This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using the Adjustment Brush tool
While the Graduated Filter and Radial Filter allow you to make specific adjustments to an image, they do not have the fine control that is sometimes needed. Ideally, you would pinpoint all of the adjustments in the Basic and Detail panels to specific areas. This is where the Adjustment Brush really comes in handy.
The Adjustment Brush is perfect for making precise changes to specific areas, such as lightening and darkening (dodging and burning), blurring, sharpening, reducing noise, boosting color, and so on. In this section, you’ll learn how to use it to do some photo finishing. Photoshop is a fantastic tool for pixel-perfect adjustments, but if you can complete a large portion of your work inside Lightroom, all the better.
Select the Indoors1.NEF file and go into the Develop module. Directly below the Histogram panel, you’ll see a brush icon in the tool strip. Click it to get the Adjustment Brush, and the same sliders you saw with the Graduated and Radial Filters appear. You can paint all of these effects with the Adjustment Brush. Start by dragging the Exposure slider to –2.68 and painting over everything in the image, except for the monkey. All of the areas you paint on now will be underexposed.
A pin is dropped on the picture, letting you know that an adjustment has been painted. If you move your cursor over the pin, an overlay appears, showing you where you applied the effect. Press Shift-O wihle your cursor is over the pin to cycle through the different overlay colors.
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Let’s reduce the highlights on the monkey, to the right of its face. We’ll need a new Adjustment Brush selection and settings, so click New at the upper right of the panel. To reset the Exposure slider, double-click it. To reset all of the sliders in one shot, double-click the Effects label in the upper left. Take the Highlights slider down to –62 and the Temp to 36, and paint over the monkey’s fur on the right, pulling some of the highlights back and warming it up (as shown here).
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There is a color cast on the branch in the front, so let’s tone it down and increase the temperature. Create a new brush and underexpose it a little further by dragging the Exposure slider to –1.65, dropping the Highlights slider to –44, and increasing the Temp slider to 55. Painting over the branch now darkens it and adds a little bit of a yellow tone to it, matching the scene.
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Finally, let’s add a little clarity to the fur. Clarity boosts the midtone contrast. It’s great for textured items, fur, metals, or anything that needs an extra bit of sharpness to it. Oftentimes, I choose not to use clarity as a global adjustment, as it makes the picture look too fake. Painting it in locally with the Adjustment Brush keeps it more realistic. Also add a little Contrast and Sharpness.
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Moving your cursor over each pin shows you an overlay of the area affected by that pin. To add another effect to an area, simply select the pin that covers that area. To delete the effects in a single area, select the pin for that area and press Backspace/Delete on the keyboard.
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To see how your changes look, create a virtual copy of the picture by right-clicking and selecting Create Virtual Copy. With the virtual copy selected in the Develop module, click Reset at the bottom of the Adjustment Brush panel to remove your changes. Then, Ctrl-click/Command-click the adjusted photo in the Filmstrip to select both, and press the letter C to go into Compare view. The Adjustment Brush can be a powerful tool to bring out selective details inside an image!
