Archives for November 2016

I can tell you this with confidence. When editing a photo in either Adobe Lightroom or Camera Raw, I’ve never not used at least one of the primary brightness or darkness sliders in the Basic panel. The sliders I’m referring to are Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks. I’m not sure how many times I’ve used these programs, but these areas are the ones I adjust almost every single time.

While this is all well and good, there’s a small issue that arises when dealing with these areas of an image. The issue is called “clipping.” As any of these sliders are pushed one way or the other, things can go too far, causing either pure white or pure black. I’ve actually talked about this issue a lot on this website. To review my previous posts on this topic, please visit the page below.

Using the Histogram Clipping Warnings in Adobe Camera Raw

Working With Clipping Indicators in Adobe Lightroom

Now, just to fill you in, the clipping indicators in both Camera Raw and Lightroom act the same way. They both offer warning colors that are plainly visible if you’ve either gone too far with your edits or if the image was flawed straight out of the camera. I’ve said this a lot in the past – Camera Raw and Lightroom are very similar in many respects.

Since I’ve already covered most of what I have to say about the clipping indicators in both applications, I’d like to go one step further in today’s post. Today, I’d like to show you a really cool trick I use in Adobe Lightroom that deals with photos that don’t respond well to removing the clipping indicators from a photo without screwing up other aspects of it. It’s a fast and easy trick that I think you’ll enjoy.

Original Image

I’ll use a photo of a beautiful cat for today’s post. I’ve already gone ahead and have completed my usual adjustments to the photo and I’d say it looks really good.

Let’s see what happens when I explore the photo further.

Turning On the Clipping Indicators

So far, I’ve make some changes in the Basic panel of Lightroom. There’s nothing out of the ordinary here. Take a look at the panel below.

As you can see if you look at the sliders, I haven’t done anything drastic. On my computer screen, I think things look pretty good. On a normal day, I’d say I was finished. Today though, I’d like to turn on the clipping indicators to see if anything is out of whack.

Umm…yeah. I think there’s something going on that I didn’t notice before. Apparently, I’ve got some areas of pure black and some of pure white. By the way, I circled the clipping indicator controls in the above screenshot. Just click the small triangles inside the circles to turn these on and off. If you’d like to use a keyboard shortcut instead, you can simply press the J key. That controls both indicators at the same time.

By the way, it’s quite common to have clipping issues when using images for the web. They’re not that noticeable. It’s when you go to print them that things look weird. Large blotches of white or black are much more visible on paper.

Controlling Clipping

If you’ve ever edited a photo, only to see that you’ve got some clipping issues, you probably know that it isn’t the easiest thing to cure. Sure, you can push some sliders back and forth in an effort to remove the red and blue, but what happens to the actual photo when you do this? Your changes begin to come undone, that’s what. Also, you’ll notice that moving one slider often isn’t enough. You’ll need to move a few, but when you do this, you may lose track of what you’ve done. Personally, I get all sorts of confused when I start touching too many things in these programs. It gets especially bad when I think I have something set perfectly and when I have to back off some areas. That’s not why I’m in the application. I’m in there to make photos look good, not mild.

Anyway, let me introduce you to the tip I want to share today.

Introducing Tone Curve

I’ll give you some background on what Tone Curve is.

The Tone Curve represents all the tones of your image. The bottom axis of the Tone Curve is the Tone axis: the line starts with Shadows at the left-most end and ends with Highlights in the right-most end. In the middle you have Midtones, which are then further split into darker Midtones, called Darks in Lightroom, and brighter Midtones, called Lights. In other words, going left to right, the curve starts with Shadows, Darks, Lights and ends with Highlights. Source.

In the right column, if I collapse the Basic panel, I’ll find the Tone Curve panel. To open that panel, I’ll click the respective triangle that sits to the right of the panel title.

The really cool thing about using this Tone Curve is that not much in the way of changes are needed to make a fairly large difference. The trick is, you need to be sure to push things the correct direction.

For instance, I’ll go ahead and grab the lower left curve handle and slide it in about 15%. Let’s see what happens to the Shadow (blue) clipping indicator when I do this.

Wow. I just made things a lot worse. I’ll reverse what I did there and instead, I’ll push that same handle up the left side a hair. I’ll do this until I don’t see the blue overlay anymore.

Now that’s impressive. I merely went up the side wall 2% and all the blue clipping overlay disappeared. That sure beats messing with sliders in the Basic panel.

Next, I’ll grab the opposite corner’s handle and move it to the left about 15%. Let’s see what happens to the Highlight (red) clipping indicator when I do this.

Yeah, that’s not good at all. I definitely don’t want that. To fix this, I’ll do what I did to the shadow side. I’ll push the corner handle down the right side a bit instead.

Again, I didn’t have to move the handle much at all. Less than 1% to be exact. With just that small move, all the red is gone. That’s powerful.

Now, if I wanted to, I could head back into the Basic panel to further edit the photo. I now know that I can fix any clipping that occurs by using the Tone Curve tool, so I have some additional liberty to do as I wish. Powerful indeed, especially if I was using a RAW image that was taken with a camera that offers a wide dynamic range.

The Tone Curve tool in both Lightroom and Camera Raw easily removes any pure black or pure white from a photo. That’s why it’s such a powerful solution when attempting to resolve clipping situations. Give this tool a try the next time you’re in either of these applications. They both work the same way.

Point Curve

I’d like to mention one last thing before I end this post. If you do decide to experiment in the Tone Curve panel in Adobe Lightroom, you may see a different panel than the one I showed here. Basically, there are a few different views. The one you want is Point Curve and the way to get there is to click on the small box that sits in the lower right corner of the panel.

Once you do that, you’ll have the same view as I had here and you’ll be able to see what you can do with your photograph.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. I’m always here to help. Thanks for reading!

I was doing some work in Adobe Lightroom last week when I stumbled upon an idea for a post. The project I was working on called for a certain black and white look for a photograph. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted, but I was definitely sure that I didn’t want to create one black and white virtual copy of a photo and then create brand new ones thereafter. My idea was to create one black and white virtual copy of the photo, work on it, and then create another copy based on the one I just made changes to. I could repeat the process as much as I needed to and constantly build from what I had already done. Doing this would quickly and efficiently lead me to my desired result.

I completed the project successfully. Since I had saved so much time with the technique I used, I decided to share it here. It’s a small tip, but one that can have profound time saving advantages.

In today’s post, I’ll be using a demo photo to go through the same exact process as I followed with my project last week. I’ll start with the original photo and create a sequence of changes via the use of virtual copies in Adobe Lightroom.

Original Photo

The photo I’ll be working on today to demonstrate the necessary steps in this tutorial is below. It’s the perfect photo to transform into black and white. It’s simply fierce.

Creating Virtual Copies

If you aren’t experienced with creating virtual copies in Adobe Lightroom, have no fear. I’ve already written a few good posts on the topic. Check them out below.

What Are Virtual Copies in Adobe Lightroom?

How to Create Virtual Copies in Adobe Lightroom

Creating Sample Photos with Virtual Copies in Adobe Lightroom

Just for this post, I’ll go ahead and create a new virtual copy now.

The first thing I’ll do is launch Lightroom and click on the Develop tab up at the top of the application. This will bring me to the photos I already imported a while back. I’ll move through the filmstrip view at the bottom of Lightroom until I locate the image I’d like to work with.

Next, I’ll right-click on the owl thumbnail (or larger version of the photo in the center Content panel) and select Create Virtual Copy from the menu that appears.

Doing this will give me two similar looking thumbnails down in the filmstrip view. The original and the virtual copy. To learn what exactly a virtual copy is, please read this post.

Transforming to Black & White

Converting an image (or virtual copy) from color to black and white in Lightroom is simple. All that needs to be done is to click on the Black & White link in the Basic panel. I’ll do this now for the virtual copy I just created.

Clicking this link will instantly turn any color photo to black and white.

Creating a Sequence of Changes

In this section, I’ll get to the point of this post. I don’t really need to change this photo for any particular reason. I’m merely going to change it to demonstrate how I can do it in a logical order so things make more sense later on.

Okay, I have my original image and I already made a black and white virtual copy. Let’s say that I have a client who wants to see three versions of the black and white. They would like to browse incremental changes, starting with just the plain black and white conversion and continuing on with further changes for each additional photo. This isn’t difficult to achieve at all.

Since I already have the black and white version, I’m done with that. That’s one down. Now, if I were to go ahead and make another virtual copy from the original color version, I’d have to repeat the step of converting the copy to black and white again. To keep things as efficient as I can, I’ll make the next virtual copy from the black and white copy I already made. This is important to understand. I’ll need to right-click on the virtual copy. I’ll do that now.

If I had copied the color image, I’d have two color images right now. That wouldn’t be all too helpful.

I’m going to go ahead and make some changes to this new copy. I’ll push the sliders around a bit.

So far, I’ve got two versions of the black and white image to show the client. All I need is one more.

Since I’m building a sequence here, I’ll need to work from the copy with my most recent changes. To accomplish this, I’ll right click on this latest copy and create another (and final) virtual copy. This last copy will automatically incorporate all the changes I’ve made thus far. After that, I’ll make a few more changes in the Basic panel.

The Method to Create an Efficient Sequence of Changes

I know I’m repeating myself here, but this really is the point of this post. The create an efficient sequence of changes using virtual copies in Adobe Lightroom, you need to build from the most recent virtual copy created. By doing this, all previous changes will be saved and applied to the newest version. You won’t need to apply anything again – it’ll all be done already.

There we have it. I hope I explained this post clearly and effectively. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

If you’re an Adobe Lightroom user, the Spot Removal tool is one of your primary “go-to” tools. It may even be more than that. Perhaps it’s your number one “go-to” tool. Whatever the case, you surely need to know how to use it. Remove a speck here or a blemish there – it’s definitely a helpful feature that can turn an average photo into a spectacular one. There are, however, a few things you need to be aware of.

As I’ve said a zillion times, Adobe Camera Raw is Lightroom’s twin. So, if you know how to use this tool over there, you can quickly pick it up over here. There are a few minor interface differences that stand in your way. By the way, if you want to check out the similar post I wrote about Camera Raw, please click through to them via the links below.

How to Remove Face Blemishes in Adobe Camera Raw

Heal & Clone with Spot Removal in Adobe Camera Raw

In today’s post, I’ll walk through the process of removing a spot in a photograph using Adobe Lightroom. Depending on the photo I choose to use as a demo, this “spot” can be a freckle, blemish or some other artifact that someone like you would want to disappear. Let’s see how things go.

The Original Photo

After a bit of searching, I think I’ve located a really good photo to work on for today’s tutorial. The picture is of a young girl who happens to have some wonderful freckles. Now, I want to be clear about this right now – there’s nothing I want to remove in this photo. I think her freckles are awesome. The thing is, working with freckles like this is going to be perfect for what we want to look at in regards to the Spot Removal tool. There are some aspects that I’d like to explain and the photo will lend itself to these aspects very well. It’s going to be great.

Accessing the Spot Removal Tool

Finding and accessing the Spot Removal tool is easy. After launching Lightroom and locating your photos, simply choose which photo you’d like to work on and then click into the Develop module. That’s exactly what I did here:

Once in that module, you can either press the Q key on your keyboard as a shortcut or you can simply click on the Spot Removal tool icon in the toolbar in the right column.

After that, we’re good to go.

Defining the Tool’s Features

There are many ways to go about learning how to use this tool. I think the best one of them is to first find out what we’re dealing with. To do this, I’ll work my way through each of the most important features this tool offers.

Starting off in the right column (the area in the red box above), I’ll give some definitions.

Spot Edit: With this feature, we’ve got two choices – Clone and Heal. They’re actually quite intuitive to understand.

Let’s say you would like to create an exact duplicate of a specific area in a photo in another area. In this case, you’d choose the Clone option. When I click somewhere in the photo, another similar area will appear and I’ll have the ability to drag this new area around until I find something I’d like to replace the first area with. Let me give you an example.

In the above screenshot, I selected the area on the left with the Spot Removal tool. I’m using the Clone feature and I moved the circle on the right so it sits in a fairly distinct spot on the face. I did this because it’s a very clear example of how the Clone feature works. Basically, the area I selected is now replaced by the circle on the right. It’s that simple.

While these two circles are active, I can change which option I’d like to use. I’ll go ahead and now click on the Heal option so you can see what happens.

As you can see, the area on the left (the target area) now matches the surrounding area much more. This is because Lightroom attempted to blend the area on the right (the source area) with what was already existing. You can still see the sunlight from the source area, but it’s much more subtle. When removing blemishes on someone’s face, I almost always use Heal. It’s so much more forgiving and easy to work with.

Size: This one is really easy. The Size slider controls the size of the tool. In this next screenshot, I increased the size from the last. I also changed it back to Clone, just because I’m giving examples here.

FYI – To increase or decrease the size of the tool, you can either push the slider back and forth or you can press the [ and ] keys on your keyboard. I encourage you to use the keyboard. It’s much faster.

Feather: As things are right now, there is virtually no feathering when using this tool. Feathering is merely how soft the transition is between the edge of the tool and the center of it. I’ll go ahead and move the Feather slider all the way to the right to give you an indication of how soft things can become. Be sure to keep your eye on the left circle.

With all this feathering going on, Lightroom is pulling over a soft-edged copy of the right circle.

Opacity: The Opacity slider controls how visible the source circle will be. If it’s at 100%, all of it will be visible and if it’s 0%, none of it will be visible. I’ll move the slider to 50% so you can see what I’m referring to.

Now, the left circle shows a fairly light copy of the right circle.

Removing Some Freckles

Again, I’m just doing this as an example. I really don’t see anything wrong with tons of freckles.

To remove some of the freckles, I’ll reduce the size of the brush so it’s just a tad bit larger than the freckle itself. Then, I’ll choose Heal and set the Feather to about 50%. Finally, I’ll keep the Opacity setting at 100%, because I would like the freckle completely gone.

In this case, I clicked and drew over one of the freckles and Lightroom automatically found a similar area to to pull from. When I let go, this is what remained (above). If I continue clicking, drawing and removing freckles, I’m left with many areas that I’ve worked.

If you make a mistake and don’t want to go through with one of these spot removals, you can easily delete that particular area to start over. I’ll explain exactly how to do this below.

Also, one more point, if you would like to move around either the target area or the source area, all you need to do is to click on either area and drag it where ever you’d like.

Tool Overlay

If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see that there are many spots I altered with the Spot Removal tool. Many editors find the pins distracting. Because of this, Adobe has included a number of settings that control how the pins appear as you’re working inside of Lightroom. They are accessed in the toolbar that’s located directly under the large center photo.

If I click on the drop-down that’s to the right of the Tool Overlay heading, I’ll see four options. They are Auto, Always, Selected and Never. I’ll explain what each of these means below.

Auto: If I choose this option, the pins will only be visible when I roll my mouse over the photograph. When I roll the mouse off the work area, the pins disappear. This is probably the most desirable setting because if gives you quick access to view your changes without any of the source or target area outlines covering things up.

Always: The pins will always be visible when the Spot Removal tool is active. You may like this or you may not. It’s up to you.

Selected: Only the active source and target areas will be highlighted. You’ll need to select them to activate them. All others will be invisible. The way to find the inactive areas is to roll over them with your mouse. When the pointer turns into a hand, that’s when you’ve hit one of them.

Never: None of the spots you’ve worked on will be visible ever.

Visualize Spots

If some of the spots you’d like to work on aren’t all too visible, you can view them another way. Lightroom has an option called Visualize Spots, which turns the photo black and white and makes each and every blemish practically impossible to miss. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

With this feature enabled, every freckle and anything else that is distinct from the background will appear white. The background will remain black. You can also adjust the intensity of the tool by pushing the slider to the left and right. Left lightens the intensity and right darkens it. You can even edit in this view – it’s not only for viewing.

Deleting the Spot Removal Tool Areas

It’s super simple to delete a Spot Removal area you created. All you need to do is to click on it so it’s selected (with the Spot Removal tool active) and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. When you do this, it’ll disappear.

Reviewing Before & After Versions

When editing photos in this manner, it’s helpful to look at the before and after versions of the photo itself. Upon viewing these, you may change your mind and make further changes or erase ones you’ve already made. Either way, it’s simple to change these views.

To view the before and after versions of the photo at hand, all you need to do is to set your Tool Overlay setting to Auto or Never and roll the mouse off the work area so the pins disappear. Then, press the backslash (\) key on your keyboard. This will toggle your changes on and off.

Well there you have it – how to work with the Spot Removal tool in Adobe Lightroom. If you have any questions or concerns, please leave them for me in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!