I am working on a Lightroom 3 training DVD, which I will be offering for sale, hopefully soon. The concept is a “Lightroom Workshop on DVD”. It is a series of many videos, several hours long in total, designed for beginning and intermediate Lightroom users. I cover just about everything I teach in my two-day Lightroom Fundamentals workshop. Since it has been a while since I have posted to this blog, I thought I would share with you one video from this series, on how to use Lightroom’s adjustment brush to make local changes to your images.
Click HERE to watch the video. (Sorry, this is a very old video that requires flash and javascript.)
If you are interested in hearing about the DVD when it is available, click on the Facebook button at the bottom of this page to join me on Facebook, or click on the link at the top of this page to join my mailing list.
UPDATE 2015: Lightroom Fundamentals and Beyond for Lightroom 3, 4, 5, 6 and CC are now available here, and they cover much more than I do in my two-day workshop!
While this video was recorded a long time ago with Lightroom 3 and requires Flash to play it, the tutorial is also applicable to Lightroom 4+ as well. (You’ll find that with later versions you have more sliders within the adjustment brush panel.)
This is a great lesson Laura. I thought I knew the adjustment brush but found some new information and techniques to use it more effectively. I am going to revisit some portraits. I look forward to the DVD.
Amazing lesson, Laura. I’m definitely getting the DVD when it comes out. I wish I’d had something like that when I first started using LR!
When working with the adjustment brush, can you ever change the color from lets say “black” to “red”, or is the color that needs adjusting always going to stay the original color just brighter or darker as need be ?
Mitch, you can change the color you have painted. Click on your pin to make it active, click on the color square to open the color picker, then click on a new color.
Whoops, I think I misunderstood your question, Mitch. Now I think you want to change an existing color in an image. Read my post on this:
http://digitaldailydose.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/painting-with-color-in-lightroom-2/
But note that black isn’t a color, so you can add a color to it, but not change it.
What happens if the color you want to change is not available on the color picker? Are all colors available on the picker. The reason why i am asking this question is because i took a picture of my black Lab and wanted to darken her fir but when i went to use the adjustment brush there was no color to intensive the black color of her hair !
I am a relative newbie to LR and is still feeling my away around in the develop module.
Hopefully your new video will be a great asset to me learning LR.
Thank you so much Laura! I just got LR3 and didn’t have a clue how the brush worked. This is so much easier, quicker and better than reading about it, it sinks in the first time for me. Great job, much appreciated.
Thank you, Darrin!
Laura, I have been an artist for more than 50 years and have been in publishing since hot type was still around. I must say you have really created one of the most easily understandable and useful videos I have ever watched for an Adobe product. I really got alot out of it and even though its hard to get two gallons of milk in a one gallon jug, I try to learn more each day and your video made it so much easier.
I would like to see a really good demo on getting great sky effects the way we used to be able to achieve them with tobacco filters, etc., on the actual camera lens. I am having trouble recreating that same look with lightroom, particularly without them looking too dramatic.
Thanks, Teri. Say more about the sky effects … what’s a tobacco filter?
[…] Here’s the Lightroom approach: (If you don’t know how to use the adjustment brush, watch my video here.) […]
I found the adjustment brush to be extremely useful before I watched your video. It just became about 10 times more useful though.
Thank you very much
PS now going back to check that notify box for the DVD
[…] a sampling of my videos, here is one on using the adjustment […]
[…] You could also just apply clarity to the inside of the building with the adjustment brush. (Here’s a link to a video on the adjustment […]
[…] by my graduated filter, which applied yellow to the whole right side of the image. (Here is a video on using the adjustment brush in Lightroom, and a post on painting with […]
Great article Laura! Thank you. I am an advanced user. However, my adjustment brush has suddenly quit working. I use it ALL the time. How do I get it back? PLEASE HELP! =o)
Carol, when you say “suddenly quit working”, what exactly are you experiencing?
After using LR3 for a year, I didn’t even know there were brushes. Thank you for this very easy to understand, simply yet VERY effective video. Appreciate the time you took to create it, very well done.
You’re welcome, Ron — thanks for the note!
Great video! to-the-point with good examples. thanks!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Kelsey – thanks for leaving a comment!
I am trying to use Lightroom for the first time and found your video through the help paths. I learned more than I expected!! And your presentation and examples are excellent! I will definitely check into your DVDs!
Great to hear you have enjoyed them, Jeanan — thank you for taking the time to leave a note!
Your tutorial was very helpful. Clear and to the point. But I have a singular question that was not addressed in your tutorial — how do you desaturate one spot for example a sun flare.
See: http://pancyl.com/images/Crop.jpg
See the blue halo below the sun and the green circle below that? How does one desaturate just those areas using the Adjustment Brush? I suspect those kinds of manipulations are not possible with Lightroom but thought I’d as anyway.
Heck, I meant to say how does one desaturate just those colors while leaving the rest of the colors untouched. I wish these blogs had an edit feature.
Hi Ken, you can paint with -100 saturation, and also with a color you want to add in (like yellowish green for the trees), or with Lightroom 4, you can try temp and tint — paint with the opposite of what you see — i.e. positive Temp (yellow) to offset blue.
Thanks, that’s generally what I’ve been trying to do without much luck. If I could select the color to paint using the usual selection method with a “dropper” tool, that would help.
I haven’t tried LR4 yet. Probably should.
Maybe this will show up as a tool like the red eye removal tool which could be used if the color to remove could be selected.
Here you go, Ken:
https://laurashoe.com/2011/10/14/lightroom-quick-tip-of-the-week-taking-a-color-from-your-photo/
Very excellent tutorial, thank you