A couple of years back, It was difficult for me to get accurate colors while post-processing an Image. I had been struggling to get my head around Adobe Lightroom just to get right colors in my images. I was having a hard time editing the skin colors of newborns and portraits. I was seeing a strong yellow color cast in my nature and wildlife images. I was wondering how to get rid of it. In an image, the colors of the shirt were different than the actual colors of the shirt. I was clueless about how to identify and remove the color tint, green color reflection from the eyeglass. And the list goes on…
Does this sound familiar to you? Are you struggling how to master color corrections in Adobe Lightroom – here is your 7-step strategy to get accurate and intended colors after post-processing.
In this article, you will learn how to get beautiful colors in Adobe Lightroom. Let’s dive right into the 7- step strategy:
1. Image settings in Camera
Photographing accurate colors with large color space is the first step to capture correct colors. This is an important step. You will get accurate colors in the final image only if you capture maximum possible data in the camera. Here are the settings and why you should do it: Do these settings in your camera and you are good to go.
2. Monitor Calibration
Monitor calibration is critical when you view an image on your monitor or screen. You want to see similar colors on the screen and the way you actually saw it. If you don’t have a calibrated monitor, there will be a difference in actual colors and colors on the monitor. In order to fix this issue, you should calibrate your monitor somewhere between every 3 to 6 months. Monitor calibration is a simple process where colorimeter is used to calibrate the monitor. Color spyder pro or X-Rite Colormunki Smile are good tools for monitor calibration. Even though monitor calibration seems difficult, with the mentioned calibration tools the process is quite easy.
Steps for monitor calibration
After monitor calibration is completion, you will see the colors which are close to actual colors. The colors in output image which you will be using for web or print will mostly match the actual colors.
3.White balance setting – Temp and Tint correction
There are different sources of light, such as sunlight, flashlight, bulb, and incandescent light. Each light sources have a specific color temperature associated with it. Based on the light source, you will see a color cast in your image. The color cast will be of yellow or blue color. Where yellow represent warmer color temperature and blue cast represents cooler color temperature. Using white balance – Temperature slider you can adjust the color temperature. For example in your image you see a yellowish color cast, then you will reduce yellow color cast by moving the slider towards blue. Tint slider helps to adjust the green or magenta tint. If your picture has a green tint, then adjust the tint slider towards magenta. The more green tint you will take out, the magenta tint will be coming in the picture. Similarly, you can reduce magenta tint by moving the tint slider towards green.
Steps for adjusting white balance
A white balance tool is a great tool in color correction. In this step, you will set up the color temperatures. Striking the right balance is the key to get accurate colors using the white balance tool.
4. Vibrance and Saturation
Vibrance and saturation sliders help to boost the colors. The intensity of the colors will be increased or decreased. These tools are critical in terms of color correction in Lightroom. Saturation slider boosts all the colors in an image. Whereas Vibrance slider boosts the muted color in an image, keeping already boosted colors unchanged. This is the main difference between saturation and Vibrance slider. Selective boosting of colors is the main advantage of the vibrance slider. If you are adjusting the colors of skin tones in a portrait, vibrance slider is helpful. As with vibrance slider, you can preserve skin tones. But with saturation slider skin tones looks unnatural.
Steps for adjusting Vibrance and Saturation –
5. Tone Curve
The Tone curve is an effective and precise tool for adjusting the tonality and make color corrections. Tone curve template is located below Basics. The tone curve is a representation of RGB pixels in an image.
How to read tone curve
How you can use tone curve in post processing
You will learn how to do color correction using tone curve. Remember
Opposite of Red is CyanOpposite of Green is MagentaOpposite of Blue is Yellow
If you try to reduce Blue color, then Yellow color will be visible and vice-versa. Same applied to Red and Green colors as well.
Steps to color correct using tone curve
6. HSL Slider – Hue, Saturation and Luminance slider
HSL is a set of sliders for various colors which controls Hue, Saturation, and Luminance. Hue – Hue slider helps is setting up the shades of the color Saturation – Increasing saturation boosts up the color while desaturation can make the colors dull. Luminance – Increasing luminance of color makes the color appear bright. On the other hand, reducing luminance will make color to appear as dark. In the HSL panel, primarily there are eight colors. For each color, you can control Hue, Saturation, and Luminance independently.
How to use HSL sliders
By default all the sliders are set to 0 . Moving slider towards right ( Positive number ) will increase the Hue, Saturation and luminance . As you drag the slider towards left ( Negative number ) Hue , saturation and luminance will be reduced. Second method is to select the color picker icon (circle icon) in the each slider and click on the color of an image which you want to adjust. Click and move cursor upwards ( Positive number ) or move the cursor down ( Negative number ). The positive number increases the H/S/L effect where as negative number decreases the H/S/L effect. Here are some of the steps which I follow while using HSL tool box. These are good starting points for you. Start here and tweak your HSL sliders as per visual appeal of an image.
7. Targeted Color Corrections
In addition to the Tone Curve and HSL slider, You can apply Targeted color correction by three methods described below Fundamentally there are two steps to apply targeted color adjustments
1.Graduated filter
2. Radial filter
Select the radial filter and apply on the required area. One advantage of the Radial filter over graduated filter is you can invert the selection.Once a radial filter is applied to select the area where you want to make a selection. Either it will be inside a radial filter circle or outside of the radial circle. This selection can be made by using Invert checkboxSimilar to Graduated filter select either color selection or luminosity selection.Using color or luminosity selection select the area you want to color correctApply color correction to the area selected. You can adjust temperature, tint, and saturation along with other adjustments
Workflow to apply Graduated filter and the Radial filter is the same but the application of each filter is different and depends on the image. The graduated filter is particularly helpful in landscape images. As in landscape images foreground, object and background are distant and distinguishable. A radial filter is useful in portraits, close up images and macro shots. Where the foreground, object, and background are very close to each other radial filter is a handy tool.
3. Adjustment filter
On contrary to graduated and radial filter, adjustment brush allows you to select areas manually. You can paint in the area you want to select or erase on the area which you don’t want. Adjustment brush consists of 4 sliders – size, feather, flow, and density My recommendation is first to understand what each slider does. Then based on your image select an area for an adjustment. This slider doesn’t have universal setting hence see what works for that particular image. Once the selection is made with the use of an adjustment brush tool, then apply selective color adjustments such as temperature, tint, and Saturation. To summarize here are the essential steps for you to effectively color correct an image. As you follow these steps, you will master the color correction in Adobe Lightroom. These tips will help to get beautiful colors every time you process the image. Now it’s your turn! Apply these techniques and get beautiful colors in your images. Which Lightroom technique you find helpful and significantly improved colors in your images? Let me know in the comments below.
About the Author
Shreyas S. Yadav is an engineer, wildlife and nature photographer from India. He is also a writer and lifelong adventure explorer. Through his writings, he teaches about digital post-processing and nature photography. He shares field techniques about nature photography, post-processing and wildlife photo stories on his website. You can also follow Shreyas on social media: Instagram, Facebook , and 500px. This article was also published here and shared with permission.
