Develop Module
Local Adjustments now called Adjustment
Brushes were a big hit with users during the public beta period and Adobe received quite a lot of very useful feedback. For the
final release version the new Adjustment Brushes have been slightly reworked and
a new Sharpen brush added.
However, the most important new feature for the release version is the Gradient Tool.
This particular tool has been on most Lightroom users wish list for a
very long time, although surprisingly little was made of its absence
from the public beta. Before discussing the tool in detail I will
provide a brief overview of the adjustment tools now available in
Lightroom.
Figure 11 - New Toolbar
Location in Develop Module (Click image for larger view)
In order, the
tools are: Crop
(R),
Clone/Heal (N), Red Eye, the new Gradient Tool (M)
and Adjustment Brush (K)
brushes. Again, I have listed the keyboard shortcut for each in
brackets, clicking on a tool icon opens a panel comprising the options for
that tool, clicking it again closes the panel and returns you to the
standard Develop module panels.
As the name
implies, Adjustment Brushes in Lightroom are based on the brush
paradigm rather than region (selection based). This means they fit
better with the method used for the Photoshop Dodge &
Burn tools.
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| Figure 12a - Crop and Straighten Tool |
Figure 12b - Clone/Heal Tool |
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| Figure 12c - Gradient Tool - Preset mode |
Figure 12d - Gradient Tool - Slider mode |
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| Figure 12e - Adjustment Brush - Preset mode |
Figure 12f - Adjustment Brush - Slider mode |
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Lightroom 2.0 provides adjustment brushes and gradients for:
Exposure, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Clarity,
Sharpness and Color. In Preset mode, the Effect (Amount) slider defines the initial
value for the brush or gradient (e.g. 2 units exposure, 50 units brightness). You
can have two preset brushes (currently labelled A and B),
each brush can be adjusted for Size, Feather, Flow and
Density, although it's also possible to save brush presets.
The Auto Mask when active will help confine the brush strokes
within an area with similar colour. It's worth
noting that the Auto Mask has been significantly improved since the
public beta, as have the other brushes.
I discussed Adjustment Brushes at some length in my
public beta preview, so this time round I will concentrate on the
Gradient Tool. To define the gradient color value you need to
double-click the larger of the six tint tiles (Figure 13) then click
the colour picker on the colour palette. Click the larger tint tile to
close the color panel.
Figure 13 -
Gradient Tool - Color Adjustment
Figure 14 shows a screenshot of the Lightroom Develop
module with Gradient Tool panel opened and a photo of "Castle
Geyser" in Yellowstone National Park. Prior to adopting
Photoshop for editing my photographs I would have taken the original
shot with a Graduated
filter attached to the lens to tone down the sky area a little. But
that was then an this is now.
So, now that Lightroom also has a gradient tool I can
apply the gradient directly to the photo without going near Photoshop.
The applied gradient is combination of - 1.0 exposure units
with a blue coloured tint. To apply the gradient I selected the tool
clicked close to the top of the photo and dragged down. By holding down
the Shift key I was able to ensure that gradient remained vertically
constrained.
Figure 14 -
Gradient Tool (Click image for larger view)
The photo is now starting to look more the way I want, but still
needs some separation in the steam and maybe a little more exposure
reduction. In figure 15 below you can see the results after I reduced
exposure by a further 0.25 units, in combination with increases to
contrast, saturation, clarity, and even a little sharpening. To move
all of the sliders in combination first locate the cursor over the
"pin", hold down the Alt/Option then drag right or left to
increase/decrease the combined adjustment. Note that this keyboard
modifier trick also works with Adjustment Brushes.
Figure 15 -
Fine-tuning the Gradient Tool (Click image for larger view)
The Gradient Tool and Adjustment Brushes
have their own set of keyboard shortcuts, with the following being the most important:
-
Open Adjustment Brush - K
-
Open Gradient Tool - M
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Show/hide Pin - H
-
Increase/decrease brush size - ] / [
-
Increase/decrease feather - Shift+] / Shift+[
-
Commit a brush stroke or gradient and/or start new - Enter
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Delete selected pin - Delete
-
Holding down - Alt/Option key activates erase
mode
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Toggle Auto Mask On/Off - A
-
Pressing 'O' toggles on/off the overlay
-
Shift+O cylces through alternative
colours for overlay
-
Constrain gradient to vertical - hold down Shift
plus drag
-
Invert gradient - '
-
Scale from center - Alt/Option plus drag
Although I covered most of the other changes to the
Develop module in my public beta preview I think it's worth summarising
them again.
-
The
Detail panel now includes the Chromatic
Aberration and Defringe controls previously found in the
Lens Corrections panel. The Detail panel also includes a new 1:1
Preview window which can be used to preview sharpening and noise
adjustments without zooming the actual window to 1:1. A new cursor icon
can be used to pinpoint the area of the image you want to preview when
sharpening or applying lens corrections to.
-
The new Vignettes panel contains two types of vignette, the first is for Lens
Correction and the second for Post-Crop edge effects. The
standard vignette tool is used to correct dark corners arises from
light fall-off and/or over shading from lens hoods, etc.
Post-Crop is intended for more artistic uses such as edge burning and
has the advantage of also respecting cropping, whether central or
offset.
-
Additional keyboard modifiers have been added to the Basic adjustment panel.
So, that it's now possible to cycle
through the controls using either the comma '< 'or period
'>'
keys. The keyboard '+/-' keys now increase/decrease the
active control, and larger adjustments can be obtained by holding down
the 'Shift' key when holding down the '+/-' keys. Tapping the
semi-colon ';' key resets the active control to its default value.
The Clarity control can now be adjusted for negative
values, which has the effect of softening images. This particular
feature is likely to be more useful when applied via the Adjustment Brush
rather than globally.
To coincide with the release of Lightroom 2.0, Adobe
have also made available beta versions of new Camera Profiles
for use with Camera Raw 4.5 and Lightroom 2.0. The profiles labelled
Adobe Standard are intended as alternatives to the default ACR
camera profile, and each camera model will have an additional set of
profiles that are intended to emulate the camera vendor styles or
looks. For example, Canon users will be able to choose profiles that
emulate Pictures Styles such as: Standard, Landscape,
Neutral, Portrait and Faithful. When installed,
the new profiles are will appear in Lightroom's Camera Calibration
panel (figure 16). It's also possible to make one of the new profiles
your camera default, instructions for which can be read in earlier
Lightroom tutorial located
here.
Figure 16 - Selecting new Camera Profile in Camera
Calibration Panel
The background to the new style or look profiles is interesting in so
far as Adobe has clearly accepted that many users prefer a rendering
that matches with the camera generated JPEG over the Adobe Standard
rendering. In some cases this may be due to personal taste. However, in
others it's more likely to be because the Adobe Standard rendering is
in some way flawed, although I'm not sure that Adobe would be in full
agreement with this term, especially since it ignores trade-offs based on the
technology available.
When developing the new profiles Adobe recognised that
they needed to reconcile the differing requirements of three distinct
user groups. These can be summarised as follows
Customer type
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Profile Solution
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Photographers who prefer a default
rendering that is closer to the in-camera JPEG rendering, but
also require the flexibility offered by raw processing. |
|
Approximate the in-camera JPEG rendering as well as the various
styles and looks provided either in-camera or via the camera
vendors own software solution |
|
Photographers who are generally satisfied with Adobe's default
rendering but have found flaws in that rendering that cannot be
corrected by the camera calibration controls provided in ACR and
Lightroom. |
|
Improve the default Adobe rendering to correct for the rendering
flaws identified by photographers. |
|
Photographers who shoot under controlled lighting and need to
calibrate the default rendering to match their specific needs. |
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Provide a Profile Editor that photographers can use to create
default profiles that meet their specific requirements. |
Having given it some thought, I'm probably a member of
the second group, which might explain why I'm so pleased with the
colour rendering improvements I find with the new Adobe default
profiles. That's not to say that I haven't tried the profiles intended
to approximate the camera manufacturers rendering. I have, and they do
a pretty good job of matching, but then again I was never a fan of
Canon's Picture Styles.
From the list of customer types and their requirements it's
clear that one-size-fits all approach was never going to fly, which
probably explains why the Profile Editor (figure 17) was developed.
Anyone who has tried to calibrate their camera using a Gretag
MacBeth ColorChecker will know that it can be time consuming, and
the results may not always be what they'd hoped for. This is were the
Profile Editor really comes into its own. Basically, you a capture a
ColorChecker chart under good even lighting conditions, convert to DNG
(the editor will only open DNG), then from the Chart tab choose
"Create Color Table" and you done - no more coffee breaks whilst a
calibration script runs.
Another use for the Profile Editor is to modify the
White Balance characteristics of an existing profile. This type of
edit will be of particular interest to photographers who specialise in
photographing under lighting conditions that fall outside Camera Raw's
default range (e.g. stage lighting and infrared). Other options for
creating new or modifying existing profiles or recipes are described in
the tutorial supplied along with the Profile Editor and profile
download package.
Final Thoughts
So that's it, Lightroom 2.0 is now available and ready
for use. In preparing this review I decided to focus on the Library and
Develop modules, mainly because my beta preview covered virtually all
the new features in the other modules. Nevertheless, I hope the information that I
have provided is of help
when you begin working with it in earnest. I have also provided links
to other material, which I hope you find the time to check out. In
particular, Martin Evening's new book on Lightroom 2.0. Weighing
in at some 580 pages it contains lots of detailed information on just
about every feature, which is obviously something that I could never
hope to do in a few web pages.
Before wrapping up I would also take the opportunity to
remind you that backing up your Lightroom 1.x or Public Beta
catalog would be a good idea. I don't expect that you'll have any
problems, but it's always wise to take precautions in case the worst
happens. And last, but not least...
Remember Rule 5 - Enjoy!
Other useful material:
Martin Evening's book entitled
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book, The: The Complete Guide for
Photographers
Michael Reichmann has published:
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