Occasionally I want to add or subtract more clarity, contrast, or some other setting to or from the whole photo than the Lightroom Basic panel slider will allow. At this point I often turn to the adjustment brush or graduated filter. They are intended for making local changes to a photo, but you can also apply [...]
I posted this tip a little over a year ago when Lightroom 3 came out, but I thought I'd post it again, since surprisingly it is one of my most-read posts. Looking to blur out a background to reduce distractions? In Lightroom 3 or later, use the adjustment brush with Sharpness at -50 to -100. [...]
Recently a colleague of mine, Kathy Eyster, wrote an article in her award-winning blog, Essential Digital Camera, on how to fix flash-filled pet eyes using Photoshop. The red-eye tool won’t fix them, as it simply takes red out, and pet pupils don’t turn red. Kathy points out that there are two steps, first turning the pupil almost [...]
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 [...]
Looking to blur out a background to reduce distractions? In Lightroom 3, use the adjustment brush with Sharpness at -100. If this is not enough blur, do it again: click on New to start a new adjustment, and paint a second time. Also consider using the graduated filter with -100 Sharpness to simulate a shallower [...]
Did you know that the adjustment brush allows you to slowly build up the amount of change you apply to an image, and also slowly back off on a change you made? The secret is in the Flow and Density sliders. Density controls how much of the specified adjustment can be applied in total, and Flow [...]
Take advantage of Lightroom 2's (or Camera Raw's) adjustment brush to create images that are part black and white and part color. I will start with the color image below, and convert all of it to black and white except the poster and the can. In the Develop module, click on the adjustment brush [...]
The adjustment brush and the graduated filter tool are wonderful additions to Lightroom 2 for making local changes. But there are often quicker ways to make local changes. I will talk about HSL in this post. In the image below I want to darken the sky. Yes, I can get the adjustment brush, set the exposure [...]
If you have used the adjustment brush in Lightroom, you may have noticed that you have the ability to paint color on your image. After clicking on the adjustment brush to make it active, click on the color square next to the word Color to choose your color. Adjustment Brush Color Setting In this [...]
Sometimes you want to make an adjustment to your image almost everywhere. You could use the adjustment brush and paint almost everywhere, but that could be slow. Instead, make the adjustment everywhere, with a global change in the Basic panel, and then use the adjustment brush to change back the area you didn't want to affect. [...]
If you are using the adjustment brush to make local image enhancements, you can hover over the pin to see the mask that you have drawn, but it shows for just a moment. To keep it on as you brush, type the letter O, for Overlay. To turn the overlay off, type O again. If instead [...]
The clarity slider was introduced in Lightroom 1.1, and is also now in Camera Raw. A positive clarity value punches up an image, makes it look a little more three dimensional, by enhancing contrast along edges. The changes are concentrated in the midtones, and do little to highlights and shadows. Here is an example, a portion [...]
