.
Adobe released the October 2021 Update to Lightroom Classic. This video will walk you through what’s new.
“Discover how easy it is to make local adjustments to your photographs using Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw’s new Masking panel and tools including: Select Subject, Select Sky, Radial and Linear Gradients, Brush, Color and Luminance Range Masking and more!”
View more on Julianne Kost’s blog.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
You want your photographs to glow - right? So what’s better than one kind of glow? How about three?
You can get there by not succumbing to the classic temptations to clip shadows and/or highlights to produce a more obviously dramatic but a less lively, nuanced, and expressive tonal scale. Instead, hold the full dynamic range with a real black and white and also create gorgeous separation in the values nearest to them.
So many times we give the lion’s share of the contrast to the midtones. Midtone contrast is really important. But that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice the light in highlights by making them too hot to look at comfortably or in shadows making them so dark they turn to murky mud. You can hold separation in these extreme ends of the tonal scale and produce beautiful qualities of light that complement not just contrast. Here’s how.
Before
After
Curves offers more precise tonal control than any other tool. So when I need precision dodging and burning (about 80% of the time) I use Curves, which means I use Photoshop (PS).
I look forward to the day we can make local adjustments with Curves in Lightroom and Camera Raw. But currently, Lightroom (LR) and Camera Raw (ACR) don’t have this feature, yet. But can’t you do something similar in Lightroom (LR) or Adobe Camera Raw’s (ACR) using the six Basics sliders (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks), in combination with the Adjustment Brush, Graduated Filter, or Radial Filter, even in combination with Color, Luminance, or Depth Range Masks? If close is good enough, yes. If you want to make your images really shine, no.
Is it hard to dodge and burn with Curves in Photoshop? No. It’s easy.
Make a mask based on saturation in seconds. Then use it to affect the saturation highlights or shadows selectively.
Find more of Unmesh Dinda’s content here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
Mastering selections and masking will help you take your images to the next level.
1. Local Adjustments In Lightroom and Camera Raw | Coming Soon
2. When To Use Lightroom’s Local Adjustment Tools | Coming Soon
3. Why Photoshop’s Local Adjustment Capabilities Are Superior To Lightroom’s | Coming Soon
4. Photoshop’s Marquee Tools
Quick rectangular and elliptical selections.
5. Photoshop’s Lasso Selection Tools
Go to drawing tools for irregular selections.
6. Photoshop’s Magic Wand & Quick Selection Tools
Let Photoshop do the work for you.
7. Two Keys To Combine All Of Photoshop’s Tools
Easily add or subtract from selections.
8. Viewing Masks
You can see a mask in a number of ways.
9. Mask Key Commands
Key commands make masking and selections faster and easier.
10. Painting The Simplest & Most Useful Masks In Photoshop
11. Photoshop’s Quick Mask Combines All Selection And Brush Tools
12. Eight Useful Tips For Brushing Masks In Photoshop
13. How To Make Masking Easier With Photoshop
15. Fine Tuning Gradients
Fine tune your gradients with masking techniques.
22 Combining Masks | Coming Soon
23 Frame (11/10) | .99
Make your images stronger by locally adjusting the frame.
24 Points (11/10) | .99
Make your images stronger by locally adjusting points.
25 Lines (11/10) | .99
Make your images stronger by locally adjusting lines.
26 Planes (11/10) | .99
Make your images stronger by locally adjusting planes.
27. Video – Photoshop Masking Key Commands
28. Video – Photoshop Making 2 Masks For 1 Layer
29. Video – Photoshop Feathering Selections & Masks
30. Video – Photoshop Combining Gradient Masks
Get sophisticated selections quickly.
Photoshop offers two great selection tools that use pattern recognition to make the process easier and faster – the Magic Wand tool and the Quick Selection tool. They get complex jobs done quickly and the results they generate can be quite sophisticated. But which one do you choose?
The Lasso tool is best for defining highly irregular selections manually.
The Polygonal Lasso tool is best for defining rectilinear shapes.
The Magnetic Lasso tool uses pattern recognition to define existing contours.
Photoshop’s Lassos (Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, and Magnetic Lasso) are go to tools for drawing irregular selections.
Which Lasso tool you choose depends on the job you need to get done.
The Lasso tool is best for defining highly irregular selections manually.
Just click, hold and drag to define a selection. Draw selections in closed loops from beginning to end; if you let go of a selection half way through a shape you’re drawing a straight line will automatically be drawn from where you let go to where you started; on rare occasions this can be useful.
The Polygonal Lasso tool is best for defining rectilinear shapes.
The Polygonal lasso tool differs in that it only draws straight lines. Click, don’t hold, drag to the point you’d like to draw a straight line to and click again, then repeat until you define a closed shape. While drawing a selection, you can alternate between the Lasso and Polygonal Lasso tools by holding the Option key.
The Magnetic Lasso tool is best for taking advantage of pattern recognition to define existing contours.
The Magnetic Lasso tool is different; it uses edge detection to draw. You simply guide it roughly along a contour you’d like to define and if the contour has enough contrast the tool will find it. (Using an adjustment layer, you can temporarily boost the image’s contrast, while making a selection to help the Magnetic Lasso tool find edges more easily … and then delete the adjustment layer after the selection is complete.) If you draw too quickly with the Magnetic Lasso tool it becomes less accurate. If you find you’d like to refine the line it defines you can press the Delete key to eliminate the anchor points it makes along the way, one at a time, in the order they were made.
Remember, if you plan to feather a selection substantially you don’t need to be precise; close enough will do, so don’t waste your time making perfect selections for very general applications.
Read more about masking here.
View more in my DVD Drawing With Light.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.