hold of that saturation slider and simply set it to zero. This works. But you lose so much due to the nature of the desaturation.

The photo is somewhat flat after setting the saturation to “0”.

While the color has been removed, so too have the luminance values of those colors. Luminance values are the brightness values of the specific colors within the photo. It’s these differences in lights and darks that make a strong black and white image. Without being able to control each colors luminance we are left with a flat and often uninteresting image. The most effective method for converting your photo to black and white is to convert it to grayscale and then adjust the image with the black and white portion of the HSL Panel. It’s incredibly easy and powerful tool for working with black and white photos. You’re about to learn how to do it right now!

The Grayscale Conversion

Changing our images to “black and white” actually means we are converting them to “Grayscale”. No, grayscale isn’t some kind of mythological skin condition…. Grayscale is simply the term used to describe black and white photos which are in reality shades of gray and not only black and white. To convert your image to grayscale, click the black and white treatment option at the top of the Basic Adjustment panel.

Which gives us this grayscale image of our original photo.

You can also achieve the same result by jumping directly to the HSL panel and clicking the black and white tab.

Basic adjustments can be made for things like exposure, contrast, clarity, ect., but remember that we’re about to do more work on the photo using the color luminance adjustment in the HSL Panel. These adjustments can affect the overall contrast of the image so its a good idea to keep your initial edits at a minimum.

Adjusting with the B&W Section of the HSL Panel

Now that we have a black and white image to work with it’s time to adjust them color luminance and really make our image stand out. You can adjust the sliders for each color to either darken or brighten them within the image but an easier way is to use the target adjustment option. It’s the little dot at the top left of the B&W section.

Using the target adjustment tool is useful since we can select the area of color we want lighten or darkened without actually having to remember the original colors. Simply click the target adjustment tool and then click the area of color in the photo. Just drag up or down to adjust.

In this photo, the sky is made up mostly of blue, reducing the blue luminance values can add some great dramatic effects to the sky.

The same is true for the other colors. Greens and yellows in the bushes can be brightened. The orange color of the ponies hair can be darkened. After some final tweaking in the basic panel we have this final black and white photograph.

Final Thoughts

Converting and processing your black and white images in Lightroom is an incredibly easy and fast process. It also will open up a whole new world of creativity for you and your photography. Think your photos aren’t black and white material? Try the techniques in this article and I can virtually guarantee you might begin seeing your images in a completely different light.

Going Vintage with Adobe Lightroom

Retro Made Easy

When we think of “vintage style” photographs what we may be actually envisioning is a photo that bears many of the characteristics of analog film photography. These characteristics include subtle nuances in film grain and development, toning, and contrasts. The variations and combinations of these traits are quite literally too many to count but generally most vintage style photo-looks can be accomplished with just a few ridiculously simply edits in Adobe Lightroom. Generally speaking, vintage looking photographs are slightly faded with significant contrast. There are also some very slight color tones that are thrown into the mix in order to give a finished photo that has that great earthy feel of a analog photograph.

We’ll show you how to go from a RAW image file to a fully processed final image that has a nice vintage vibe. Here’s the before and after to give you an idea of just how impressive the results can be using just a few quick edits.

For this particular tutorial, we will look at a basic editing workflow for producing images with a vintage feel. But remember, this is just one look you can achieve. Don’t be afraid to experiment with color tones and contrast or even adding grain to your photo. The results can be fantastic!

Basic Edits First

We begin with a simple, and let’s face it, quite lackluster RAW file. Before we start with the vintage processing let’s do some basic edits to bring the image up to par for further processing. It’s always a good idea to do this before any other changes are made.

The edits applied here included some adjustments to color temperature and highlights as well as some adjustments to contrast and clarity. A couple of graduated filters were also used to even out the exposures of the sky and foreground. Here’s our processed RAW file that is now ready to go vintage.

Tone Curve

The tone curve has an undeserved bad reputation for being complicated to use. Nothing could be further from the truth once you have a basic understanding of how it affects your photo. For our vintage photo, most of the effects will be made using the tone curve adjustment. In most cases, begin with the tone curve set in “RGB” mode and the click the points to roughly an “S” shape with the curve. To add more fading, slightly drag the left most control point straight up the graph. In the case of this edit, I also moved the control point a small amount to the right to achieve the look I wanted.

I want to add a little bit of blue tone to the entire image. While still in the tone curve panel switch to the blue channel by selecting the dropdown menu below the graph. Keep in mind that you certainly don’t have to tone YOUR image with blue. The blue hue simply adds another element to the photo especially in the shadows which gives it a more vintage style. You could even use red or green if you like!

Final Tweaking in the Basic Panel

Now that we’ve reached a happy place with our tone curve it’s time to switch back to the Basic panel for a few final adjustments. In this case I increase the contrast while also reducing the highlights. After that I bring up the shadows. The colors in the photo are still a little too bright for me taste so I reduce the vibrance slightly. The color temp is just a slightly on the cool side so I also increase the temperature to warm the entire image a bit.

Vignette or Nah?

Our final step in the vintage conversion is to apply a slight vignette to help draw the viewers eye into the image. In come cases the vignette might not be desirable as in others. With this photo the darkening of the corners adds more appeal to the moody nature of the frame.

Careful not to go overboard here. Be sure to experiment with the feathering and shape of the vignette as well in order to get just the right look.

And here is the final vintage-styled photo. A considerable change from the dull and flat RAW file we started off with at the beginning of the article.

The fun thing about manufacturing vintage style photos in Lightroom is the shear enormity of the editing possibilities at your fingertips. Try out different combinations of color and toning to give different washes to your photographs. It’s definitely an easy way to add a little unique charm to your images without spending hours at the computer.

When is the blue hour?

White balance

Highlights, shadows and more

Contrast with curves

Saturation

Local editing

Straighten and crop

Crop

Black & white

Low saturation

Hue

Vignettes

Sky replacement

What is the Lightroom map module?

How to use the map module?

How to use the map module?

What if your camera doesn’t have Geotagging?

White Balance

Brightness & Contrast

Vibrance & Saturation

Straightening and Cropping

Burn & Dodge

Spot removal

Monochrome and the Film Difference

Is Color Necessary?

Some Closing Thoughts…

Applying Presets on Import

Develop Presets and Camera Calibration

Copyright and Metadata

Some Final Thoughts….

What is the High Pass Filter?

Using the High Pass Filter

Closing Thoughts on Sharpening with the High Pass Filter

What are Local Adjustments?

Saving the Preset

Final Thoughts on Local Adjustment Presets…

How Does the Clarity Slider Work?

How NOT to Apply Clarity

Final thoughts on Clarity

Soft Light Blend Mode

Adding Contrast with Soft Light Blend Mode

Adding a Layer Mask

Some Final Thoughts….

Bringing Out the Color

Vibrance

Saturation

The HSL Panel

Some Final Thoughts on Fall Photos…

#1: Direct Histogram Adjustments

#2 Visualizing Spots in Clone/Heal Mode

#3 Sharpening Mask

#4 Developing Video

#5 Custom Name Plate

Final Thoughts…

More than Desaturation

The Grayscale Conversion

Adjusting with the B&W Section of the HSL Panel

Final Thoughts

Retro Made Easy

Basic Edits First

Tone Curve

Final Tweaking in the Basic Panel

Vignette or Nah?

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