Table of Contents for

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC Book, Second Edition

To use the Red Eye Correction tool, place the tool’s crosshair over the middle of the pupil and drag outward to draw a circle that defines the area you wish to correct (Figure 4.100). Lightroom automatically detects the red-eye area that needs to be repaired and fixes it. Before applying the Red Eye Correction tool, you can adjust the size of the circle by using the Bracket keys: The Left Bracket () makes it smaller, and the Right Bracket () makes it bigger. To be honest, the circle size does not always make much difference, because, once you click with the tool, you can drag to define the area you wish to affect. The circle size is probably more relevant if you are going to be clicking with the Red Eye Correction tool rather than dragging. Also, you do not have to be particularly accurate, and it is interesting to observe how this tool behaves even if you lazily drag to include an area that is a lot bigger than the area you need to correct. Lightroom always knows which area to correct, because the circle shrinks to create an overlay representing the area that has been targeted for the red-eye correction.

After you have applied the tool to a photo, the Red Eye Correction tool options appear (Figure 4.101). Here, you can adjust the sliders to fine-tune the Pupil Size area you want to correct and decide how much you want to darken the pupil. You can use the On/Off button at the bottom of the Tool Options (circled in Figure 4.90) to toggle showing and hiding all Red Eye Correction tool edits. You can revise the Red Eye removal settings by clicking a circle to reactivate it, or use the key to remove individual red-eye corrections. If you do not like the results, you can always click the Reset button in the Tool Options panel to delete all the Red Eye Correction retouching and start over again.

This feature raises an interesting question: If you know Lightroom can repair red eye so neatly, do you really need to use the anti-red-eye flash mode? This may sound like a lazy approach to photography, but in my experience, the anti-red-eye flash mode often ruins the opportunity to grab spontaneous snapshots. There is nothing worse than seeing a great expression or something special going on between a group of people, and then having to wait a few seconds for the camera to get up to speed, firing a few pre-flashes before taking the full-flash exposure. These days I prefer to shoot using the normal flash mode and let Lightroom fix any red-eye problems that might occur.

1. I started with close-up view of a photograph that needed red eyes removed.

2. I selected the Red Eye Correction tool and clicked both eyes. This automatically got rid of the red-eye effect. I then adjusted the Darken slider so the pupils did not appear too dark.

1. As you can see in this close-up view, the flash reflected back off the dog’s eyes.

2. I used the Red Eye correction tool in Pet Eye mode to correct both eyes, with the Add Catchlight option enabled.

In Figure 4.102, the Exposure effect is selected; positive values will lighten, and negative values will darken. Beyond these basic dodge and burn tool settings, you can use any combination of sliders here to establish different types of localized adjustment effects. You can then save these combinations as custom settings, which can then be accessed via the Effect menu. If you would like a simpler interface to work with, click the disclosure triangle next to the Effect drop-down menu (circled in Figure 4.103) to collapse the slider options. In this compact mode, you can use the Amount slider to control whatever combination of effect settings you have selected in the Effect menu. You can expand the Adjustment Brush options by clicking the disclosure triangle again.

Below this are the Brush settings. The Size slider controls the overall size of the brush (Figure 4.104). You can use the and keys to make the brush bigger or smaller. Or, you can scroll with your trackpad, mouse, or tablet to vary the brush size. The inner circle represents the core brush size, while the outer circle represents the outer feather radius. As you adjust the Feather slider, the outer circle expands or contracts to indicate the hardness or softness of the brush. Or, you can use to make the brush edge harder or to make it softer. The Flow slider is kind of like an airbrush control: By selecting a low Flow setting, you can apply a series of brush strokes that successively build to create a stronger effect. You will notice that as you brush back and forth with the Adjustment Brush, the paint effect gains opacity (if you are using a pressure-sensitive tablet such as a Wacom^™, the flow of the brush strokes is automatically linked to the pen pressure). It can often help to set the Flow to a low amount to begin with and use multiple brush strokes to gradually build up a particular effect. The Density slider at the bottom limits the maximum brush opacity. At a Density of 100, the flow of the brush strokes builds to maximum opacity, but if you reduce the Density, this limits the maximum opacity for the brush. In fact, if you reduce the Density and paint, you can erase the paint strokes back to a desired Density setting. When the Density is set to 0, the brush acts like an eraser. The A and B buttons can be used to create two separate brush settings so you can easily switch between two different brushes as you work.

To reset the settings to 0 and clear any currently selected color, double-click Effect, or hold down the key; Effect will change to Reset (circled in Figure 4.105). Or, you can hold down the key and click an Effect slider name to reset everything except that slider setting. If you need to reset everything (as in resetting the image without any Adjustment Brush adjustments), you can select individual brush pins to make them active and press the Delete key. Or, click the Reset button at the bottom to delete all the pin markers that have been added to an image. To exit the Adjustment Brush tool mode of operation, you can click the Close button, click the Adjustment Brush button at the top, or press . You can use the On/Off button at the bottom (circled in Figure 4.106) to toggle showing/hiding all Adjustment Brush edits.

Now let’s look at how to work with the Adjustment Brush. Where you first click adds a brush pin to the image. This appears just like any other overlay, and you can hide it using the key (or use the View Tool Overlay options to govern the show/hide behavior for these overlays). The brush pin is a marker for the brush strokes you are about to add and can later be used as a reference marker whenever you need to locate and edit a particular group of brush strokes. The important thing to understand here is that you click once and can keep clicking and dragging to create a single group of brush strokes. When you edit the brush strokes, you can adjust the effect slider settings for the group as a whole. So you can come back later and say “Let’s make this series of brush strokes a little stronger,” or “Let’s add more saturation.” Consequently, you only need to create new brush groups when you need to apply a different kind of adjustment to another part of the photo. In recent years, Lightroom Classic CC has added improvements that should reduce the rough, jagged edges and result in smoother curves. Although not always perfectly smooth, the overall responsiveness has improved.

Localized adjustments have the same full-strength potential as global adjustments and the effects all have linear incremental behavior except for the Temp, Tint, Highlights, Shadows, and Clarity adjustments. These effects have nonlinear incremental behavior, which means they only increase in strength by 50% relative to the previous localized adjustment each time you add a new pin group. Lightroom also allows for “connect the dots” type drawing. (This is similar to the way you can work using the Spot Removal tool.) When painting with the Adjustment Brush, click, hold down the key, and click again to create a straight-line brush stroke between those two points.

Earlier versions of Lightroom allowed you to select a pin and drag left or right to decrease or increase the strength of an effect. To do this now, you must hold down the key as you drag on a pin.

2. I selected the Adjustment Brush and chose a Dodge (Lighten) setting from the Effect menu. I then clicked on the photo and painted to lighten the kitten’s face.

1. With the original photograph open, I began by clicking the Adjustment Brush to reveal the tool options.

2. I set the Exposure slider to +1.70 and started painting. Because Auto Mask was checked, the brush lightened only the gray (sampled color) areas.

3. I completed the first pass brush work surrounding the car. I then added a new brush group to lighten the windows. Finally, I adjusted both brush groups, setting the Exposure to +1.15.

1. I began with a close-up view of a beauty photograph with no localized adjustments applied.

2. I selected the Adjustment Brush with the Soften Skin effect and painted with the brush to soften the skin tones more.

1. Originally in color, this image was converted to black and white in Lightroom. I selected the Adjustment Brush and selected the Color effect from the Effect menu. I then clicked the color swatch to open the color picker shown here, and chose a green color to paint with.

2. With Auto Mask checked, I brushed along the stem and leaf.

3. I then created a new set of paint strokes. This time I selected a red color and began painting the flower petals, again with the Auto Mask option checked.

1. For this photograph, I had already carried out most of the desired image corrections. The warm white balance that was set in the Basic panel suited the skin tones in this portrait.

2. Staying in the Basic panel, I adjusted the Temp slides to apply a cooler “baseline” white balance to the image.

3. I then selected the Adjustment Brush, adjusted the Temp slider to select a warmer white balance, and carefully painted over the face and body to apply a warm color balance that contrasted nicely with the cooler background color.

In the example shown here, the photograph was shot against a black backdrop, but it was not as deep a black as I would have liked. By applying a negative Shadows adjustment as a localized adjustment, I was able to darken the background, but without darkening the subject. I also applied a second pass adjustment in which I set the Blacks slider to –30. This helped darken everything to black. Incidentally, localized Whites and Blacks adjustments are applied downstream of the global Whites and Blacks adjustments you apply via the Basic panel. These are, therefore, best used to stretch locally the tone range at the top end (using the Whites slider) or bottom end (using the Blacks slider). To perform a highlight or shadow recovery, you should use Highlights or Shadows rather than the Whites and Blacks sliders.

1. In this photograph, I optimized the image as usual. However, in doing so, I could not get the backdrop to go completely black.

2. Here, I selected the Adjustment Brush, set the Exposure slider to –0.50 and the Shadows slider to –50, and brushed over the backdrop area.

3. To make the backdrop even blacker, I applied a second pass painting with the brush set to –0.50 Exposure, –100 Shadows, and –30 Black. This allowed me to make the backdrop go completely to black.

Whenever you adjust the Sharpness slider in the adjustment tools to add more sharpness, you are essentially adding a greater Amount value of sharpness based on the settings that have already been established in the Detail panel Sharpening section. A negative Sharpness setting in the 0 to –50 range can be used to fade out existing sharpening. Therefore, if you apply –50 sharpness, you can paint to disable any capture sharpening. As you apply a negative Sharpness in the range of –50 to –100, you start to apply anti-sharpening. This can produce a gentle lens blur effect, but you can always strengthen it by applying successive, separate Adjustment Brush groups. I show a further example of localized sharpening in Chapter 6.

A useful tip is to pump up the settings you are working with to produce a stronger effect than what is needed so you can see the results of your retouching more clearly. You can then edit the amounts applied and reduce the slider settings to achieve the desired adjustment strength.

1. Here, you can see that I selected the Adjustment Brush tool and adjusted the Effect settings to add 100 Clarity combined with 30 Sharpness. I then clicked on the rocks and started painting to apply the combined Clarity and Sharpness adjustment effect (with Auto Mask checked).

2. I applied this adjustment to the rock areas only, and you can see here an overlay view of the painted area (top) and close-up views that show the Before and After versions.

Graduated Filter effects are indicated by a pin marker, and you can move a Graduated Filter once it has been applied by clicking and dragging the pin. The parallel lines indicate the spread of the Graduated Filter, and you can change the width of the filter by dragging the outer lines. If you want to edit the angle of a Graduated Filter effect, you can do so by clicking and dragging the middle line.

1. In this first step, I applied just the main Basic panel adjustments to optimize the highlights, shadows, and contrast.

2. I clicked the Graduated Filter tool to reveal the Graduated Filter options, set the Exposure slider to 0.45, and dragged diagonally downward to lighten the top-right section of the photo.

3. I applied a second Graduated Filter, dragging from the top downward to lighten the Shadows.

4. I then dragged the Tint slider to the left to make the Graduated Filter effect more green. I also selected the Brush to mask out the tree (there is more on brush editing in the following section).

5. Lastly, I added two further Graduated Filters to the bottom half of the picture, where I applied positive Exposure adjustments.

It is important to understand that two mask controls are in force here. You have a Graduated Filter mask (that you can continue to modify), plus a brush edit mask you can use to mask specific areas of an image. Therefore, you can enter the brush edit mode to remove or restore areas to be affected by a Graduated Filter or Radial Filter adjustment and independently adjust the extent of the actual adjustment. The following steps show how to refine a Graduated Filter adjustment, but will also apply to working with Radial Filters as well.

1. I added a number of Graduated Filter adjustments to the image, including a darkening Exposure adjustment to the sky, which, as you can see here, covered the top section of the pagoda.

2. I then clicked the Brush button to enter Brush editing mode. Using the Erase brush in Auto Mask mode, I erased the mask where it overlapped the top of the pagoda.

3. In this final version, I hid the Graduated Filter mask and pins.

By default, a new adjustment will have a zero effect at the center and get stronger toward the outer edges of the ellipse and beyond. You can switch this around by checking the Invert box just below the Radial Filter Feather slider, or use the Apostrophe key () to toggle between these two modes. As with all localized adjustments, if you hold down the key and click the pin, you can drag left and right to dynamically modify the current active slider settings, making them increase or decrease in strength. Lastly, you can use (Mac) or (PC) plus a click and drag to duplicate an existing Radial Filter adjustment.

There are lots of potential uses for this localized adjustment. The most obvious example is you can use it to apply more controllable vignette adjustments to darken or lighten the corners. For example, instead of simply lightening or darkening using the Exposure slider, you can use the Highlights or Shadows sliders to achieve more subtle types of adjustments. Or, you might want to adjust the Saturation setting so that either the corners or center of the image appear desaturated or more saturated. I mostly use the Radial Filter in preference to the Adjustment Brush as a tool for applying localized adjustments to specific areas of a photograph.

As with the Graduated Filter, you can add multiple Radial Filter adjustments to an image. Once added, a Radial Filter adjustment is represented by a pin marker. Click a pin to make it active. You then will see the elliptical outline of a Radial Filter adjustment, and can then re-edit the adjustment settings.

1. I opened an image in Lightroom and selected the Radial Filter tool. I held down the (Mac) or (PC) key and double-clicked inside the preview area to add a new adjustment that filled the current frame area from the center pin outward. I set the Exposure slider to −1.29 to darken the outer edges.

2. I then dragged the handles to realign the Radial Filter effect so the Radial Filter adjustment was centered around the stamen in the middle of the flower.

1. Here is the photo I selected to edit. You can see that I had already added some light flare effects with the studio lighting.

2. I selected the Radial Filter and added a number of filter adjustments to add some light flare effects to the image.

3. This shows the final result with the pin overlays hidden.

Alternatively, you can select the Range Mask Luminance mode (Figure 4.114). You can then use the Range slider to control the range of luminance tones that are selected within a localized adjustment selection. To do this, drag the shadow (left) and highlight (right) handles on the slider to control the range of luminance tones. The Smoothness slider can be used to modify the smoothness of the selection, which is similar to adjusting the Amount slider in the Color Range mode. When “Show Luminance Mask” is selected, the red color shows the area to which the adjustment is applied intersected with the Luminance range mask adjustments. As with the Range Mask in Color mode, you can hold down the key to see a black-and-white mask visualization here.

The Color Range and Luminance Range mask controls make it much easier to selectively mask localized adjustments. Previously, only the Auto Mask was available, and the mask edges could sometimes end up revealing ugly edge artifacts. By comparison, the Range Mask edges are more diffuse and have much smoother edge blends. In extreme cases, you are still likely to see some edge artifacts, but this can be mitigated by increasing the Color Range Mask Amount slider or increasing the Luminance Range Mask Smoothness slider.

It is also possible to combine a Range Mask with the Auto Mask, although this does add more complexity. If working with the Adjustment Brush, you should set the Develop settings and paint broadly over the subject with Auto Mask switched off and without aiming for a perfect outline. Next, select Color or Luminance from the Range Mask menu. In the Range Mask Color mode, select the Eyedropper tool and click to sample the colors you want the adjustment to affect. Having done that, adjust the Color Range Mask Amount slider to fine-tune the adjustment. Or, select the Range Mask Luminance mode and proceed to adjust the Range and Smoothness sliders. Having done that, you can revert to working with the Adjustment brush in Add or Subtract modes with Auto Mask on or off to refine the original adjustment selection.

If editing a Graduated Filter or Radial Filter adjustment, the best approach is to add a Filter effect, adjust the Develop sliders, and select the desired method from the Range Mask menu. Refine the mask as usual by sampling colors/adjusting the luminance range values, or depth range and then smoothing. Lastly, switch to the Brush edit mode working in the Add or Erase mode. Adding reveals (dependent on the Filter Mask and Range Mask selection), while erasing hides the adjustment completely. You can do this with Auto Mask on or off.

To sum up, an Adjustment Brush adjustment can be determined by the defined area (with or without Auto Mask) + Range Mask. A Graduated Filter or Radial Filter adjustment can be determined by the defined area + Range Mask + Brush edit, where Auto Mask can add further refined control.

1. With this photograph, I wanted to use the Graduated Filter tool to selectively darken the sky, but without darkening the Japanese shrine.

2. I selected the Graduated Filter tool and added a darkening filter adjustment to the sky using a –0.90 Exposure and a +30 Clarity setting.

3. I went to the Range Mask menu and selected Color. I then selected the Color Range Selector tool and clicked and dragged over the blue sky area I wished to define as being part of the adjustment. This automatically added a mask, based on the sampled colors, that masked the shrine (and the white clouds) from the Graduated Filter adjustment.

2. I added a darkening Graduated Filter to the left side, setting the Exposure slider to –1.85 and the Highlights slider to –100.

3. In the Range Mask options, I selected Luminance from the Range mask menu and dragged the Range slider shadow handle inward to the 50 setting. This refinement to the Graduated Filter masked the deep shadow areas.

4. I held down the key to see a mask preview as I continued to drag the Range slider shadow handle to 85, which protected more of the shadows.

5. I dragged the Smoothness slider, while I again held down the key. The mask preview here shows the Range Mask with a Smoothness setting of 70.

6. I then enabled the Show Luminance mask, which displayed a red overlay that represented the coverage of the filter effect.

7. Finally, I added a second Graduated Filter adjustment to darken the bottom right area of the boat. I again enabled the Show Luminance Mask.

8. Here’s the final image with the two Graduated filters applied.

To apply a Depth Range mask, first apply a localized adjustment. Then from the Range Mask menu choose Depth. If you click to select the Depth Range Selector tool, you can use it to sample a depth point in the image and also adjust the Range sliders to define a range of depth values either side of the point where you clicked. Or, you can drag with the Depth Range Selector tool to define the Range settings. Selecting the Show Depth Mask check box shows a grayscale representation of the underlying depth mask combined with a red overlay that indicates the local adjustment selection area. This also takes into account the Depth Range and Smoothness slider settings. If you -drag either the Range or Smoothness sliders, you will see a black-and-white mask preview in which white represents the area the local adjustment is applied to and black the area that is masked.

1. This photo was shot using an Apple iPhone XS in Portrait mode and imported into Lightroom as an HEIC file.

2. I added a Linear Graduated filter adjustment that applied a blue cast, lightened the exposure, and softened the sharpness.

3. I selected Depth from the Range Mask menu and turned on the Show Depth Mask option to reveal the underlying depth map represented as a red overlay. I then used the Depth Range Selector to sample the desired depth and auto-set the Range.

4. When I held down the key and dragged the Range and Smoothness sliders, I could see a mask preview where white represented the applied adjustment area.

5. For this final version, I set the Smoothness slider to 35 to achieve a tighter and sharper mask edge.

You can also choose Edit Undo or use (Mac) or (PC) to undo the last step. As you repeatedly apply an undo, the history steps are removed from the top of the list one by one, but you can restore these steps by choosing Edit Redo or using the (Mac) or ( (PC) shortcut. However, if you carry out a series of undos in this way and then quit Lightroom, you will not be able to recover those history steps later. Also, if you click to select a specific history step and then adjust any of the Lightroom Develop settings, this, too, will erase all the previously recorded history steps from that point onward in history. Lastly, if you click the Clear button in the History panel, you can delete all the history steps currently associated with a photo or a selection of photos made in the Filmstrip. Clearing the history can be useful if the number of history steps is getting out of control and you need to manage the history list better.

To work with Snapshots, use the current image state, or select a history state you want to record as a snapshot, and click the + button in the Snapshots panel. You can also use the context menu shown in Figure 4.119 to create a snapshot from a selected history state. This then opens the New Snapshot dialog (Figure 4.120), which lets you create a new snapshot. You can use the provided date/time stamp as the name for the new snapshot or rename the snapshot using a descriptive term, and then click Create. Snapshots are always arranged alphabetically in the Snapshots panel, and the Navigator panel preview will update as you hover over snapshots listed there. To load a snapshot, simply click a snapshot to select it. If you want to update the settings for a particular snapshot, you can do so via the context menu: Right-click a snapshot and select Update with Current Settings (see Figure 4.121) to update a snapshot with the current history state. You can therefore use the Snapshots panel to save multiple variations of a master photo, such as a color-enhanced or a black-and-white version of the original. Also, unlike history steps, Snapshots can be saved to the XMP metadata and therefore made readable in Camera Raw, or vice versa. To delete a snapshot, click the minus button.

The Sync Snapshots command in the Develop module Settings menu (see page 349) is particularly useful for updating existing snapshots with new settings. For example, if you have just spent some time removing blemishes or cropping an image, it can be handy to use the Sync Snapshots command to update the Spot Removal and Crop settings across all the previously created snapshots.

1. When I imported this image, I created a date-stamped snapshot. Then after editing the photograph, I created a new snapshot and named it “Color version.”

2. I then converted the image to black and white and created another snapshot, naming it “Black & white version.”

2. I continued editing the photo and saved a new black-and-white snapshot. However, this snapshot now included a lot of spotting work that I carried out since saving the previous snapshot.

3. To update the other snapshots, I went to the Settings menu and chose Sync Snapshots to open the Synchronize With Snapshots dialog.

4. In the Synchronize With Snapshots dialog, I made sure only the Spot Removal option was selected and clicked Synchronize to update all the other snapshots in the Snapshots panel with the most recent Spot Removal settings.

So, what is the difference between a virtual copy and a snapshot? Well, a snapshot is a saved history state that is a variation of the master. You have the advantage of being able to synchronize specific edit adjustments across all the snapshot versions but lack the potential to create multiple versions as distinct entities that behave as if they were actual copies of the original. A virtual copy on the other hand is like an independent snapshot image, because when you create a virtual copy, you have the freedom to apply different types of edits and preview these edits as separate image versions. You could, for example, create various black-and-white renderings and experiment with alternative crops on each virtual copy version. The example on the page opposite shows how you might use the Compare view mode to compare a virtual copy version of a photo alongside the master version (or you could use the Survey view to compare multiple versions at once). Virtual copies also make it possible for you to create collections that have different settings. For example, you can use the Create Virtual Copy command to create black-and-white versions as well as colorized versions from a master image, and then segregate these virtual copies into separate collections. The downside of virtual copies is that while Snapshots can be shared with Camera Raw, you can’t share virtual copy settings, as they are unique to Lightroom only. Camera Raw recognizes only settings that have been applied to the master image.

You also have the freedom to modify the metadata in individual virtual copy images. For example, you may want to modify and remove certain metadata from a virtual copy version so that when you create an export from the virtual copy, you can control which metadata items are visible in the exported file. For instance, when submitting photos to clients, you may wish to exclude certain metadata that cannot normally be removed automatically at the export stage.

1. As you make new virtual copies of a master file, these are automatically stacked with the original master image.

2. One of the advantages of having virtual copy versions of a master file is that you can explore applying different Develop settings and compare these against the original master.

If you click Check All in the Synchronize Settings dialog, every item will be checked. If you click Check None, you can then choose any subset of synchronization settings. Whether you choose to save everything or just a subset of settings will have important consequences for how the photos are synchronized. In some cases, synchronizing everything might well be the easiest and most practical option. But you will not necessarily always want to synchronize everything across all the selected photos. Sometimes you’ll need to think carefully about which specific settings you should synchronize. If not, you may end up overwriting settings that should have been left as they were (although you can always recover a previous image version via the History panel on an image-by-image basis). For example, if your imported photos have the camera default settings applied for Sharpening, Noise Reduction, and Calibration, you will want to be careful not to overwrite these settings. The sync behavior can also be critically affected by the process version of the most selected and other photos (see Note).

1. The Develop settings in the most selected photo can be synchronized with other photos in a selection by clicking the Sync button (circled) or using the (Mac) or (PC) keyboard shortcut.

2. In the Synchronize Settings dialog, I selected the Check All settings option. This should be used with caution, because synchronizing everything may overwrite important Develop settings in the selected photos.

1. Whenever you select a photo in the Filmstrip, Lightroom automatically stores the Develop settings as a Copy All setting.

2. If you then select another photo in the Filmstrip and click the Previous button, Lightroom pastes all the Develop settings from the previously selected photo.

1. Here is a selection of photos in Lightroom with only the default settings applied so far.

2. I opened the same photo selection in Camera Raw, optimized the settings, and synchronized these settings with all the selected photos.

3. In Lightroom, the “out-of-sync” photos displayed a metadata status change warning icon with an upward arrow, indicating the settings had been changed externally. I clicked the badge and then clicked the Import Settings from Disk button to import the Camera Raw adjusted settings (sometimes you won’t see the badges straight away and may want to choose Metadata Read metadata from file).

4. The externally adjusted settings now appeared updated in Lightroom.

If the Process Version box is checked when you save a preset, the process version is included when applying the preset to other images. If the photos to which you apply a preset share the same process version, no conversion will take place, but if they do not share the same process version, they will be converted.

If the Process Version box is not checked when you create a preset, things become more unpredictable. In this situation, the process version will not be referenced when applying the preset. Therefore, if you apply a Version 1 preset to a Version 5 image, settings such as Recovery or Fill Light will not be translated. Similarly, if you apply a Version 5 preset to a Version 1 or 2 photo, settings such as Highlights and Shadows will not be recognized.

When you have decided which to check, give the preset a name, choose a folder location to save the preset to, and click the Create button to add it as a new preset to the list. As you roll over the list of presets, you get to see an instant preview in the Navigator panel, as shown in Figure 4.132. You can update existing settings by right-clicking to reveal a context menu for the presets (which also allows you to select a preset to apply in the Import dialog for the next time you do an import).

New Preset groups can be added via the New Develop Preset dialog shown in Figure 4.133. Just select New Group from the top of the Group menu.

You can import a ZIP archive of presets provided the ZIP archive contains XMP presets. To carry out an import, go to the File menu and choose File Import Develop Profiles and Presets. This can be used to import both presets and profiles. To import new presets only, go to the Presets panel (Figure 4.134), click the plus (+) icon at the upper-right corner, and choose Import Presets from the menu. When the import dialog appears, select the ZIP archive containing the presets you want to import. Lightroom then automatically places the presets and profiles in the correct locations on your system.

By default, new presets are automatically placed in alphabetical order in a folder called User Presets (which can be seen at the bottom of Figure 4.135). To make presets more manageable, you can organize your presets into folder groupings. This can be done by adding new groups via the New Develop Preset dialog shown in Figure 4.133.

2. I clicked the Presets panel’s + icon to open the New Develop Preset dialog and selected only those settings that were relevant for this effect. I named the preset setting Muted Color Contrast and saved it to the Special effects folder.

For all the above reasons, it can now be better sometimes to save favorite Develop settings as an enhanced profile, rather than as a Develop preset. As was mentioned earlier in this chapter, you can save any combination of Lightroom Develop settings as a custom profile, which will then appear listed in the User Presets group, although you can create custom groups to save your profiles in. You can apply a custom profile as a custom look to any image, raw or non-raw without affecting the Develop settings. And, you can adjust the Amount slider to alter the strength of the profile look. On the other hand, it can sometimes be better to apply a preset, because it can often be useful to access and modify the Develop settings. You might prefer to select a Split Toning preset rather than a Split Toning profile, because with a preset you can easily tweak the Split Toning panel settings the preset applied.

If you want to create a profile, apply the desired Develop settings to an image and choose (Mac) or (PC) to save the metadata to the file. Right-click on the image and choose Show in Finder from the context menu. This opens the relevant folder via the Finder/Explorer with the original image selected. Double-click to open the photo via Camera Raw. Now, if this causes the image to open in some other program, drag the file on top of the Photoshop program icon to open in Camera Raw. In the Camera Raw Presets tab, -click the New Preset button to save as a new profile. The saved profile will then be shared with Lightroom (see the book website for more details on creating profiles). Anyway, sticking with working with Develop presets, in the following section, I have provided a quick guide on how to create neatly trimmed presets.

The chart shown in Figure 4.138 summarizes a series of Develop preset steps that were applied in the step-by-step example that begins on the page opposite. The final setting does include lots of red check marks where the settings have changed cumulatively, but this does not matter as much as in the Figure 4.137 example, because the whole point is to build up the settings one step at a time. You will notice that I included a *RESET Special Effects step. This preset is designed to cancel out previous preset settings and therefore acts like a “clear settings” button. To illustrate this, I have used crosses to indicate the items that are returned to their default settings. Therefore, when applying, say, different split-tone effects, you can click each of the presets in turn to see a full-screen view of what the end result will look like, without fear of messing up any of the settings that have been applied already. To clear a Split Toning preset adjustment, you can simply select a specially created Split Toning “reset” preset. You can also use (Mac) or (PC) to undo a preset setting, or use the (Mac) or (PC) shortcut to reset all the Develop settings.

1. Here, I went through a list of tone adjustment presets and selected the Tone Curve-Medium Contrast preset to apply a moderate contrast boost to the image.

2. I wanted to try some special effect coloring presets, so I selected an SFX-Cold tone preset from my Special Effects preset folder. In case I wish to reset the preset settings, I have included a RESET setting in each folder that resets all the relevant sliders to zero.

3. I selected a *RESET Special effects preset. Shown here are the settings I saved when creating this preset (which zeroed all the items checked here). I use all caps so the reset presets stand out more. And, I place an asterisk at the beginning of the name so the preset appears listed first in each of the preset folders.

4. I applied a Desaturate red contrast preset from the HSL Black & White folder.

5. I then went to the Split Toning folder and selected the ST-Sepia split-toning effect.

6. Finally, I selected the ST-cool tone split-tone preset and also added a Tone-Burn corners preset from the Tone Adjustments folder.

1. To create a default camera preset setting, first select a photo shot with a particular camera that is representative of how the camera performs at a specific ISO setting. In the Basic panel, the White Balance setting should be left set to As Shot and the Adobe Color profile selected (or choose another profile if you prefer). In the Detail panel, set an optimum sharpness and noise reduction that would make a suitable starting point for future image editing. In the Lens Corrections panel, I recommend checking Enable Profile Corrections and Remove Chromatic Aberrations. In the Camera Calibration panel, I suggest checking to make sure that the process version is set to Version 5. In all the other panels, it is essential that the sliders are at their default settings.

2. Go to the Lightroom Presets preferences ( [Mac] or [PC]) and make sure that “Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting” is checked. It is important that you do this before proceeding to the next step. You can also check “Make defaults specific to camera serial number” if you want the settings to be camera-body specific.

3. Now go back to the photo you worked on in Step 1 and choose Develop Set Default Settings. This opens the dialog shown here, where you need to click the Update to Current Settings button. Do this and Lightroom will automatically make this the default setting for all newly imported photos that match the camera model, serial number, and ISO setting. When camera default settings are applied to a photo, there will be no badge on the thumbnail to indicate that it contains edits, because Lightroom treats such edits as default values. Although this may seem obvious, it is easy to forget you have applied camera default settings and then wonder why the Lightroom-rendered image looks different from what you expected, yet has no badge to indicate changed settings.