Lightroom can be interesting program both for those who just want to use presets, and for those who like creative processing. Typically, Photoshop is used to edit specific areas of a photo, but some interesting actions can be done without leaving Lightroom. One of the tricks of Lightroom is the ability to adjust the color of an individual object.

How to Change the Color of an Object in Adobe Lightroom

• Step 1: Open Adjustment Brush and turn on Auto Mask
• Step 2: Mask the object whose color you want to change. By default, the mask is drawn in red, but if your object is also red, you can change the color of the mask using the keyboard shortcut Shift+O
• Step 3: Use the Saturation slider to desaturate the selected area. This will allow you to see where your mask was inaccurate. Correct the bugs
• Step 4: Use a color filter to add the desired color to an object
• Step 5: Use other adjustments to edit contrast, saturation and other parameters

This method will not work the same on different objects. Sometimes you have to spend more time creating an accurate mask, however, it is no more difficult than working in other graphic editors, so this method quite good for adjusting the color of individual objects in Lightroom.

If you learn all the tools available to you in Lightroom, you'll need to use Photoshop much less often. However, the second one is much more functional for this type of editing, as it offers various tools and smart selection functions with fine-tuning the selected area.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Beginners

I continue the series of articles for the “Photography for Dummies” section. In this article we will talk about photo processing, because post-processing of frames is impossible in 95% of cases. Why?

Firstly, because the dynamic range of a camera is different from the dynamic range of the human eye. Secondly, because the camera does not always accurately convey white balance. Thirdly, the camera may not accurately set the exposure (the ratio of ISO sensitivity, aperture and shutter speed). Fourthly, the photograph may need cropping (cutting out a certain part of the frame). Fifth, you may need to change brightness, contrast, and other settings to achieve a certain result. Therefore, you need to be able to process your photos.

One of the best photo editing tools is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. This program allows you to work with your photo album in a convenient way, it provides very powerful processing capabilities for both individual frames and a set of images, it can also publish edited images on social networks, and so on and so forth. One of the most interesting and even somewhat unique properties of this program is that it completely preserves the original image, because it stores all stages of editing in its own database. (For example, in the ACDSee editor, editing is done on the image itself and the program saves the original in a special subfolder, which is not very convenient.)

Despite the fact that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a very powerful program and it is used professional photographers, beginning amateur photographers will need very little time to learn how to use this program to process their photos. There you just need to grasp a few basic concepts and learn how the basic processing functions work, which is what I hope this article will help with.

1. Adding a folder with photos to the Lightroom database

To start working with images, you need to add them to your Lightroom database. This is done very simply: File - Import Photos and video(or just press Ctrl+Shift+I) and select the desired folder in the left column.

By default, all photos are marked for import, so all you have to do is click a button Import in the lower right corner.

2. View images in Library

After importing, you are taken to the Library image viewing mode.

By default, the sorting is set to Added Order (in the order of addition), but I recommend selecting Capture Time there (according to the time of shooting) - it’s more convenient.

In the right column you can open the Metadata tab - it will display helpful information about the photo from EXIF.

Select the photo that we need to process and go to the Develop item.

3. Primary photo editing

Let's look at various standard photo processing tasks.

Cropping

Crop mode - icon at the top left of the toolbar. The photo is provided with a grid based on the golden ratio, which helps to adjust the composition. Angle slider - rotate the image. Sometimes it helps to click Auto there - in fairly simple cases (collapse of the horizon or building) it quite correctly aligns the frame.

White balance

IN difficult conditions lighting, the white balance must be adjusted. There is a corresponding section of the toolbar for this, and there is a drop-down menu where you can select the appropriate shooting conditions (this is for RAW, for JPG only “as is” and “auto”).

Well, if necessary, the balance can be adjusted manually using sliders.

Adjusting the tone

This is most often involved: exposure, contrast, shadows, etc.

You can first click on Auto, look at the result and then adjust it to your taste. Look what Auto does with this photo - it looks much better this way, doesn't it?

By the way, display in various types photos before and after processing - icons on the bottom left: they switch options for comparing frames.

The next section is Presense - all three parameters are quite important there.

Clarity enhances the definition of contours. For example, Clarity at maximum - it produces an interesting effect, doesn’t it? Of course, you shouldn’t overuse this (like everything else), but for many plots raising Clarity by 20-30 points can be useful.

Vibrance - saturation of muted tones. This parameter has been raised by 40 units.

Saturation - saturation of all colors. I very rarely raise it, rather the opposite - there are times when the saturation has to be lowered to minus by 10-20 units so that the frame looks less postcard-like. Here is Saturation in full - tear your eyes out, as they say.

Photo enhancement

In the Detail section, the Sharpening section allows you to conjure up sharpness, for which you can display some of the most characteristic parts of the frame in the window. But I adjust the sharpness extremely rarely.

But the next section, Noise Reduction, can be quite useful in the case of editing night shots, where strong digital “noise” can appear at high ISOs (this is especially common when shooting on cameras with small sensor sizes).

Here, for example, is a crop of a night shot taken on a smartphone of very average quality. Do you see how “noisy” the photo is?

If you start adding Luminance in the Noise Reduction section on this frame, then the “noise” will gradually begin to go away, but the picture will begin to “blur,” that is, become smeared. Well, here you need to find a reasonable compromise between “noise” and “blurring”.

In the Lens Corrections section, it is highly advisable to enable the Enable Profile Corrections option: in this case, the program, based on information about the lens from EXIF, will select its profile and apply it to the image - as a result, chromatic aberrations, geometric distortions and vignetting will be corrected. It always makes sense to do this.

The Transform section is usually used in cases where you need to correct geometric distortions - this often happens when buildings are photographed from a low point. Here, for example, is a photograph with obvious distortion.

Go to the Transform section and just click the Auto button - in many cases it helps. Here is the result of her work.

If Auto did not work correctly, then the geometry can be edited manually using the sliders.

In the Effects section, the lowest slider is Dehaze. This feature is very useful for removing fog and haze, but it also makes it easy and quick to highlight clouds.

Here, for example, is the result of her work - Dehaze increased to +45.

Another way to add contrast to the clouds and sky is a rectangular transparent gradient filter. The tool is called from the top right. The filter is applied with the mouse to the sky area.

Then you play with different filter parameters - exposure, contrast, clarity - and you can achieve interesting effects. Well, after you exit the gradient filter mode, you can slightly adjust the overall color saturation and other parameters, if necessary.

By the way, you can do very interesting things with transparent gradient filters (there is also a round one), but this is beyond the scope of this article.

I note that with the help of processing you can pull out even almost ruined frames. For example, there is an obvious defect - the light is very contrasty, there are practically no details in the shadows.

Literally a couple of minutes - we removed the haze, played with the settings - it looked completely different.

Presets

Lightroom also has a very handy thing called Presets. This is a set of preset settings. Each photographer has his own basic set of presets for certain scenes; presets are also very convenient to use for batch processing of a group of files.

In Develop mode, a group of presets is located in the block on the left.

To add a new preset, you just need to click on the plus sign located in the block at the top right, and then mark which parameters of the settings you have made that you want to include in this preset.

Well, I note that presets can also be used when importing photos and when exporting.

Story

The history of all your operations is kept in the History section, and there you can roll back to any position. There is also a general Reset button, which returns the photo to its original appearance.

Export

Once the photo is edited, you will need to save it in its finished form. There is an Export command for this (Ctrl+Shift+E). You choose which folder to export to, how to rename the file, in what quality to save it, whether to reduce the frame, and what EXIF ​​data to save there. For web publishing, I usually reduce the frame to 2560 pixels wide.

If you want to put your logo on the image when exporting, there is a Watermark Editor for this (Edit - Edit Watermark). It is best to make your logo in the form of a picture of the appropriate size on a transparent backing; I have this logo in white with a small black shadow - here it is.

When exporting, it is indicated to use this logo and place it in the lower right corner - the result looks something like this (this is a 100% crop).

If you look at the photo in full, the logo is small and does not interfere with perception, but for some bloggers this logo takes up almost a quarter of the image.

I note that, although in the example I considered files in the RAW format, for JPEG, in principle, everything will be very similar.

Well, that’s probably all for the very starting course. As you can see, there is nothing very complicated in Lightroom and you can master the basic editing capabilities in just a couple of hours. Another thing is that Lightroom is a very powerful tool and with its help you can do all sorts of interesting things with images, but the main thing here is to start, and then you will study Lightroom in detail (if you need it at all).

Also, when starting to work with this program, you should remember that any processing should be in moderation and that you should not turn the sliders back and forth if you do not understand what they do at all. The standard mistake of almost all beginners is oversharpening, overloading colors in terms of saturation and acidity, lifting shadows, and so on, which does not improve the photo, but, on the contrary, looks very unnatural. Everything should be in moderation. But this comes with some experience.

P.S. By the way, most of the features described above are also available in the mobile version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Many new Adobe Lightroom users encounter two problems when importing RAW. It may happen that immediately after import everything seems to be fine, but after a few seconds the colors in the photo lose their saturation, become pale and unattractive. The brightness may also change - imported photos become darker or lighter, sometimes the changes can be very strong. Or both can happen at once.

The reason for the loss of saturation is a mismatch in the image style profile. The fix is ​​very simple. In the Develop module, in the Camera Calibration section, you need to select the profile that is installed in the camera instead of Adobe Standard. Most likely it will be Camera Standard. The colors will immediately return to their place, you can save this default setting and forget about the problem forever.

The problem of changing brightness is more serious. You can easily find questions by searching the Internet, but there are no adequate answers to them. Most people probably just ignore it, compensating for tonal changes with Exposure while ignoring the increasing noise levels. I was not happy with this option. After many unsuccessful experiments and unsuccessful attempts to find the reason, I accidentally came across a post on a related topic on some forum. There was no answer to the question there either, but the author’s experiments suggested in which direction to look.

It turned out that the reason was not in Lightroom at all, but in the camera settings! IN Canon cameras There is a feature called "Auto brightness correction." The user manual says that it has no effect when shooting in RAW. That’s all true, it doesn’t affect the image itself in any way, but this setting is recorded in the metadata and taken into account when constructing an embedded preview image, the same one that we see on the camera screen after shooting. If you open this RAW in the original Canon converter (Digital Photo Professional), the adjustment will be taken into account and, as a result, the initial frame correction will be made - the image will turn out exactly the same as expected. Lightroom does not take this setting into account and does not make any correction, hence the brightness changes.

The obvious solution is to disable the "Auto-adjust brightness" and "Highlight priority" functions in the camera settings. Both of them lead to this problem, but the second one is turned off by default. For cameras from other manufacturers, everything is solved in exactly the same way, the differences will only be in the names of the functions.

Well, if you, having SLR camera, you are reading this and for some reason you still shoot in JPEG, then you should ignore everything written above and, on the contrary, activate both of these functions. While this may result in a noisier image in some cases, they will in almost all cases eliminate the need for exposure compensation, which can be very useful given the lack of redundant information in JPEGs for even minimal post-shoot tone correction .

I use several versions of Lightroom installed simultaneously on my computer running Window OS. Different versions have slightly different functionality, or different methods of implementing the same functions. Depending on the situation, I choose the version I need. Here are screenshots based on a fairly old version of Lightroom 3.7. I have all versions of Lightroom without Russification, since this is not important to me.

Over a long period of working with the program, I developed my own algorithm for working in Lightroom, which I almost always use. My 5 simple tips will only help those who shoot in RAW format and develop photos in batches.

To thoughtfully develop each photo in RAW format individually, I recommend using original (i.e. native) software. For example, for the Nikon system this is .

0 (zero point). Importing RAW files.

The essence of the action: prepare the workspace for further manipulations with files.

This is the zero, additional point from which work with Lightroom always begins. To start processing photos, you must first import them into the program. I use a quick and simple download: I simply drag all the files into the Lightroom window with the mouse and press the ‘Import’ button. I always import from a directory located on my hard drive. If you import from a flash drive, the import process will be delayed, since the program will most likely first copy all the source files to its special directory.

Import has its own peculiarities. When photos are imported into Lightroom, you can sometimes notice how the preview image changes its color, saturation, and exposure. This is due to the fact that each RAW file contains not only the original information about the image, but also many other additional data. Some of this data is photo previews for quick viewing. Roughly speaking, the RAW file has a built-in thumbnail in JPEG format, which is used for quick viewing photograph taken on the camera display. This JPEG thumbnail is based on the settings specified by the camera. When importing photos into Lightroom, the program displays JPEG thumbnails extracted from the RAW file. After attempting to take a closer look at the photo, Lightroom constructs (renders) a new image directly from the original raw data, using its own presets. Lightroom presets and JPEG thumbnails do not match, which is why the original picture changes before your eyes.

Unfortunately, it is very, very difficult to get Lightroom to accurately replicate all the camera settings. In fact, it is impossible to repeat all the camera settings. Only native software can display a RAW image on a computer in full compliance with what can be seen on the camera display. But in order to minimize the differences between how the picture looks on the camera display and in the program window, I recommend turn off everything in the camera additional functions , which improve the image. For the Nikon system, this primarily concerns the Active function.

All improvements must be made using Lightroom. Using on-camera functions to improve the image only makes sense when shooting in JPEG format, or if RAW files will be processed using native software.

After import, you can add tags, labels, correctly catalog a series of pictures, and configure the sorting of photos in your feed.

Also, you can import immediately using a specific preset, into which you can write the settings listed below.

1. I set the camera profile.

The essence of the action: basic setting for the most correct/beautiful rendering of the original RAW file.

The setting is located at Develop -> Camera Calibration -> Profile -> select the desired profile

In order for the image generated in Lightroom to be as similar as possible to the one displayed on the camera display, Lightroom needs to specify the correct camera profile. In short, a camera profile is a photo management mode that is set on the camera (neutral, saturated, monochrome, etc.).

This is the key point. The correct camera profile allows you to significantly improve the visual perception of the image. Find good profile for a specific camera - very, very difficult.

Lightroom usually has a set of basic profiles: neutral, saturated, landscape, portrait, etc. These profiles very loosely correspond to similar profiles that are set on the camera.

You can search for a profile for your specific camera yourself. Typically, third-party developers create profiles. I'm sure for large quantity cameras, you won’t be able to find a good profile. In this case, you will need to choose the profile that you like the most.

An existing profile can be modified, namely, the color shift in the shadows, offset and saturation of each of the three main channels can be adjusted. After which, you can create a custom preset, writing into it only changes relating to Camera Calibration (when creating a preset, you should only select the ‘Calibration’ checkbox).

2. I set the lens profile.

The essence of the action: get rid of lens shortcomings.

The function is set as follows Develop -> Lens Corrections -> Profile -> Enable Profile Corrections

Everything is simple here. By choosing a lens profile, you can completely get rid of some of the lens' shortcomings. In general This setting allows you to completely cure vignetting and distortion. Also, lenses are treated here. Lightroom has an extensive database of lenses, with which you can “cure” any of them.

If the lens you are using is not in the list, you can correct these parameters manually, and then write the result into a preset that can be applied to all photos.

After this adjustment, the distortions introduced by the lens should be leveled out.

In the future, the lens profile will be applied to each photo.

3. I optimize and expand the capabilities of the camera and lens.

The essence of the action: make the most beautiful/desired image possible through basic exposure and color manipulations.

Everything is very simple here. I usually choose one key photo from a series or even from an entire shoot and configure it according to the main parameters:

• Increasing DD - restoration of lights and shadows (Highlight recovery, Fill light, Dark)
• Adjusting Vibrance
• Increasing saturation (Saturation)
• Clarity Enhancement
• Sharpening
• Noise reduction

The main thing here is not to overdo it. I try to make the photograph “neutral positive” so that all further manipulations are based on the original “normal” image.

Important: The level of a particular setting greatly depends on the camera used and the frames directly taken. For example, I clearly know and understand how much influence this or that slider in Lightroom has on the RAW files of my cameras, but it takes a long time to get used to a new camera and processing its RAW files.

In the future, these settings will be applied to each photo.

4. I synchronize all images using one key photo.

The essence of the action: bring all images under one basic view.

After all the previous manipulations, I synchronize all the photos with the changed settings. This is done very simply. In the 'Develop' section, select all photos in the feed (CTRL+A) and press the 'Sync' button. In the synchronization menu, I click the ‘Check All’ button, then uncheck the ‘White Balance’ (), ‘Crop’, ‘Spot Removal’ checkboxes. The captured parameters should not be synchronized, since each photo has its own individual cropping and spot correction/restoration.

Synchronization is part of batch processing. At the end of it, all photos are adjusted to similar settings.

After this manipulation in the Lightroom feed, all the photos are more or less brought back to normal. The previous four points allow you to “bring the image to zero” - to rid it of the shortcomings of the lens and camera and to push the capabilities of the RAW file to the limit. After these four manipulations, you can begin the real fine processing and prepare the image for the final stage that the client will see.

5. I crop all the photos.

The essence of the action: correct cropping flaws - level the horizon, crop the photo with the correct arrangement of details in the frame, cut out key parts of the photo.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to crop one photo and apply cropping to all the photos in the feed. After synchronizing the basic settings I crop all photos. During the cropping operation, I also selectively delete bad pictures from the Lightroom feed.

Important: I highly recommend cropping photos with fixed aspect ratios. The proportions of the classic frame are 3:2. After cropping, all photographs have the same frame proportions and do not differ in any way during viewing. If this is not done, then after cropping you may end up with square photographs and very elongated stripes. This does not correspond to the general style of the photo feed. In addition, during printing, there is a 100% probability that parts of the frame will be cut off or filled with white space. Usually printed on standard sizes, which also correspond to the proportions 3:2. For almost every shoot, I print photographs or edit a photo book; maintaining proportions after cropping is very important to me. To maintain crop proportions in Lightroom, just click on the padlock icon.

After cropping and deleting unsuccessful frames, I have a “polished” set of photos in my feed that can be further manipulated.

Important: I call all specified actions ‘ Go to Zero’, since these simple manipulations allow you to look at an image that is devoid of basic flaws, raw, neutral, like a blank sheet, looking at which you can already carry out further fine processing.

I believe that these manipulations can improve the quality of the original image by 30%. The remaining 60% is the finalization of the image using Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop, not Lightroom).

In my practice, it often happens that after completing just these five points, you can already get an image option that can satisfy both me and my clients. Most often, processing is limited to just these five points, unless there is a need to retouch photographs (eliminating skin imperfections, working with plastic, artistic color correction, etc.).

For me, the most difficult thing in processing is, after bringing all the photographs from a series/shooting into a digestible form, choosing the best ones for fine-tuning them.

6. I export all photos (bonus point)

The essence of the action: get a finished result that can be viewed by any user/client on any device.

In this case, export is the process of exporting photos from RAW format into a format that is suitable for further processing or viewing. If I plan to do nothing else, then I export to a poppy JPEG format. If I plan to further modify photographs in Adobe Photoshop, then I use the 'TIFF' or 'DNG' format. IN Lately I'm lazy, I don't use TIFF and export all my photos directly to JPEG.

Eventually My photo processing process is divided into two stages: processing in Lightroom and processing in Photoshop. Lightroom - for basic settings, restoration of “screwed up” pictures, batch processing of photo feeds. Photoshop – for the final “finishing” of photographs, retouching, manipulation of layers, masks, and more.

Philosophy

I am convinced that a photographer must develop a clear plan of action, a clear concept, a well-thought-out methodology with step by step actions photo processing. Spent technological process greatly speeds up and simplifies the processing and delivery of finished material to the client.

Bottom line. My basic processing process constructed as follows: import -> set camera profile -> set lens profile -> expand camera/lens capabilities -> synchronize selected settings -> crop -> export. I repeat - this is the basic process, the basis from which my processing begins.

Thank you for your attention. Arkady Shapoval.

Very often these are the headlines that appear on forums.

The problem is that it cannot display colors correctly. In the first seconds after adding Lightroom photography displays a preview embedded in RAW. After this, the program displays a picture generated using the existing profiles.

For cameras, Adobe creates profiles itself, that is, in essence, it interprets RAW in its own way. It's not bad or good, it's just the way it is. It is for this reason that you see the more correct colors first, and then the “wrong” ones.

This same problem is common in Adobe Camera RAW, as it uses the same engine as Lightroom. What to do about it?

How to get the right colors in Lightroom

There's a small caveat here. The fact is that the concept of correct color rendering is a very multifaceted issue. Firstly, everyone has their own understanding of correct color rendering, or rather what it should be. Secondly, color rendering includes a lot of factors, from shooting to processing.

In the third version

Apply camera profile

Using a native converter

This option should be used when you need 100% correct colors. Here is an example of two photos from Lightroom 3 and Capture NX 2. They were not processed, just exported from RAW.

P.S.

As a rule, Lightroom is used for processing reportage photographs and for photographs where color correction will be so strong that color rendering errors can be neglected. For processing in which the color rendering is one of the most important factors— it’s better to use native RAW converters or Capture one, which supports ICC profiles.