ADOBE LIGHTROOM 2

ADOBE LIGHTROOM 2
Develop by Sean McCormack lipf LBPPA

Author info

Sean McCormack is a photographer based in Galway, Ireland. He writes for Lightroom News (http://lightroom-news. com) and his own Lightroom blog (http://lightroom-blog. com). He’s currently writing a Lightroom book for GMC publications and tech edits for Adobe Press.

Introduction

In my previous article I covered getting basic corrections with Quick Develop, and getting files to clients for selection. Once you’ve got the list of selected files, it’s time to get them processed for final output. Here we’ll just touch on some basic processing and retouching in Develop. Whole books have been written about Develop/Camera RAW processing, so I don’t have space for everything!

Lightroom 2

At 9pm PST on April 1st, Adobe launched a public preview of Lightroom 2. This is a ‘kick the tyres’ version to let people see what will be coming in version 2 when it is finally released. No date has been announced, but the preview expires on Aug 31st for registered users of Lightroom 1. Otherwise you can either use it as a 30 day trial, or get a Lightroom 1 user to invite you for the duration of the preview. Go to http://labs.adobe. com/technologies/lightroom to get a copy for yourself. One of the key additions to Develop in the new version is Local Corrections, which we will touch on here, because they are not only useful for dodging and burning, but for basic beauty retouching.

And in the Left cornerFig 1. The Develop Module

Fig 1. The Develop Module

The first thing to do is have a look at Develop in general, before getting down to the nitty gritty of individual tools. On the left hand side of the screen, we have the Left Panel. At the top we have the Navigator Pane. This gives us a preview of the current photograph, along with the area zoomed into (if you are zoomed in). When you hover over a Preset, this window will give a preview of how the photograph will appear, with the Preset applied.

Fig 2. The Left Panel

Below the Navigator we have the Presets Pane.

Initially there are 2 folders: Lightroom Presets and Users Presets. As you can see from the picture I’ve created a large number of folders of my own Presets for better organisation. To create a Preset, click the + beside Preset and choose a folder (or create a new one) and the settings you want to save, then name it and hit create!

Next up is the Snapshot Pane. In this pane we can make a record of the current settings in our image, to make it easier to get back to that point. Snapshots are stored in the XMP Metadata, which means that they get transported with the file if it’s copied to another machine (if it’s a RAW file, you need to copy the associated XMP file with it). To create a Snapshot, click the + icon beside the name Snapshot. The text will be highlighted, so give it a name that reflects the appearance. This will make it easier to find, whenever you come back to the photograph again.

Snapshots are useful for keeping variations in a shot as you work with it. You could have numerous Black & White, Sepia, High Contrast, etc, versions of the image stored as Snapshots. The main difference between a Snapshot and a Virtual Copy, is that Virtual Copies are treated as separate images, with their own preview. You can of course create a Virtual Copy from a Snapshot easily. Simply select the Snapshot, Right Click(or Control Click on Mac) on the photograph and choose ‘Create Virtual Copy...’

Fig 3. Creating a new Snapshot.

The final pane is History. As with Photoshop History, this is a linear record of steps you’ve created. The history here is not the same as the Undo history (Control/Command Z), as the Undo history also includes steps within Lightroom (eg changing Modules).

You can step back in to the history to any point and Lightroom will recreate the look at that point. You can’t, however, remove an individual step, but the work done in that step is visible and you can simply do a new step with the opposite settings to reverse it.

The Clear command to the right of the Pane allows you to wipe the list of steps in History. This doesn’t bring you back to the start. The photograph will remain as it was at the time of clearing history. To go back to the start, use the ‘Import’ Snapshot in the Snapshots Pane.

Tucked in at the bottom of the left panel are the Copy and Paste buttons. Clicking Copy will open a dialog asking which of the current settings you wish to copy.

Fig 4. The Copy Settings Dialog

Here’s a interesting quirk in the Beta, if you Check all, the Local Corrections will be copied, but if you select Check None, and then tick all the boxes, they won’t. It just a warning not to use Check all if you don’t want your dodging and burning, etc, to be copied across. The Paste button just puts the copied settings onto the current file.

Going to the Dark Side

Well, not quite, but the other side rather, which is referred to as the Right Panel. This is where we process the photograph. The tools here are similar to what you’ll find in Camera RAW.

Rather than going over boring descriptions of how a tool works, we’ll jump into examples.

Fig 5. The Right Panel

Fixing Exposure Issues

Fig 6. Our sample image

Levels Probably the first exposure tool that people learn to use in Photoshop is the Levels tool. While there is no direct levels tool, it’s easy to set the black and white point in Lightroom. The two things we need to change are Exposure and Blacks. Exposure sets the white point of the image, while Blacks sets the black point. These can be accessed via the Basic Pane or via the Histogram. I’m going to use the Histogram. First up I hover around the Histogram until the text on the bottom left of it reads Exposure (usually in the middle). I then click and drag to the right to bring the exposure up to the desired point. Looking at the Histogram, we can see that the display looks like a mountain, our goal is to have the toe of the mountain just touching at either end of the histogram, giving a full range of tones. In our sample image, I’ve stopped shy of the edge, because there is nothing super-white in the photograph and the image was shot to be slightly dark (although this was an initial image, and the in camera exposure was subsequently corrected). (If the image was overexposed in small areas but the tonal balance was otherwise fine, I’d use the Recovery section to bring the highlights back)

Fig 7. Fixing Exposure by clicking and dragging in the Histogram.

In the sample image, there is quite a build up of tones in the shadow regions. Detail in the shadow areas is not as critical as highlight detail, but I think it’s a little lacking here. Rather than gauging visually how much clipping is occuring I’m going to use the clipping indicators. These are the triangles on the top left and right of the Histogram. Hovering over them will show a temporary view of the image areas that are clipping – blue for the shadows and red for the highlights. Clicking on the triangle will make the view sticky.

In this image, I’m not going to get rid of all the clipping as I want the image to retain some darkness. Again I click and drag in the histogram, this time in the Blacks section. Moving the blacks to 1 looks right here, and still has some areas of complete black.

Fig 8. Changing the black point using the clipping indicator.

As a final tweak I’m going to boost the brightness control slightly. Brightness in Lightroom is designed to change the midpoint, but protect the shadow and highlights from clipping. It’s not the same as pre-CS3 Brightness in Photoshop, which could do serious damage to a photograph.

White Balance

The White Balance of an image can be changed in Lightroom. Often it can be good to mix the automatic modes with a manual tweak to get the final look.

Fig 9. The White Balance control in the Basic Pane of Develop

Looking at Fig 9. we can see the two main sliders that give us control of White Balance. These are Temperature and Tint. Temp erature controls how cool or warm the photograph is, while Tint controls the green/magenta balance of the image. Besides manually controlling these, there is also a drop down menu of presets as per Fig 10. These are the presets available to RAW (or DNG) files. Formats with no internal White Balance info (like JPG) have As Shot, Auto and Custom only.

Fig 10. The White Balance selection menu

The preferred method of dealing with White

balance is to use the eyedropper. Activate it by clicking on the icon, or with the ‘W’ shortcut key. If we look at Fig 11. we can see some controls associated with the tool. In the Toolbar under the photograph, we can see Auto Dismiss, Show Loupe and Scale. Auto Dismiss decides if the tool closes when you click on the photograph. If you are trying a number of points to get the best white balance, I recommend leaving it on. Show Loupe shows the grid visible beside the cursor, while Scale lets you zoom for tighter control. To use the tool click on an area in the photograph that is neutral toned (e.g. black, grey or white). When an area is neutrally toned, the RGB values should be the same (although points of a percent in difference is usually acceptable)

Fig 11. The White Balance Eyedropper tool in operation.

Bear in mind that the eyedropper will be neutral white balance and that after you may need to tweak it visually (make sure you have a calibrated monitor though!) to warm it up. While not technically correct, warmer photographs are usually preferable to the client!

Contrast Control with Curves

In the Basic Pane we have a contrast slider, which is great for quick fixes, but not especially good for accurate control. The slider basically applies or removes an S curve as you increase or decrease the amount. The Tone Curve lets you get much more control in the contrast of a photograph.

Fig 12. The Tone Curve

The Tone Curve in Lightroom can be controlled in a few ways: via the Sliders, on the actual Tone Curve graph and on the image using the Targeted Adjustment Tool (TAT).

To activate the TAT, click on the target icon on the top left of the Tone Curve Pane.

Mouse over to the photograph and click and drag up (or down) to increase (or decrease) the tones in that area. Similar tones in photograph will also be affected. Even with the TAT selected, you can also use the sliders or click and drag on the graph. Press ESC to close the TAT.

Fig 13. Using the Targeted Adjustment Tool (TAT)

The two other things that can be changed in Tone Curve are the Tone Points and the Point Curve. The Tone Points set where the change between each slider happens. So to have only the deepest shadow affected by the Shadows slider, pull the first tone point over to the left more. If you examine the tones on the bar the Tone Points rest on, you’ll notice the shading to the left and right of each point reflects the areas the point affects. The final control, situated on the bottom, is the Point Curve. Normally there are three options here: Linear, Medium, and Strong Contrast. These set the start point for the Tone Curve.

Currently, other Points Curves can only be created in Camera RAW (or by hand-editing a Preset).

The Tool Strip

Originally in Version 1, there were a number of tools in the Toolbar. Some of these have now moved to the Tool Strip, situated below the Histogram.

The reason these were moved was space was too tight to expand the controls in the future, so a move was deemed necessary. Contained in the box for the beta release are Crop, Spot Removal, Red Eye and Local Corrections Brush.

Cropping

Click on the Crop icon, or use the shortcut key ‘R’, to active the Crop tool.

Either draw a crop manually on the photograph or drag the edges and corners to create the crop. You can change from a landscape to a portrait (or the other way around) by selecting a corner and dragging off at 45 degrees until the orientation changes. To change Aspect Ratio, select a new one from the Crop Pane.

Fig 14. Cropping in Lightroom

To straighten, move the mouse back slightly from a crop corner and the cursor will change to the rotate cursor. Then click and start to drag. A grid overlay will appear, allowing you a reference to straighten against. You can also hold down the Control Key (Command on Mac), whereby the cursor will change to a ruler. Click on a suitable start point (eg on the horizon), then drag to the second point. When you’re ready, release the mouse and Lightroom will apply the angle you’ve just measured.

Red Eye

While the bulk of pro photographers work hard to avoid any red eye, it happens from time to time. To use this tool, simply click the icon and drag the ellipse over the offending eye and release. Lightroom does the rest.

Beauty Retouching with Spot Removal and Local Corrections Being tight for space, I’m only going to cover this in brief. Thorough retouching should really be done in Photoshop, but for basic retouching, Lightroom is more than capable.

Spot Removal

While Spot Removal was intended for removing dust spots from sensors, you can also do blemish removal with it. Select the Heal tool and change it to a suitable size (use the [ and ] keys as shortcuts). Click on a spot and release. Lightroom will auto hunt and find a similar area to copy from. If you’re not happy with the result, either delete the spot (by hitting the delete key) or drag the circle from where Lightroom has chosen to a more suitable place.

Keep going until you’ve removed as much as you deem necessary. Using a small sized brush you can even remove lines under the eyes (Fig 16)

Fig 16. The complete spot removal

Negative Clarity Brush

In version 1, Clarity (in the Basic Pane) provided a way of increasing midtone contrast. Now with version 2 we have negative Clarity, where by we can decrease it.

Fig 17. Selecting Clarity in the Brush tool Pane

Click on the Brush tool in the Tool Strip. Select Clarity in the Paint drop down menu (Fig 17). Change the Effect Amount to -100. Set the brush to about 25 while zoomed into 1:1 view. Set the Feather to 50 to give a soft edge. For this I leave the flow at 100. If you want to be more subtle, use a lower flow and build up the effect. Now brush over the skin only. Hover over the pin to see where you’ve brushed. When you’re done, use the Amount slider to increase or decrease the effect.

Fig 18. Brushing on the photograph.

Fig 19. Hover over the pin to show where you’ve been painting.

Next we go to the Split Toning Pane. As I only want a basic Sepia tone, I’ll only be working in the Shadows. From experience I know that around 30 Hue and 25 Saturation is a good starting point, so after a little trial and error I settle on 28 and 23 for my tone.

Fig 21 The Split Toning pane with Sepia settings

Looking at the shot I think the background needs to come down, so I go back to Grayscale and pull back the blue slider. Her top goes dark also, but that’s no harm.

Pressing Y brings up the Before/After view allowing us to check our work out

Fig 22. Our before and after

Dodging and Burning

To dodge the photograph set the Brush tool to Exposure (or Brightness) and the Effect to 2 stops. If you want to build up the effect, set a low Flow value. For Burn set it to -2 stops. As with any local correction, use the Amount slider to finesse your work. Use the New button to create new pins so that you can work on different areas.

Use the Edit button to change the settings on a pin. Remember that even though the tool started off as Dodge/Burn tool, you can also change the saturation, clarity on the area also.

Photo Quote: Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Confucius