This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Photoshop Adjustments
Lightroom localized adjustments are great because they are, in most instances, quick and easy to apply. That is, until you attempt to apply complex edits using the Adjustment brush. It is possible to use the Adjustment brush to do all sorts of things, like hand color a photograph, but as I pointed out earlier, if you make a complex selection or start adding multiple pins, Lightroom’s performance soon slows down. The same is also true if you extensively use the Spot Removal tool in Lightroom. Where the benefits of using Lightroom become outweighed by the processing overhead, it is time to switch to Photoshop to carry out complex image-editing tasks. This is because Photoshop is quicker for brush painting and retouching work and makes for a more versatile and flexible workflow. It therefore helps to have a good understanding of Photoshop image adjustments and how to apply localized adjustments nondestructively.
Adding Masked Curves Adjustments
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1 Here, you can see a photograph I edited in raw mode with the default Basic panel settings.
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2 I optimized the image in Lightroom to achieve the desired contrast and then opened it in Photoshop, where I applied the Clone stamp and Spot healing brush tools to retouch the photo.
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3 I used the Lasso tool to make a selection of the eyes. I then clicked on the Adjustment menu (circled in the Layers panel) and selected Curves. This added a Curves adjustment layer and automatically added a layer mask based on the Lasso selection. Here, I added the curve points shown below in the Properties panel to add more contrast and gently lighten the whites of the eyes (but not so much that it would make the eyes look as if they had been artificially lightened). I also placed this adjustment layer in a new layer group titled “Hair and eyes.”
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4 I added a second Curves adjustment layer and used the 
keys to fill the Curves layer mask with black (where black was the default foreground color in the Tools panel). A black mask will hide any adjustment and white will reveal it. Making white now the foreground color and with the mask still active, I selected the Brush tool and painted over the hair. I went to the Properties panel and added a Curve point to lighten the curve and add more contrast to the shadows. I then reselected the Brush tool and fine-tuned the mask. I made the mask visible here by selecting it in the Channels panel.
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Client: Russell Eaton, Model Christine Lecoeur @ M&P Models
5 This shows the final image where the Curves adjustment selectively added lightness and contrast to the hair. As the Curves adjustment blend mode was set to Normal, this contrast boost increased the saturation as well.
Adding masked adjustment layers
The previous example showed how it is possible to add a Curves adjustment as an adjustment layer. To do this, go to the Layers panel, mouse down on the Adjustment layer menu, and select the adjustment you want to apply (see Figure 4.8). This adds an adjustment layer above the current selected layer, which is applied globally to all the layers below the adjustment layer. I typically select Curves to apply lightening or darkening adjustments, but you can choose any of the items listed in Figure 4.8 to apply other types of adjustments as well. When you add a new adjustment layer, the adjustment layer mask will be filled with white. This applies the adjustment to the entire canvas. If you set Black as the foreground color in the Tools panel and use ad to fill the mask with black, this hides the adjustment completely. If you then select the Brush tool and paint with white (or add a white to black gradient), you can selectively unhide the adjustment and apply it to the selected areas (as was shown in the previous step-by-step).
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FIGURE 4.8 The Layers panel showing the adjustment layer options.
If you a-click the gap between an adjustment layer and the layer below, this clips the adjustment layer to the contents of that layer. That is to say, if the layer contains an image element or a graphic shape, when you apply a clipped adjustment, the effect is applied to the contents of that layer and no others.
Adding Overlay Layers
Another way you can add a localized adjustment in Photoshop is to add a neutral adjustment layer and change the layer blend mode. If you a-click the Create a new layer button, this pops up the New Layer dialog, which allows you to select the layer blend mode for the new layer. Below that is a Fill with Overlay-neutral color option, which is available for all the layer blend modes, except Dissolve, Hard Mix, Hue, Saturation, Color, and Luminosity. This allows you to create a new layer filled with an overlay-neutral color. For example, with the Screen mode, Black is the neutral color and with Multiply, it is white. For the Overlay, Soft Light, and Hard Light modes, the neutral color is 50% gray. If you add a new layer filled with a neutral color, it will have no effect on the layers below until you modify the layer color. So, if you select the Screen blend mode and paint with white, this applies a lightening adjustment, which you can undo by painting with black again, or you can achieve in-between results by painting with varying shades of gray.
The Overlay, Soft Light, and Hard Light modes are interesting, as these increase contrast. Here, the overlay-neutral color is 50% gray. Painting with a light gray or white has more of an effect lightening the light colors and less so on the darker tones, while painting with dark gray or black has more of an effect on the darker tones. The Overlay blend mode effect is quite strong, the Hard Light mode even stronger, but Soft Light applies a nice, delicate contrast adjustment. For some specific tasks, it is a good technique to be aware of. Most of the time I find adding a Curves adjustment layer and editing the layer mask is better because you have fine control of the tone adjustments and masking.
Using overlay layers to apply local adjustments
The following steps show how I was able to add an overlay-neutral layer and adjust the layer blend mode to produce different types of localized adjustment effects.
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1 This photograph was optimized in Lightroom and opened in Photoshop. In this step I 
-clicked the Add new layer button in the Layers panel (circled).
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2 This opened the New Layer dialog. From the Mode menu, I selected the Overlay layer blend mode, which in turn allowed me to check the Fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray) option. When I clicked OK, this added a new layer with the layer blend mode set to Overlay filled with a 50% neutral gray color. The neutral gray had no effect on the image below.
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3 I was now able to modify the overlay-neutral layer to make it darker or lighter than a 50% midgray. In this instance, I selected the Brush tool, and with a slightly darker gray selected as the foreground color, painted on the layer to add more density plus more contrast to the selected areas. I also selected a lighter gray color to paint the bottom area to lighten (see the modified layer thumbnail).
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4 This shows an alternative version, where I reverted to Step 2 and changed the layer blend mode to Multiply. In this example, the 50% gray applied an overall darkening adjustment to the image. I selected white as the foreground color and painted on the layer to remove the Multiply effect (because white has no effect in Multiply mode).
