This new capability will allow you to apply very targeted adjustments in Lightroom that you currently would have to apply with masks inside Photoshop.  And right on top of the panel is one you may overlook – color balance.

We’ve blogged before about the varying temperature of different light sources, and problems that can occur when you mix light sources in a single photo.  If this isn’t something you did purposely for an effect, it can be very difficult to balance the light sources.  Now you have a new tool to assist you.

When I was out in our one little snow earlier this year, I managed to create an example of two different color balances in one photo.

I was adjusting my settings on arrival at this gate and noticed how the headlights’ color cast was decidedly orange.  Since this was taken right before we went to Alaska, I never got around to processing all the photos from that shoot.  (That’s lucky because this would have gone straight into the bit bucket.)   You can easily see the clash of the orange (warm) headlights against the blue of the early morning (cool).

With the new brush, I can knock that orange right into submission, cooling it so the light looks like it fits into the scene better.  Most of your viewers would never question that the light might not match reality; it would just seem to fit better.

Here is another example where your viewers’ perceptions of what is correct might not match reality.

When I came back from Alaska this summer, I had some shots from the glaciers.  If you’ve ever seen glaciers, you’ll immediately notice their deep blue coloring.  Many people looking at this photo of gulls on an ice flow asked me about the blueness of the birds.  “Why are the birds blue? Did you tint them to match the ice?”  (Once co-workers know you dabble in the evil world of Photoshop, they’ll question everything you do – even if you didn’t use it.)

Of course, I could go into Photoshop and warm up the color balance on the gulls and mask the rest of the image.  It won’t take too much effort.  Just add a new layer; adjust the color balance; mask the base image to reveal the warmer gulls; save to file; and you’re done.  Or you can stay in Lightroom and make the changes with the new Adjustment Brush.

Doing all that is possible in a single program makes more sense.  And another big advantage to working in Lightroom is Adobe’s policy that all Lightroom adjustments are completely reversible.  If I decide I’ve gone too far with warming up the gulls, I can change it instantly with the slider or easily revert to the original.  All the original pixels are still there.

I find it funny that people who proclaim they don’t like it when I resort to Photoshop are happier with the warmer tones on the gulls (“Everyone knows seagulls don’t look that blue”).  In order to make them happy, I had to adjust the image away from the original pixels.  And now both parties know I didn’t use Photoshop. 

At the top of the Library module is the Library Filter bar. This exceptionally powerful tool lets you search using any characteristic about your photographs, to quickly and precisely sort through your catalog of thousands of images.

The Text option lets you search through any field which contains, well, text.  Keywords, Filenames, Titles or any of the metadata fields, can all be rapidly filtered. 

Sometimes you are searching for other Attributes, such as finding all the pictures you shot with 3 or more rating stars, or even all the virtual copies you have made.

Finally, the Metadata search panel lets you look for any of the data that your camera automatically captures such as Date, Lens Type, Focal Length, Aspect Ratio, Shutter Speed, etc., or the IPTC data you put in such as City, State, or Copyright info.

If you really want to know how many shots you have taken with your 105 mm f/2.8 lens (1056), or how many images you have taken in Burbank, CA (37) you can find that out in a flash (oh, 6872 photos with a flash).   

The Library filter really lets you see what you have been shooting.  Play with it and you will learn a lot.

We’ve written about working in Lightroom before, but I thought this would be a good time to review how much you can do to improve a photograph.  This is done completely in LR.

The first several steps are part of my usual workflow. When you develop a consistent pattern, you’ll get more consistent results and learn how different tools will impact your final image.  I shoot in RAW, but a consistent workflow will help you get better results from your JPGs, too.

This is part of a bracketed set (for an HDR) that I shot last year.  I picked the underexposed image to demonstrate that even a less than perfect initial image can be dramatically changed.  My first step is to apply the lens correction and move the camera calibration to landscape.  This actually makes the image a little darker, but gives me stronger greens and blues.

Next, I move to the top of the Develop panel to address the basic adjustments.  Bumping up the exposure by half a stop and adding some fill light, brings back some of the sunlight.  If you were shooting a JPG, this is probably a pretty good representation of what you’d have if you had the camera set in Program mode.

The image still looks a little flat, so I would apply the Punch preset.  Presets have a bad reputation because so many people just hit the preset and move on.  Presets are a good beginning point; they affect the image in a consistent manner, but you may still need to make some further adjustment.  Don’t be afraid to do this.  The Punch preset affects the clarity, vibrance, and saturation of your image.  Adjust the sliders further to your taste.  I see this as a big improvement to this image.

I’ve been on a panorama kick, lately.  I really like the look of the extra-wide images from combining several images into one.  This is a single image, but I can still get that look by cropping the image.  Make sure you unlock the crop aspect or you won’t be able to crop it this way.

Moving down to the hue, saturation, luminance sliders, I’ll slightly darken the sky and add some saturation to make it the way I like it.  I bumped up the luminance on the green.

Next, I apply some sharpening to the image.  Sharpening should be applied cautiously, so you don’t overdo it.  Use the masking to sharpen only the edges of features within the photo.  Holding the Alt button, while using the masking slider will show you exactly what you are sharpening.

Finally, I review the image for any other changes I might want to make.  In this one, I just touched the brightness a little. This is, certainly, not the only way to work on your images; it is the just workflow I’ve gotten accustomed to.  In real time, these adjustments would take me about three minutes or less.  If you are consistent and develop a personal workflow, you’ll enjoy the process and be happier with your results.  Then you can get back to the fun of shooting something new.

Before

After

Vignetting is a technique which creates a window to better frame your subject.  It can be used on portraits or landscapes.  It can be subtle or very dramatic. There are tools in both Adobe® Lightroom and Photoshop which provide a variety of options. We are going to focus on LR today.  Here is a photo of my musically talented, close friend, Al.  Those people in the background are distracting and I want to hide them.

Working your way down the menu choices in the Develop module provides a good workflow for image processing.  In the Effects panel, you will see the Post-Crop Vignette menu.  Even if you go back and re-crop the picture the system will keep your vignettes framed in proportion. As with all LR choices, the best way to learn them is to play with the controls and just look at the results, adjusting them until you are happy.

The first choice, the Amount slider, allows you to have a white border if you push it all the way to the right or a black one if you push it all the way to the left. 

The Midpoint slider lets you control how far into the image the effect goes, while the feather slider lets you control how hard the inner edge is. Here I’ve pushed it all the way to 0 for a very hard edge.

Finally the Roundness control does exactly that, pushing the frame to a perfect circle at 100 or a round cornered rectangle at  -79.  What you select is entirely up to you.  Mess with it and enjoy!

My whole life I was moving because my father was in the Navy, and I was in the Army, so I don’t have a photo of a favorite place that I can get to easily.  I decided to create a composite image from more current photos.  You can do the same.

I started with a picture of the house.  It was just a little too colorful, so I lowered the saturation a bit in the final composite.  I quickly realized that I needed to crop the image or the photograph in my hand would be too small when I aligned it with the background image.  The best crop also dictated a change from landscape format to portrait format.

I originally had my hand in the house photo, but I didn’t like the image as much as the one with my hand as the focal point.  That meant I had another photo to work into the final image.

And, finally, I needed a photo of some very cute children.  Where would I find that?  Well, Mark says I’m not happy unless I throw in a shot of a family member into the blog every couple of months, so I grabbed a shot of the grandchildren just to allow him to be proven right. 

I have the shots; now we need to open up Photoshop and get to work.

Since the house photo would be the background and the largest portion of the finished image, that was my base image.  I reduced the saturation of the layer, dulling the colors to make it look older and so they wouldn’t be as bright as the photo in my hand.

I opened the image of the hand as a layer on top of the base layer.  I only needed the hand, so I masked out the rest of the photo.

The final layer was the photo of the kids.  I used the Free Transform tool to shrink the image to appear like it was a photo in my hand.  I made sure that layer was fully saturated.  I aligned the photo to the bushes and the porch pole as you see being done in the other dearphotograph images.  I also put a white border around the kids’ “photo” to make it stand out better from the background.  When I put the kids in place (top layer) where it needed to be, it obscured part of my thumb and fingers.  I masked part of the kids’ photo, so the thumb underneath came through and created the illusion that I was holding the photo.  And the image was done.

All that is required is a sentimental caption to finish it off.

"The day is brighter and more colorful when grandchildren visit."

It was a fun little project.  If you have Photoshop, Elements, or a similar program, you can do this without too much fuss.  Keep having fun with your photography.