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Adjusting Images: The Point Curve Tool

Lesson 18 from: Editing and Organizing your Photography in Lightroom

Jared Platt

Adjusting Images: The Point Curve Tool

Lesson 18 from: Editing and Organizing your Photography in Lightroom

Jared Platt

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Lesson Info

18. Adjusting Images: The Point Curve Tool

<b>In this lesson you will learn everything you need to know about the Point Curve tool and how those tools will help you in the process of adjusting your images.&#160; The Point Curve is a new tool in Lightroom and will change the way you work on your images from here on out.</b>

Lesson Info

Adjusting Images: The Point Curve Tool

1 Now I promised you that I was going 2 to go back into the color area 3 and talk to you about the point curve. 4 The point curve is best described 5 when you have a nice colorful image. 6 And in this case I've got a pretty colorful image, 7 but it's a little bit monochromatic at the same time. 8 So it's got a lot of blues 9 and it's got a lot of kind of a browns. 10 But other than that, there's very little color in it. 11 So this is a great example of where we might want to 12 increase specific colors 13 to make the photograph pop a little bit more. 14 You could just go into this image 15 in the color area and just grab vibrance 16 and increase the vibrance like this. 17 And you can see that it increases the blue areas, 18 a little bit of the, of the warm tones 19 and does a pretty decent job of it. 20 So that's kind of the poor man's or the quick way 21 to do this job that we're about to do. 22 But instead of just using vibrance 23 and having just an overall effect, 24 the point cu...

rve allows us to be very, very specific 25 about an area of a photograph. 26 What we're gonna do is click on the little color dropper 27 'cause we have to choose a color to work on. 28 And so I want to choose the blues. 29 So I'm gonna go up into the blue and just click on the blue. 30 And you'll notice that now there's a blue area here 31 and there's a little square of blue. 32 I also know that I want to work on 33 the warm tones in the sand, 34 so I'm gonna click on the sand as well. 35 So now I've got two different colors. 36 And I can actually click on another one 37 and choose the skin tone that she has here. 38 So now I've got three colors 39 that I can work on individually. 40 So I'm gonna first work on the blue. 41 And it's important that you understand all of these tools. 42 So, here 43 we've chosen a color 44 and this is where that color rests 45 and this is all the color around it. 46 And down below is what we can accomplish 47 or do to that color. 48 We can shift the hue, we can shift the saturation 49 or the luminance. 50 We can also come down and change the range itself. 51 And if this is it... naturally looks like this. 52 And if you wanna see the full range options, 53 you click on this chevron to drop it down. 54 And now you actually see all the controls 55 where you can change the hue range, the saturation range, 56 and the luminance range. 57 Now when I chose that little point of color, 58 what it did is it said, okay, in order to choose that color, 59 you have to be somewhere in this hue 60 and 61 you can't be any further than zero or a hundred here. 62 But from here to here is kind of a gradation. 63 And this is the area that we're selecting, 64 or if we go to the saturation, it's this much saturation 65 and then it kind of gradates out from there. 66 And then the same thing's true on the luminance range. 67 It's somewhere in this luminance range 68 and it gradates out to here 69 and it can't be any more than nine percent 70 of that particular luminance. 71 So these are the three things 72 that are affected in this one range slider. 73 So if you collapse this at its very basic, 74 when you grab the range, you can just increase 75 and decrease the range. 76 So you can just kind of say, I want more or less. 77 And you can see right up here in this color area 78 how much the range is changing. 79 So that's a very shallow range. 80 It's only selecting a small bit of the blue. 81 And then as I increase the range, 82 it's expanding the amount of blue that it will 83 pay attention to when it's trying to shift 84 the color and tone and luminance. 85 Okay? 86 So this is the rudimentary way to change it. 87 And you can also open up the range area 88 and you can then choose from any of these options 89 as to what areas you want to change. 90 So for instance, if I decided that I wanted to increase, 91 I don't need to change the hue range necessarily 92 because all that blue's pretty similar. 93 So I think that's pretty accurate. 94 But saturation range, 95 see how it gets less saturated down here 96 and more saturated up there? 97 So I think I could stand to increase 98 the saturation range a little bit. 99 So I'm just gonna increase it like this so that it 100 actually gets 101 quite a bit of any blue. 102 So I just increased the saturation range 103 probably by about 50%. 104 And then the luminance range, you can see 105 that it's quite dark here and it's quite light there. 106 And so, and by the way, notice that there's this little 107 checkbox called visualize range. 108 And you can see that everything's a little bit weird 109 'cause all of the warm tones are gone. 110 And that's because it's trying to help me see 111 what range I'm selecting. 112 So, if I turn that off, then you just see the photograph 113 as it is and you're just choosing things based on 114 what you think is right. 115 If you visualize the range, 116 then you can actually see 117 these are the blues that I'm choosing. 118 And so in this case, I want to actually get 119 a little bit more in the deep blue area. 120 So I'm just gonna grab this and drag it down more 121 so that I get more of the deeper blues as well. 122 So now I'm getting all the blues 123 that I want in the photograph, 124 and now I get to choose what to do with them. 125 So I'm gonna turn off the visualize range 126 and I'm gonna go into the hue shift, 127 the saturation, and the luminance. 128 I'm gonna take the luminance down 129 so that we're just deepening those blues just a little bit. 130 And I'm gonna increase the saturation 131 so I have a little bit more saturated blue. 132 And then I can shift the blue. 133 But I don't think I like any of that. 134 I don't want it to be more purple 135 and I don't want it to be any more cyan. 136 So I'm gonna double click that. 137 I think it was the right blue 138 because my color balance was right at the beginning. 139 Okay. 140 So, this is the blue that I want 141 and now I'm gonna go to the sand. 142 And that's the second option here. 143 So this is the second color I chose. 144 When I click on that one, 145 now we're just going to be working on the sand 146 and I want to increase the saturation of the sand. 147 I kind of like probably what it's already selected, 148 but let's visualize the range and see. 149 That looks about right. 150 See how it's also selecting her skin tone just a little bit? 151 So maybe we'll want to try and get rid of 152 some of that skin tone to some degree. 153 So I'm gonna go into the 154 hue range and I'm just gonna shift it 155 and see if I can change 156 the hue 157 a little bit so that it's 158 selecting less of her. 159 And I'm gonna take the luminance range 160 and I'm gonna go higher with that 161 so there's less of her as well, 162 because I just don't want to 163 to be working on her skin tone all that much. 164 It's still a little bit not quite right. 165 That's a little bit better. 166 Okay. 167 So, that'll work. 168 And now I'm going to zoom out 169 and I'm just gonna start playing with these shifts again. 170 And I want to increase the saturation. 171 See how I'm increasing the saturation of the sand 172 and a little bit of her, too. 173 So that, and that's okay. 174 I'm gonna increase the saturation on the sand 175 like that. 176 Turn off the visualize. 177 And I'm gonna complete finishing that. 178 There. 179 That looks great. 180 So I've got that nice rich blue, 181 and then I've got that sand popping out as well. 182 And now the last thing to do is work on her skin tones. 183 So I click on the skin tones there 184 and I can play around with this luminance shift 185 so I can brighten up her skin tone a little bit. 186 So just click on it and brighten up the skin tone 187 just a little bit. 188 And I can bring the saturation on her skin tone down 189 just a little bit, so that it's not quite so orange. 190 And I could even shift her skin tones a little bit 191 so that they're not quite so yellow. 192 There. 193 That looks great. 194 So, you can see that I have a lot of control over color. 195 This is super helpful. 196 If you have someone that has like a blue jacket 197 and you want it to be 198 a brown jacket or you want it to be a... 199 like a dark blue jacket, something like that. 200 If you need to change someone's shoes from green to blue, 201 you can do that right here by simply choosing 202 that specific color and shifting it.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials

Adaptive_JP_LR_Presets.zip
Jared_Platt_-_Editing_and_Organizing_Photography_in_Lightroom_Photo_Examples.zip

Ratings and Reviews

Tim Byrne
 

Great job, Jared! You have delivered a master class for anyone beginning a journey into Lightroom, presented in absolutely clear and relaxed style. And for those with more experience with the program, every old dog can learn a few more new tricks. Teaching software is tough. Jared does it by breaking down each function and including not only the what, but the how and why as well. And each step is amplified by crystal clear photos which are manipulated with the function at hand. Bring a pad of paper, some snacks, and a cup (or two) of coffee. He is relentless in his presentation. You might watch this course as a freebie, but buy it to be able to refer to it for specific steps and processes. I've been using Adobe products since the mid 1990s and this is the best instructional presentation I've taken. ABSOLUTE WINNER1 Thanks, Jared

Student Work

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