Video review of the new features of Lightroom 3 in the Develop module. A new process, new effects, new lens correction capabilities - all this and more.

New process

The program's developers claim that most of the improvements in the program work behind the scenes. Of course, such improvements include new processing. The algorithm for rendering images from raw RAW data has been redesigned. We are promised a noticeable improvement in noise reduction and sharpening. By default, new photos are processed using a new algorithm. Old ones are not automatically converted, so you decide for yourself whether or not you will “develop” them using the new technology. As you know, Lightroom uses non-destructive editing, and at any time you can cancel all or any part of your processing without harm to the image if you don’t like something. Same with the process version.

As an example, I’ll take a photo taken at high ISO, which is quite noisy and has both fine details and solid-colored planes. There are several ways to select the processing algorithm: through the Settings=>process menu, through the Camera calibration panel in the Process drop-down list and, in the case of the current old process, through the icon at the bottom right of the photo warning about the old process. But before I click, I want to increase the sharpening and noise reduction. I increase it to one hundred percent and move the sliders.

Click, Lightroom tells you that it is available for this image. new technology processing, and that mild to moderate changes in sharpness and noise reduction may be coming as part of the update. It informs you that you can cancel by selecting Cancel.

We enable the display of “before and after” changes by checking the first checkbox. The second checkbox gives us the opportunity to skip showing this window in the future; let’s not check it for now. By the way, you can skip this window by clicking on the icon with Alt pressed. Three buttons: the first allows you to convert all photos into a film strip, the second - only the current photo and Cancel. I click update. Lightroom shows me the before and after.

With the help of all this, you are invited to figure out whether you like the new development technology or not. Personally, I came to the conclusion that the new process is good. Here I see that more small details have been preserved, while the noise is significantly less compared to the old process. In addition, noise reduction has become more flexible thanks to additional sliders, the name of which speaks for itself. Detail will try to preserve detail and Contrast will try to preserve contrast. By the way, now changes in the photo are visible not only at 100% magnification, but also at any magnification. I recommend that you try to compare the old and new processes Thus, on your own, especially because of the video compression, you will notice much less than I see now. For a complete assessment, look at the photographs at different levels noise reduction, with and without sharpening, on different scenes.

Lens corrections

Probably the second most important innovation is lens correction. All you need to do is click in the Enable profile corrections field. Lightroom will read the metadata, learn from it the lens and camera model and try to find a suitable profile. From this profile, he will understand exactly how to correct this “camera-lens” pair and will correct three types of optical distortions at once. These are distortion (geometric distortion in the form of a barrel or pillow), chromatic aberration (color fringing along contrasting edges) and vignetting (darkening in the corners of the frame).

If Lightroom can't find a suitable profile, you'll have to try to find it manually in these drop-down lists. In the top list we select the lens manufacturer, below it we look for the lens model and in the bottom list the profile itself, that is, the camera-lens pair. If you haven't found your profile, your last option is to create a profile yourself using the free Lens profile creator utility. It turned out to be not an easy task to create a profile, but still not impossible. Brief instructions in Russian.

Well, if you succeed, you can increase or decrease the effect of automatic correction using these three sliders. For example, if you like the vignetting of your lens, no question, you can return it back by moving the Vegnetting slider to the left. At the same time, other types of correction continue to work.

You will also find new features on the manual tab. Previously, it was only possible to correct vignetting and chromatic aberrations; now it is possible to correct geometric distortions, and to correct them in a non-destructive way, in which the original photographs themselves are not affected. To remove the gray corners formed during correction, check the Constrain Crop checkbox.

Effects, style

Some of what was in the vignetting panel, the so-called post-crop vignetting, has now moved to the effects panel. Here we added overlay methods, style. Highlight priority prioritizes maintaining contrast and natural look glare in the photo. But at the same time, the colors in the shadows become more saturated, and they shift. Color priority mode allows you to preserve colors, sacrificing a little contrast. The Paint overlay mode (I misspoke in the video, said Color overlay) simply mixes the gray component into the pixel values; when used, the image can look flat. When using the Highlight priority and Color priority modes, you can adjust the preservation of highlight areas using the new highlights slider.

Auto-sync

While I was playing with vignetting, I used another new feature, auto-sync. It only works if several photos are selected and automatically assigns your processing to all these photos.

Grain

And a completely new effect, grain, a simulation of photographic “film” grain, the strength of which is set with the amount slider, size is the size of the grain and roughness is the regularity of the grain, the further to the right the slider, the more unevenly the grains are located. This effect can also be used to disguise various artifacts.

Point curve mode

Another expected innovation is the point curve mode on the tone curve panel. It is activated by clicking on the icon at the bottom right. This mode removes all restrictions and essentially gives you a curve like in Photoshop, only small, unfortunately. Now you can even flip it, thereby inverting the image.

Local correction

And finally, let's look at the area of ​​local correction. Now there is no view with buttons, only the view with sliders remains. Probably many people never realized that this was in the second Lightroom, these two views with the switch were so confusing. It's finished!

But now there is no amount slider that would move all these sliders proportionally. The amount functionality can be found by hovering the cursor over the active brush icon, the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow and by moving the mouse left or right you adjust the amount. In addition, amount is available in a compact panel form.

You can also notice new elements on the toolbar. Show edit pins is a method for showing brush icons. Auto - they are shown only if the cursor is over the image. Always - always, selected - selected and never - never. The Show selected mask overlay checkbox enables highlighting of painted areas. The O key does the same thing as before. Well, in the new Tool menu you can select the color of this highlight. Don't forget about the almighty Alt or Option key on a Mac, which allows you to reset all settings in a single panel.

For someone new to Lightroom, some of the program's features may not be so obvious or easy to recognize. In this article, I'll introduce you to 5 secrets of the Adjustments module that will help you get more out of your Lightroom editing experience.

1. Virtual copies

Often when you're working in Lightroom, you'll edit an image in one style and then decide to edit it in another—without losing any work you've done. The problem is that once you have edited the image, any virtual copy you create will have the current appearance as starting point. Thus, the first entry in the History panel will be the creation of a Virtual Copy, and you will not be able to return the photo to its original appearance using the History panel.

However, you can use the Reset button in the lower right corner of the Corrections module panel. Click Reset to reset the new Virtual Copy so that you get the original photo as it came out of the camera, with all changes erased. Of course, the changes will remain on your original image (only the Virtual copy will be reset).

The further the better. But what if you want to create a Virtual Copy in the middle of the processing process? Well, that can be done too. Starting with the original image, open the History panel on the left and select a stage that displays the image as it should be as a Virtual Copy. Please note that the most last changes are located at the top of the History panel.

Please note that the History panel is open, and a different image processing stage, different from the current one, has been selected to create a Virtual Copy.

Now right-click on the image and select Create Virtual Copy - Lightroom will create a new Virtual Copy and switch to it. Immediately after this, go back to the image from which you made the copy - the original image - and in the History panel, click on the topmost entry. This will restore all edits in the original image to the latest version. It's important to do this before you start working on the new Virtual Copy, because if you forget to do this step, you may lose your edits if you later make changes to the original image.

2. Comparison Before And After

In Lightroom, you can see an image before and after editing by clicking on the image in the Adjustments module and pressing the backslash key on your keyboard (\). Click once to see the Before photo and again to return it to its edited current state.

The further the better. But what if you want to compare the current edited step to the previous edited step, rather than the original image? You can do this by opening the History panel, then right-clicking on the History stage you want to compare the current image view to - you can select any stage in the list. From the pop-up menu, select Copy Story Step Settings to Before. Now, when you press the "\" key to compare Before and After, you will see the previous state, but not the original image taken from the camera.

3. Reverse engineering a preset

A preset in Lightroom is a set of settings saved so that it can be applied to any image at any time. However, there is nothing that is applied using a preset that cannot be applied to an image manually using the Adjustments module. This means that presets contain valuable image processing information that you can discover by reverse engineering them. So if you like the preset that comes with Lightroom, or have downloaded and loaded other presets, use the following process to learn how they work.

Start with the image in its original form and apply the preset to it. Now look at the settings in the Adjustments module panel on the right to see what adjustments have been made.

To see if a preset has a Gradient or Radial filter enabled, click on the Gradient Filter tool, set Show Anchor Points to Always and see if they appear in the image. If so, click to see where they were applied and what their settings are. Repeat this step with the Radial Filter to see if it has been applied to the image. Since presets cannot contain adjustment brush editing, there is no point in checking this tool.

It's best to learn presets before making any changes to the image other than applying the preset itself. This way you will know that all changes were part of the preset and not your own.

4. KeyAltworks practically everywhere

The Alt key is Lightroom's biggest hidden secret. When you press it, various things appear on the screen that were previously invisible. For example, in the Basic panel, you can use Alt to display the Reset Tone and Reset appearance. The Exposure, Whites, Blacks, and Split Toning sliders display the visual feedback, if you hold down the Alt key while setting them. The same is possible with the sliders on the Detail panel.

5. Keyboard settings

If you find it difficult to adjust sliders in Lightroom using your mouse, then try using your keyboard for these purposes. To do this, click on the slider to activate it and use the Left and Right arrows to make small movements. To move in larger increments, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the arrows. You will see that the Up and Down keys work similar to the Left and Right keys.

If you want to continue working with the sliders, but they move too quickly for you to make fine adjustments, then hold down the Shift key as you move the slider. This slows down the movement and makes small changes easier to make. You can also click on the numeric value the slider is currently at and use the Up and Down arrow keys to adjust the value in small increments.

To reset a slider, double-click on its name and it will return to its default value.

In this Lightroom tutorial, I'll share with you the beginning of my post-processing process that I use for most photos. I mostly use Lightroom for 90% of my post-processing and very rarely use Photoshop for any additional effects.

Before I begin, I must admit that I am not a post-processing expert, and I certainly don't know Lightroom inside out, nor do I know Photoshop inside and out. But as it turns out, and hopefully you've realized it too, you don't need to be an expert to bring your Raw photos to life. Anyone can do this with a few simple steps that I'm going to show you now.

Before we begin, here's a photo uploaded straight from the camera.

The photo I'm going to use (above) in this tutorial is one I took during the Night and Sunrise at the Dead Sea workshop. I didn't plan this photo in advance, but it seems to be the best of all the footage. It shows one of the largest sinkholes in the Dead Sea area and is an 89-second exposure taken with a 10-stop neutral density filter to smooth out the water inside the sinkhole and stretch out the clouds floating in the sky.

Now let's make this photo more expressive!

1. Lens correction

The first thing I do is apply Lens Corrections. This particular photo was taken with a wide-angle lens, and if you photograph landscapes, you'll be using it 80% of the time, so it's important to be able to correct the distortion it creates.

Simply go to the Lens Correction panel and check Enable Correction Profile. Lightroom has profiles for many lenses, and there's a good chance your lens will be there, too. If not, make sure you have the latest version of Lightroom as it adds support for new lenses being released into the world.

In some cases, I decide to leave the photo as it is without lens correction. It's a matter of what feels right to you for a particular image.

In the Lens Corrections panel, you can also correct the perspective of your image, so I always click Auto and see how it affects my shot. If it's good, then I leave it. If it's bad, I undo and straighten it manually or, if necessary, rotate it with the crop tool.

2. Balance White

White Balance adjustment comes in second place. Since I always shoot in RAW (if you don't, please start doing so), I don't worry too much about White Balance when shooting. Again, it's a matter of trying out the options in Lightroom to see what looks best and what makes the image look as close as possible to how the scene actually looked.

80% of the time I use Auto or As Shot, but for this photo I left it as Shot.

3. Removal spots

Removing stains is a MUST. Not removing blemishes from your images is a really bad habit. They are really difficult to avoid as dirt and dust particles end up on the lens or sensor and keeping them clean is very difficult for most photographers. I know because I'm one of them.

In my opinion, smudges can ruin an image, I just hate them, but I love that Lightroom makes it so easy to get rid of them. As you can see in the screenshot above, I have indicated two obvious spots with arrows, but look what happened after using the Visualize Spots tool.

I know I shouldn't be so happy because my lens (sensor) is quite dirty, but thanks to this great feature in Lightroom I can see almost all the errors and get rid of them.

You can choose between Stamp and Fix in the Spot Removal tool. I usually use Fix as it does a better job of removing blemishes and choosing the best areas to copy.

4. Panel Basic

This is where most of the magic happens and this is the part that gives the most impact to the photo. It has nine sliders (except the 2 sliders for White Balance that we already talked about in step 2) and the most important thing you should know is that each photo requires individual settings as the images are different.

The settings I'm going to apply to this photo probably won't work for another, so remember that the overall process is similar and I'll be using the same sliders, but there's no need to put them in the same place.

Let's start:

4.1 Exposition

Since the photo was well exposed and there are no sharp changes as you can see from the histogram, I don't need to adjust the Exposure and will leave it at 0.

The histogram is a great tool and you should keep an eye on it throughout the processing process. It will give you valuable information about the clipped areas in the image (if any).

Here's what the highlights look like (press J or click on the arrows at the top of the histogram to activate the clipping indicators).

This is what the shadows look like when they are underexposed.

Remember that sometimes clipping is acceptable and sometimes even desirable. The trick is to figure out where the clipping is occurring and decide whether the loss of detail in that area is acceptable or not, and that decision is entirely up to you.

4.2 Contrast

I usually don't bother adjusting contrast as other settings have a big impact on the contrast of the photo, so I don't find it necessary. I'm leaving the Contrast at 0 for this image.

4.3 Sveta

The Light slider is designed to bring back detail (move the slider to the left) in the bright areas of the image, or brighten (move the slider to the right) the highlights while protecting them from overexposure.

What you need to do is drag the slider to -100 and watch the histogram, then move up little by little if necessary. In the case of this photo, I went down to -100 and left it there. You can see that this brought back a lot of detail in the clouds and mountains in the background.

4.4 Shadows

The Shadows slider will affect shadows in the mid-tones, towards the lower end of the deeper shadows. To highlight them, simply drag the slider to the right. To darken, move left. For this photo I left it at 0.

4.5 White

The Whites slider sets the White Point (brightness) or extreme tonal range of an image by raising or lowering the white value. The difference between Highlights and Whites is that the Whites slider helps you identify the true white color in a photo, while the Highlights slider helps you restore lost detail in the highlights.

Press Option (MAC) or ALT (PC) and move the Whites slider to the right until you see areas of the photo that are overexposed (this indicates which areas have been clipped), then move back a little and stop. For this photo I moved to +17.

4.6 Black

The Blacks slider interacts with the darkest areas of the image. Press Option (MAC) or ALT (PC) and move the Blacks slider to the left until black areas appear (they're clipped in the shadows), then move back a little and stop. For this image I moved the slider to -14.

Settings for Shadows, Whites and Blacks.

4.7 Definition

Clarity is essentially a tool for contrast. However, rather than increasing contrast throughout the entire image, Clarity only affects areas of the image where contrast boundaries are detected. This tool is more subtle than the Contrast slider, and is great for enhancing an image without making it look unnatural.

Raise the slider up to whatever intensity you think is necessary for a particular image, but again, don't overdo it. For this photo I settled on +52.

4.8 Juiciness

Juiciness is a close relative of Richness, and at first glance they may appear to be the same thing, but Richness is slightly different. Saturation controls the movement of all colors in the spectrum down or up in saturation more or less simultaneously. Vibrancy, on the other hand, is a more selective tool and enhances only those colors that need it. This means that Vibrancy does not oversaturate colors that are already very saturated or colors that are low in saturation.

Increase Juiciness to the level you think is necessary, but do not overdo it. For this photo I chose +32 and added more blue to the sky and earthy tones to the mountains.

Clarity and Vibrancy adjusted

Before And after

As you can see, not much has been done and the whole process takes no more than a few minutes (depending on how many pictures you have). I think it makes a huge difference for this particular image and any other for that matter.

Here's an image straight from the camera:

Here is the image after settings:

Finally, here are the before and after photos:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and most importantly, I hope you learned something that you can apply to your photos to make them stand out.

I would like to continue the topic of the imperfections of our optics.

Let's talk about what "geometric aberrations" are.

Today you will learn about what distortion is and how to remove it in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Let's start with a definition.

Distorsio or distortion - from Latin curvature.

Distortion is geometric aberrations (geometric distortions), manifested in the curvature of straight lines.

Distortion

On the left is a square with no distortion.

Pincushion distortion – straight lines are curved into the frame (positive distortion).

Barrel distortion – straight lines are curved outward (negative distortion).

Geometric distortions are present in all lenses to one degree or another; in expensive models there are naturally fewer aberrations.

There are models in which lens distortion will be a “feature” that everyone likes, and not a defect that should be removed.

You probably already guessed that I'm talking about a fisheye lens; they are also called “Fish eye”.

Here are photos taken with these lenses.

Distortion

Distortion Distortion is most noticeable when there are straight horizontal or vertical lines in the frame - this is primarily architecture, the horizon line, trees, pillars, and so on, and the distortion is most noticeable at the edges of the frame.

If you photograph portraits or landscapes without straight lines, then the distortion is practically unnoticeable.

Geometric distortion is most pronounced at wide lens angles.

For example: you have a lens with a focal length of 18-105 mm, distortion will appear most at 18 mm, and as the focal length increases, geometric distortions decrease.

How to reduce distortion?

1. Since geometric distortion is more pronounced at a wide angle, you can move further away from the subject and use the zoom.
2. Buying a more expensive lens.
3. Distortion correction in graphic editors.

Let's take a closer look at the third point.

We will work with this image.

Distortion

Correcting distortion in Photoshop. Lens Correction.

Open the image in which you want to remove geometric distortions.

Photoshop distortion correction

Select Correction -> Geometric Distortion.

Next, select the camera manufacturer (Camera Make), camera model (Camera Model), model of your lens (Lens Model). If you haven’t found your lens or camera model, click the “Search Online” button and Photoshop will search for these parameters on the Internet.

After you select all the options, Photoshop will automatically correct the distortion.

There is another way - manual.

Correcting distortion manually is not very convenient, but it is quite doable. Go to the "Custom" menu of the Lens Correction filter. Use the Remove Distortion slider to manually correct distortion.

Photoshop distortion correction

For the convenience of adjustments, you can use the grid – “Show Grid”; the size of the cells and the color of the grid lines can be changed.

Correcting distortion in Photoshop. Camera Raw.

Go to Lens Correction

Photoshop distortion correction

Correction of distortion in automatic mode is carried out by selecting the item “Enable Lens Profile Correction” - Activate the lens correction profile. In this case, the plugin will automatically detect the camera and lens model and correct the distortion according to these parameters. You can also do this in manual mode – “Manual”.

Photoshop distortion correction

To correct distortion manually, use the “Distortion” slider.

Photoshop, of course, is good, but lightturm is better in this case, because geometric distortions can be corrected automatically in even a thousand pictures at once and in just a couple of clicks, and it will take very little time.

Distortion correction in Lightroom.

Import the images into Lightroom, then go to the Develop -> Lens Corrections module.

Lightroom distortion correction

Enable the Enable Profile Corrections lens correction profile and Lightroom will automatically correct geometric distortions. Lightroom takes camera settings (model and lens) for distortion correction from the file metadata.

In manual mode, you can correct the distortion in the same Amount -> Distortion tab.

There is also a completely manual distortion correction mode – Manual

Lightroom distortion correction

In addition to distortion, there are other defects that are worth paying attention to when editing a photo: , . If you decide to take photography seriously, I advise you to think about the correct color rendering of your monitor and.

Put photo processing on autopilot with the help of training “

Lightroom
The Lightroom program is divided into several sections, each of which contains its own modules.

Library– Designed primarily for browsing, selecting, and cataloging your images.
While in this section, in the lower left corner you will see 2 large import and export buttons.
To get started, let's look at importing photos.
When you click the Import button in this section, or in the File-Import Photo and Video tab, an import dialog box opens.

1 – Enable/disable the full view of the Import window. The picture shows an expanded view.
2 – The resource from which your photos will be imported. Below are the folders of the selected device. You need to select what you want to import into the catalog.
Option “Includt Subfolders” - allows you to add images and subfolders of the selected folder.
3 – photos located in the selected folder are displayed in the middle window and are immediately marked with a checkmark, indicating that they will be added to the catalog. If you do not want to add any photos, then uncheck this box.
4 – select all. Mark all photos with a checkmark.
5 – Uncheck all photos.
6 – Options for viewing images. In the table, or full screen.
7 – Enlarge the picture.
8 – Sort photos by name, time taken, etc.
9 – Copy as DNG. Copy photos to DNG format. This format was developed by Adobe Systems with the goal of creating a standard format for RAW image files instead of multiple various formats different camera manufacturers. The photos will be copied to a new folder, converted to DNG format and added to the catalog.
10 – Copy. The photos will be copied to a new folder and added to the catalog.
11 – Move. The photos will be moved to a new folder and added to the catalog.
12 – Add. The photos remain in the same place, they are simply added to the catalog. This tab does not work if the photo source is a memory card.
13 – Source where your photos will be copied or added. In the case of Add - your directory.
14 – Rendering previews.
Minimal - your photos will quickly be added to the catalog, but when working with them, increasing their scale, you will waste time “loading” the image.
1:1 – photos take much longer to load. But with further work, scaling the photo occurs much faster.
Embedded and sidecard – loading embedded previews.
Standard – something between minimal and 1:1
15 – A checkbox that allows you not to import photos that are already in the catalog.
16 – Creating a backup copy. Doesn't work with the Add tab.
17 – Import photos with presets.
18 – Metadata. Authorship, etc.
19 – Key words.
20 – Start import.

Working panels of the Library tab

On the left we have several modules.
All modules can be hidden or shown by clicking on the triangle.
1 – Navigation panel.
Fit – the photo is adjusted to fit completely on the screen.
Fill – the photo fills the screen.
1:1 – 100% scale
4:1 – self-selected scale.
2 – Catalog
All Photographs – view all photos uploaded to the catalog
Quick Collection – Photos in the quick collection.
You can add a photo to Quick Collection by clicking on the circle in the upper right corner of the preview or by dragging it to this section.
Previus Import – Last import
3 – Window of downloaded photos in the form of an explorer.

If you accidentally moved or renamed a folder on your computer, then in Lightroom it will be displayed with a question mark and you will not be able to work with photos, although previews will still be displayed. In order to show the program where and what this folder is now called, you need to right-click on the folder icon and select Finde Missing Folder. In the Explorer pop-up window, select the desired folder.

If you moved only one or several photos, the photos will also have a question mark in the upper right corner (in the fifth version of the program with an exclamation mark).
To do this, right-click on the photo and select Show in Explorer. To which he will swear at you and offer to find the path to this photo yourself.

Even lower are the collections and publications modules, which we will not focus on.

The following tools will help you select photos:

1 – image viewing modes (grid, large one, comparison mode and sampling mode)
Table mode. Allows you to see a lot of your photos, depending on the magnification. In this mode, you can delete, assign keywords and tags to several selected photographs.
The second mode is the viewing mode of the selected photo. To make sure your photo is displayed on the screen as much as possible, you can hide all side panels using the Shift+Tab key combination. Pressing them again will return them to the screen. Another useful feature is screen dimming. To do this, press the L key. The first press will darken the screen, the second press will make it completely black, and the third will return everything to its original form.
Comparison mode. Allows you to place 2 similar photos on the screen and, using the lock and zoom, compare which one, in terms of quality or other criteria, is more suitable for further work.

Sampling mode. Allows you to place your selected photos on the screen to further determine which one deserves more attention.
2 – flags. Let's mark the best photos with a white flag, and those that we want to remove with a black flag. It is more convenient to do this with the key combination Ctrl+up (white flag) and Ctrl+down (black).
Removing photos marked with a black flag is carried out through the Photo tab – Delete Rejected Photo or by pressing the Ctrl+BackSpace key combination.
After which a pop-up window will appear in which the program will prompt you to delete your photos from your computer (Delete from Disk), delete only from the Lightroom catalog (Remove) or cancel.
3 – ratings. By marking photos with stars from 1 to 5, we can more critically screen out the footage. It’s easy to set stars using numbers on the keyboard from 0 to 5. 0 – removes stars.
4 – colored marks. Another way to sort footage. Colored marks are also placed from the keyboard with numbers from 6 to 9, except for purple. Selecting the same color again removes the color mark.
Now you can filter photos using our tags and choose the really best ones.
To do this, there is a filter menu at the bottom right:

Another filter allows you to search for photos in the catalog. Which opens with the \ key. For search the desired photo for the entire catalog, you need to select All Photographs in the Catalog tab under the Navigator window. In the correct case, the search will be carried out in the folder or category you select.
Here you can find photos by shooting date, camera, lens and other parameters.

Stack and Virtual Copy

So that you don't get lost in large quantities photos on your computer, Lightroom has another feature: Group into Stack. Similar photos or photos of the same image can be combined into a Stack. To do this, you need to select the desired photos and right-click Stacking - Group into Stack. The selected photos will be hidden under one photo and a number will appear that will indicate how many photos are in this group. To view them, just click on this number. Accordingly, to ungroup, you will need to select Unstack.

You can also create a virtual copy of a photo to make several processing options. To do this, right-click on the desired photo and select Create Virtual Copy from the menu.

The virtual photo appears dog-eared and only exists in the Lightroom catalog.

The created virtual copies are automatically combined into a Stack with the original photo. If you want to delete a virtual photo, you can use the Del or BackSpace key to do this. Lightroom will offer to simply remove it from the catalog.

Develop– all photo processing in Lightroom takes place in this module.

On the left side we again see several modules.
The first module is familiar to us from the Library tab - this is the navigator window.
2 – Presets or presets. By default, some presets are already written into the program. You can also create your own. More on this later.
3 – Snapshot. Allows you to fix the image at this stage of processing, so that later, if something happens, you can return to a given point.
4 – History. Ponel of history. It records absolutely all the actions that you perform with the photo. You can always roll back and change the progress of processing. The cross in the upper right corner of this panel allows you to clear your history, which is not very advisable to do.
5 – Again, collections of photographs, tagged with various tags.

On the right panel there are working modules that allow you to manipulate photographs.
The histogram in Lightroom displays not only the brightness curve, but also the distribution of colors.
A white triangle in the upper right corner and a peak on the left of the histogram indicate that the photo has “knocked out” pixels (overexposure). If we had the same peak on the left, then the triangle on the left would also be white. This resulted in a loss of detail in the shadows. But in our histogram it is blue, which indicates that we are losing detail only in the blue channel.

The Basic panel is directly linked to the histogram. When we move the mouse cursor to one or another part of the histogram, certain zones are highlighted, with which we can work both on the histogram and by moving the sliders.
Setting the black and white points is very important at the initial stage of working on the image, since the choice of these points greatly affects the tonal solution of the photo. Therefore, you need to start working with them (1.5).
1,1 – Blacks – the black point determines where the darkest area is in your photo. It’s more convenient to configure with the Alt key held down.
2,2 – Shadows allows you to draw out details in shadow areas. Works on the area from 3/4 tone to the black point. With a negative value, detail in deep shadows decreases, with a positive value it remains the same or increases slightly.
3.3 – Exposure in version 4 of the program affects mainly the midtones, to lighten or darken the photo. Doesn't affect the black point, but does affect the white point, so it's best used after adjusting the Highlights.
4 ,4 – Highlights is used for tone correction highlights, allowing you to pull out details in areas that are too light. It has no effect on the white point with negative correction and shifts it with positive correction.
5,5 – Whites is used to set the white point. It is also advisable to configure at the initial stage with the ALt key held down.
6 – Contrast. The standard S-curve is shifted closer to ¼ tones. Does not affect black and white dots. Allows you to enhance contrast in midtones.
7 – Clarity – local contrast. As you zoom in, the picture becomes clearer and deeper, but at higher values ​​the areolas are visible. Negative reduces local contrast, making the image blurry.
8 – Vibrance allows you to increase the saturation of precisely those colors that are less saturated in the photo, minimally affecting the already saturated colors. Skin color is also least affected.
9 – Saturation – increasing the saturation of all colors in the photo.
10 –RGB values ​​at a given point as a percentage.
In green, I separately highlighted the group responsible for the white balance in the photo. All colors in the photo depend on the BB settings.
1 – Converting an image to black and white and back to color
2 – Select white balance from the suggested list (auto, as filmed, cloudy, incandescent, etc.)
3 – Installation using sliders and numbers. Allows you to more carefully select the desired white balance.
4 – Pipette. Just click with this tool on that part of the photo where, in your opinion, there should be a neutral gray color. You should not use a pipette to select overexposed or underexposed areas.

Tone Curve

What are curves? Imagine a simple graph of y=x. Those. every value of y will correspond to the same value of x. Now let’s imagine that instead of the x-axis we have an input signal from the camera. And the darkest sections of our histogram lie at the very beginning of our calculation system, and the lightest at the end (from left to right). And along the y-axis we will have the output signal that we receive on the monitor (from bottom to top). And if we take the midtones and pull the curve down, then at the output we will get a darkening of the midtones, while the blackest point and white will remain in place.

There are 2 types of curves in Lightroom: Parametric and point. Moreover, they both work, despite the fact that you need to switch between them.
Parametric curve.
This curve does not allow breaks or sharp jumps.
1 – Starting from the Tone Curve tab, all panels below have a button on/off for this panel.
This tool is controlled by smoothly shifting the curve or adjusting the sliders.
Highlights – the brightest tones, Lights – light, Darks – dark tones, Shadows – shadows.
2 – If you cannot determine by eye which part of the curve you need to work on, then just use this tool. It allows you to raise and lower the curve while working directly on the photo. Point at the desired area, click the mouse and, without releasing the mouse button, drag it up or down.
3 – Ready-made curves recorded by the developers. You can also save some of your own settings here.
4 – Sliders responsible for delimiting zones of shadows, midtones and highlights.
5 – Point curve button.
Point curve.
1 – The same tool for finding the desired zone. Only on this curve does he set anchor points.
Remove not necessary points with the curve you can double click on them.
2 – On this curve you can already work with the black and white point, as well as make more drastic changes.
3 – Another advantage of this curve is that it works not only with the brightness curve, but also with any of the three channels separately.

HSL/Color/B&W

The panel is used to selectively edit certain colors in an image and adjust the black and white image.

The HSL and Color tabs are absolutely identical in their application, it’s just more convenient for you to work in terms of placement of tools. The only exception is the color selection button in the upper left corner (like curves), which allows you to automatically pick up the desired color from the picture in its proportions, so as not to poke at the sliders at random. Accordingly, the sliders Hue - tone, Saruration - saturation, Luminance - brightness are responsible for the corresponding parameters of the selected color. Changing the settings too much can result in posterization of the photo.

The B&W tab is designed to mix the brightness of different colors when converting it to black and white.

Split Toning

1 – Tinting the lights. On the Hue engine, the tone is selected, on the Saturation engine, its saturation is selected. Highlights are not tinted.
2 – The same thing, only toning the shadows.
3 – Determining the balance between light and shadow. The more the balance is shifted to the right, the larger the tonal range will be tinted into the Highlights color; to the left, the larger tonal range of the shadows will be considered accordingly.
4 – Color can also be selected using the color palette.

At the very top of this panel there is a target, which you can use to indicate the area in the photo that you will focus on when increasing sharpness. For example, in a portrait these are the eyes. Nearby is a screen with 100% zoom of the selected area. Although in my opinion it is more convenient to enlarge the entire image to 100%.
Sharping - improving detail (digital sharpening).
Amount – the degree of sharpening, and essentially increasing the contrast on the contours of the image.
Radius – this parameter adjusts the width of the outline where the contrast will be enhanced. If you adjust the parameter while holding down the Alt key, you will be able to see this outline.
Detail – with this slider you adjust the degree of sharpening on small details. With the Alt key held down, you will see which details will be sharpened.
Masking – Increasing the value of this parameter allows you to avoid increasing sharpness on unwanted details, such as skin texture. It is also better visible with the Alt key held down.
Noise Reduction - noise suppression.
Liminace – brightness noise, Color – color noise.
Color noise is the most unpleasant thing in photography, but brightness noise can easily be attributed to film grain, which has always been present in photographs.
Since any noise reduction works using a blurring algorithm, at large values ​​you can get a plastic image. The Detail parameters allow you to preserve details in the image, and the Contras parameter allows you to preserve the contrast.

Lens Corrections in version 4.x

In this tab we select the profile of our lens, and if it is in the lightroom database, the program will automatically apply correction for it. Otherwise, we will have to fix it manually, or select a suitable model.
You can also slightly manually adjust the distortion and vignetting using the sliders below.

Elimination of chromatic aberrations. It works on the principle of detecting them in a photograph and converting them to black and white. Thus, the edges of aberrations still remain but become less noticeable.

Manual

Manual corrections for distortion, blockages (horizontal, vertical), rotation and frame enlargement/reduction.

Lens Corrections in version 5.x

Enable Profile Corrections – enable the lens correction profile.
Remove Chromatic Aberration – remove chromatic aberrations.
Constrain Crop – enable crop.
The Upright palette is a new item in the Lens Corrections section, correction of perspective distortions automatically based on image analysis along obvious lines in it, and not necessarily purely geometrically (Level, Vertical, Full), but also just light correction to an acceptable level (Auto), it works along with two other checkboxes in the panel (Enable Profile Corrections, Remove Chromatic Aberration). Upright corrects cluttered horizons; the program analyzes the image and can offer options for straightening it. In fact, Upright has several tools: tilt correction, perspective distortion correction, and combinations thereof.
All other tabs remained unchanged.

This tab allows us to create various vignettes that will be applied even to a cropped image, unlike the vignettes of the previous tab. And add film grain.
Style – various types of vignettes.
Amount – the degree of impact of the vignette. A negative value darkens the edges, a positive value brightens the edges.
Midpoint – the point where the vignette will begin, either from the center of the frame, or just the edge of the image.
Roundness – what type of vignette you want, round or rectangular.
Feather – feathering the edges of the vignette.
Highlights – allows you to make a vignette more natural by passing overexposed areas of the image through it.
The Constrain Crop checkbox allows you to crop the frame after corrections so that there are no empty elements in the photo.

Amount – increasing the amount of grain in the photo.
Size – grain size.
Roughness – type of grain.

Camera Calibration

Tool for setting up conversion profiles.
1 – The process by which you will convert a RAW file. It is worth using the latest version that you can choose. At the time of writing this is 2012 (Current)
2 – The profile according to which Lightroom displays the image. The default is Adobe Standard. You can choose one that is most suitable for your camera.
3 – Tinting shadows.
4,5,6 – How colors should be mixed in a photograph, adjusting the hue and saturation of RGB channels.

Below the histogram there is another image correction block.
1 – Crop Overlay.
2 – Retouching (Spot Removal).
3 – Red Eye Correction.
4 – Gradient Filter.
5 – Adjustment Brush.

In version 5 of the program, another tool was added: Radial Filter.

Crop Overlay

When you crop an image, a grid of different framing rules (golden ratio, rule of thirds, etc.) is superimposed on your image. These rules can be changed using the hotkey O (in the English keyboard).
Also, do not forget about photo standards. To ensure your photo maintains its proportions, close the lock in the settings before cropping.

Retouching (Spot Removal)

Retouching in Lightroom is done using 2 brushes: Clone Stamp and Healing Brush. Point a slightly larger brush at the defect in the photo and the program automatically searches for a similar area to replace. If it does not suit you, you can move this area.
Clone – complete replacement of a bad section of a photograph with the proposed section.
Heal – mixing of the replaced area with the replaced one, taking into account the brightness of the area.
Size – Brush size. It is also convenient to enlarge and reduce the brush using square brackets on the keyboard [ and ].
Opacity – opacity of the replaced area. If a low opacity is selected, then the area that we tried to “cure” will be visible from under the patch.
You can remove an unnecessary patch using the Del or BackSpace keys after selecting it.
In program version 5.x the instrument now has another engine – Feather. Allows you to make the edge of the patches shaded.
And also in this version, this tool allows you to work not only pointwise, but also to draw lines and various shapes in the image, which significantly improves its use.
In order to draw a straight line with this tool, you need to click at the origin of coordinates, and then, with the Shift key pressed, at the end point.

Gradient Filter

Allows you to apply local settings to a photo.
When you click on this tool, the mouse cursor turns into a cross. We press the left mouse button in the area of ​​the photo where we want our gradient to start and release it where we want it to end.

In the example, the gradient goes from left to right. Everything that is to the left of the left line has 100% application of the selected settings. The part that is to the right of the extreme right line is not affected at all. The gradient transition goes from where we pressed the mouse and ends where we released it. In the photo it is marked with the number 1. The scope of the gradient can be adjusted and after you have drawn it, to do this you need to grab one of the outer lines (the cursor will take the form of a hand) and drag it, narrowing it or widening it. You can also rotate the gradient while being on the center line. Moving the gradient is done using its center point in Figure 2. It allows you to choose the gradient you want to work with at the moment, since the number of creations is not limited. You can move from one to another, making it active and change its settings at any time. Removal can also be done by selecting the unnecessary gradient and pressing the Del or BackSpace keys.
Below you can see ways to display these points. Automatic, always, selected or never. When the Never method is selected, the process of moving and resizing the gradient becomes impossible.
There is no point in describing the engines of this tool in detail, since it includes almost all the engines of the Basic panel, plus several additional ones and the addition of color.

Radial filter (only for owners of program version 5.x) (Radial Filter)

It works the same way as a gradient filter, but allows you to work locally with round and oval areas in a photo.

Adjustment Brush.

Contains the same tools as the gradient filter, but it allows you to apply them directly to the areas of the photo where you touched with this brush.
It is again possible to create countless brushes. To do this, you need to click on the New button in the upper right corner of this panel. You can switch from one brush to another and change settings by selecting its starting point.
The brush size can also be adjusted using square brackets on the keyboard or sliders on the work panel. It also adjusts Feather, Flow and Density.
The Auto Mask checkbox allows you to avoid contrasting areas when drawing.
You can erase the excess by switching the brush to eraser mode (Erase) or by holding down the Alt key on the keyboard.

Copying and synchronizing settings

While in the Develop tab, in the lower left corner you have two buttons: Copy and Paste, which allow you to copy settings from a given frame and apply them to another. You can also synchronize settings. Using the Sync button in the lower right corner. To do this, the photo from which the settings will be taken must be active on the monitor and all those to which they will be applied must be selected.
In both cases, a synchronization settings window will pop up, where you will be asked to select which items you would like to apply to other photos.
I strongly do not recommend using settings that are individual for each frame. These include local tools (brushes and gradients), retouching and cropping.

Soft Proofing

When you turn on the Soft Proofing checkbox on the Hide Toolbar (if this panel is not visible, press the English key T) in the histogram window you will be able to see what problem areas you have in the image. You can select a different profile and see where there will be problems when outputting this image to print or to the monitor.

In order to export your photos from a RAW file, you need to click the Export button located in the Library section in the lower left corner, or File-Export.
In all cases, the export dialog box will appear:

Export To– Allows you to select the media to which the export will be carried out.
Export Location
Export To– where exactly your photos will be exported.
Specific fold r – to a specific folder. You will need to specify the path to this folder.
Same folder as original photo– in the same folder where the original photographs are stored.
Put in Subfolder – allows you to create a subfolder in the previously specified location.
Add to This Catalog – adding exported photos to the catalog.
Existing Files - what to do with existing files.
File Naming
Rename To – allows you to rename exported images using the selected algorithm.
File Settings
Image Format – in what format to write files. To choose from: jpg, tiff, psd and original.
Color Space – Color space.
Image Sizing
Resize to Fill – resize the image according to specified parameters.
Convenient to create previews for the web (Long Edge (on the long side) – 900pix)
Resolution – image resolution. For monitors, 96 dpi is considered, for printing - 240-300. This will be taken into account if you set the value in centimeters.
Output Sharpening
Sharpen for – sharpening during export. Three options: For monitor, for matte and glossy paper. Amount – select the degree of sharpening.
Metadata – whether to leave or not, those marks that are sewn into your photo and are not visible when viewing it. What was it filmed on, with what parameters, who is the author (if indicated)
Watermarking – allows you to write a copyright or insert your logo into a photo.
Post-Processing – what to do with photos after they are exported.

We can also open photographs in Photoshop for further editing without resorting to export. To do this, you need to configure the settings for opening the photo in a third-party editor. In the Edit tab and select Preferences. Here we pay attention to the External Editing tab.
In order for us to have minimal losses, we must work with a 16-bit image.

Now, when you right-click, select the Edit in tab and in it Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS (edit in Photoshop). Our photo will open with the parameters that we set before (16 bits).