How to clip blacks without leaving "black spots", and related topics - i.e. how to control tone of the bottom-most shadows...

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Intro:

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Lr4 automatically protects you from having clipped blacks, it pulls them off the left wall and pushes them into the shadows. This is great when open shadows (I mean blacks) are desired. Examples:

- Pictures of animals with black eyes.

- Landscapes where deep shadow detail is very much a part of the picture.

Lr4's shadow handling tends to unclip & open blacks, in a magical way that not only recovers blacks but also increases deep shadow detail. Although it can be quite awesome for some photos, it can be problematic for others, depending on the level of detail desired. Also, the extent to which one can reshape the deeper shadows depends on the shadow tone distribution, and how well it jives with the PV2012 algorithm. One of the problems people often have when coming over from Lr3:

+shadows +exposure -highlights creates a similar efect as Lr3 fill-light, but sometimes leaves the shadows still wanting.

Definition:

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Black Spot - this is what happens sometimes by clipping blacks in Lr4 using -blacks. Because blacks emerge from the left wall rather quickly, just clipping blacks can result in a visible seam between clipped blacks and (still) protected blacks. The clipped blacks then appear as black spots.

The key to the solution lies with the tone curve.

*** After adjusting -blacks to clip blacks by the desired amount.

Adjust the parametric tone curve, maybe start with:

- Move the shadow split to 10

- Set Shadows to -20 (on the parametric curve, not the basic shadows slider).

This will eliminate the seams and drop the darker parts of the shadows back.

+shadows for more shadow detail, if desired (basic slider, not parametric shadows).

Basic shadows slider still lightening darker darks too much? - return to the parametric tone curve:

- Move the dark split to 40

- Set darks to -10

+shadows some more, if more shadow detail desired... (basics slider)

And so forth (values chosen are for example purposes only - nothing sacred about them...).

*** Although this tip was original intended for clipping blacks without spots/seams, it applies equally well to reshaping the blacks and darker darks without clipping - just don't -blacks as much.

It also applies to making Lr4 shadows look more like Lr3 shadows, although that was not it's original intent - reminds me of the tips given to Lr3 users to make the shadows look more like Lr4 shadows, before Lr4 was invented ;-}

Summary:

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For some photos, clipped blacks are good, and minimization of visibility into the blacks is also good, and no seams between true black and near blacks is good. This tip describes how to accomplish those goals, and applies to similar related goals as well.

R

How to get results from PV2012 that would otherwise be impossible

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Could have been titled: "Camera calibration profile is the key to redistributing tones in a way that will click better with PV2012".

But now that I've given away the punchline, there's hardly any point in telling the joke... - I'll take a whack anyway...

Intro:

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Just twisting sliders from one extreme to the other and watching the histogram will reveal some very sophisticated programming is at play in PV2012. The goal being to allow great flexibility with a relatively small control set, and to have everything "work out".

When the tonal distribution of the "original photo" jives well with the PV2012 algorithms, the results are generally superior - better than what one can accomplish with PV2010. However sometimes PV2012 can be problematic - difficult (if not impossible) to achieve the desired results even after hours of fiddling with basics and tone curve. Locals can fix up almost anything, but for the purposes of this post, I'm going to consider that "cheating".

The astute reader will notice "original photo" was in quotes. The reason is that the camera calibration profile is processed before PV2012 basics. Put another way, the output of the camera calibration profile is the input to the PV2012 basic sliders. Thus one can affect the tonal distribution of the "original photo" so it jives better with PV2012 using the tone curve in the DNG Profile Editor.

Sorry I gave a way the punchline...

Rob

Hi Timur,

Original design of highlights slider did not support positive values.

Original design of shadows slider did not support negative values.

They were more like highlight recovery and fill light in Lr3 - they only went one way.

While I too find positive values for highlight slider useful sometimes, and negative values for shadows slider, as does Adobe (which is why the options are available now), the vast majority of time when you are using positive highlight values what you really need to do is increase exposure.

PS - PV2012 behavior may be fine tuned, but I seriously doubt it will change in any big way.

8 times out of 10 (YMMV), having -highlights equal to +shadows is perfect (or nearly so). In those cases, if tone is not right with equal and opposing values for highlights/shadows, what you need to do is adjust exposure.

For example, starting with

Starting with:

highlights = 0

shadows = 0

+contrast by 20

-highlights by 20

+shadows by 20

(-saturation by 5)

Results:

More midtone contrast.

Or,

+whites by 15

-exposure by .1

-highlights by 20

+shadows by 20

Results:

More highlight detail.

eh?

Timur Born wrote:

 

-White in combination with -Exposure as of now behaves unwanted...

It should be +whites -exposure (increased whites, in conjunction with reduced exposure).

I use this on >50% of my photos and I consider it a critical feature of PV2012@b1.

?

Reminder: The single biggest trick to editing in PV2012, by far, is that exposure should be set for the midtones - not for the shadows, and not for the highlights. Use the TAT tool of the tone curve to determine which tones are the mids.

Rob

How to set exposure in PV2012

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This is #1 skill to master for PV2012 editing.

It is far more important to get this right, than in Lr3. Why? Because in Lr3 if exposure was too low, you would often just end up with an image that was fine, but not quite bright enough, if set too high, the final image might look fine, but lack detail in the highlights, or require more than optimal highlight recovery. In Lr4 it's more like a keystone - without it, the whole structure crumbles. Bringin' it home:

If exposure is set a little too high or a little too low, you will end up with wonky toning.

Although the effect of PV2012 exposure is a lot like the effect of PV2010 exposure, the basis for setting it has changed, and that's a psychological hurdle that must be overcome for optimal results using PV2012.

Review:

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In Lr3, one would generally set exposure based on the highlights. Most of us would try to keep highlight recovery as low as possible, so if the highlights looked good exposure was set correctly. Bring up the bottom using fill, and set the mids using brightness, maybe fine tune using the tone curve, done...

In this post, for simplicity, I'll be leaving out issues of contrast - discussed elsewhere.

However in Lr4, exposure should be set based on what the midtones will be - and not what they start out being. This can be very tricky:

* The correct value often makes shadows and/or highlights look temporarily worse, not better.

* Dark shadows will make you want to set it too high.

* Bright highlights will make you want to set it too low.

* It's easy to mistake a bright shadow tone or a dark highlight tone for a midtone.

* Other subsequent adjustments will also affect midtone levels.

Thus, you can't hardly know what the correct exposure will be at the outset, or whether you've set it correctly, until after at least one pass setting the other adjustments in the ball park, and sometimes multiple passes are required to hone in on the correct value for exposure.

Setting exposure is the trickiest aspect of using PV2012

In Lr4 (meaning PV2012) exposure is like the fulcrum of a see-saw. Everything else gets balanced around it.

If you set it too low and then try to compensate by increasing highlights and/or shadows, you'll end up with wonky toning.

If you set it too high and then try to compensate by decreasing highlights and/or shadows, you'll end up with wonky toning.

Think goldilocks - it must be just right...

How can you tell if it's right? simple - after at least one pass, check which tones are midtones using the TAT tool of the tone curve, and ask yourself if they are too bright or too dim. If neither, then exposure is set correctly. Now, that assumes you've got appropriate contrast and both highlights and shadows are in the ball park. All other adjustments besides exposure have been designed to have minimal impact on midtone level, although they will affect it a little or a lot, as necessary when making adjustments. The good news, once everything is in the ball park, the other adjustments will only affect midtone level a little, thus you can often have photos adjusted optimally after "only" 2 or 3 passes. Once you get a feel for this, it all becomes 2nd nature, but until then it's worth "following the rules".

Note: since most photos like -highlights to be about the same as +shadows, pay attention to this - if it's not the case, there's a good chance exposure is not set correctly yet.

I often use the second digit after the decimal point when setting exposure in Lr4 (never did that in Lr3) - it's that critical.

Once you have exposure set correctly you can play with contrast, highlights, & shadows with relative impunity...

Although changes to exposure may be minor from here on out, even relatively minor changes in exposure can often mean fairly major changes to the highlights and shadows. Likewise relatively minor changes to contrast can also mean fairly major changes to highlights and shadows - I often set highlight and shadow values all over the map in the course of optimization - don't get too attached to any particular values for highlights & shadows!

It's an easy trap to fall into, to attempt to compensate for incorrect exposure by setting incorrect values for highlights and shadows, and come up with something that looks almost right, but is still curiously off - hammering at it with the rest of the sliders will make it different, but still off. Only way for it to look right, is to set exposure right.

eh?

Rob

Hi Kate,

KateMann wrote:

 

At the risk of causing thread bloat, I would like to thank you, Rob, for this excellent tutorial.

You're welcome. And this "book" needed something on the cover flaps - so I thank you too.

KateMann wrote:

 

With mid-tones as my base objective...

This is the most important take-away, even if all the rest seems unintelligible...

KateMann wrote:

 

I have found that the adjustments to shadows and highlights are more powerful and much more sensitive than they were in 2010.

For Lr3, Adobe concentrated on image quality and performance. Although they didn't meet their performance objectives, the raw processing, noise reduction, and sharpening are some of the best the world has ever seen (no comment about lens corrections). And they probably did too good of a job with fill light . One can forgive a lot when their image quality is top notch. Likewise, in Lr4, along with a couple of highly demanded and convenient bells & whistles features (books & maps), they have done some truly revolutionary work in image quality improvement and control (I'm not a soft-proofer so no comment about it). The new highlight and shadow handling (auto-recovery and basic sliders...) are at the heart of it. Lr4 is now top-notch in allowing us to create images with fully lit shadows, and perfectly controlled and detailed highlights. OK, maybe not perfect, but you get my point, right? And once one learns how, it is possible to create subtle, natural, more "old school" photographs, or a highly detailed and punchy look,  with a hint of grunge if desired (new clarity).

I could hardly be more stoked about PV2012, which is why I'm also passionate about pointing out it's weaknesses and limitations, and more importantly - how to get around them when need be.

Rob

KateMann wrote:

 

The clarity function was a delightful surprise. I thought it lacking somewhat in Lr3.

Yeah, new clarity opens doors that were closed to Lr3 clarity - I particularly like how it can clarify shadows.

However, I often find it "harsh looking" in many photos.

How to use the highlights slider, basically

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Highlights slider raises or lowers level of highlights while attempting to have minimal impact on midtones and whites.

+highlights will raise level but may compress highlights some (or it may not).

-highlights will lower level and also usually enhances highlight detail.

Say what?

It is clear that Lr4/PV2012 involves some sophisiticated algorithms that influence how things work, to try and assure things work out for the best in all or the majority of cases. Highlight slider does not necessarily do exactly the same thing in every photo! What it does is governed not only be the original tonal distribution, but the other settings too.

I suspect the two biggest mistakes newcomers to PV2012 will make:

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* attempting to use +highlights (and/or +shadows) instead of +exposure, (or the opposite), and perhaps even more likely:

* attempting to use +highlights -shadows to increase midtone contrast (or -highlights +shadows to reduce contrast).

What not to do:

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* Attempt to finalize highlights (and/or shadows) before exposure has been set correctly (see note below).

* Attempt to finalize highlights (and/or shadows) before contrast has been pleasingly set.

* +highlights (and/or +shadows) when what you should do is +exposure.

* -highlights (and/or -shadows) when what you should do is -exposure.

* +highlights -shadows when what you should do is +contrast.

* -highlights +shadows when what you should do is -contrast.

Note: You have to get highlights and shadows in the ball park before you can finish setting exposure correctly, so there's kindofa catch-22 here, still...

What to do:

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* Keep highlights and shadows bounded, even if sloppily, while honing in on the correct exposure.

* Adjust highlights in response to contrast changes to keep highlights from being over-brightened.

* Once exposure is correct and contrast is pleasing, highlights can be fine-tuned for taste.

As always, if you want the opposite, then do the opposite. For example, if you lower contrast, you may want to increase highlights to keep them from being too dim...

Final thoughts:

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There's no right or wrong value for contrast (strictly a matter of personal taste), but exposure must be correct for the toning goals you have in mind (you may not like the results once you achieve them, but this is about achieving your goals, whether or not you'll make new goals again afterward...).

Rob

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Long live Lightroom 4, it's creators, defenders, criticizers, and everybody else...

Rob