Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Desaturation
In this tutorial, I use Adobe Lightroom 2.3 and Photoshop CS4 to achieve the effect that I look for. If you don't have Lightroom, you can used ACR (Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in) instead.
Let's begin.
1. Open your RAW file in Lightroom. This is how my RAW file looks before the editing stage. Keep in mind that different lighting condition will require more or less adjustment to get the same result which show in this tutorial. Play around with your settings. Explore and have fun. You don't have to do the exact of what I do here and if you come up with something cool, please let me know. I love to learn new tricks.
2. Start with the Basic tab, this is my settings.
1.
• Temp: Use the Eye Dropper to get the white balance that you like.
• Tint: +36
2.
• Exposure: +0.57
• Recovery: Preset (0)
• Fill Light: Preset (0)
• Blacks: Preset (5)
3.
• Brightness: +64
• Contrast: +100
4.
• Clarity: +100 *More or less depends on the clarity of your file
• Vibrance: +38
• Saturation: -64
By now, your photo should look similar to this.
3. On this stage, we are going to desaturate some of the colors that we *don't need* for the type of effect which we are after.
1. Click on the HSL tab and then Saturation tab.
• Red: +5 *I want to keep the red and orange
• Orange: +76
• Yellow: -69
• Green: -33
• Aqua: Preset (0)
• Blue: -67
• Purple: -100
• Magenta: -100
Notice how the blue sky has gone and the wall looks almost black and white now.
4. To turn the sky into gray and push the colors of the roof and the red leaves in front of the house, we will have to do some adjustments with the Camera Calibration setting. On this stage, I will start with the Blue Primary first.
►Blue Primary
• Hue: -24
• Saturation: -100
►Green Primary
• Hue: Preset (0)
• Saturation: +62
►Red Primary
• Hue: Preset (0)
• Saturation: +38
►Shadows
• Tint: +21
5. We're going to use Tone Curve to gain some contrast. You will see your red color pops out from the scene but some detail in the highlight area will disappear. Not to worry. I will show you how to recover it next. For now, let open the Tone Curve tab.
• Highlights: Preset (0)
• Lights: -45
• Darks: -17
• Shadows: Preset (0)
6. Hit M or click on the Graduated Filter . Leave other sliders at default (0)
• Exposure -1.30
• Brightness: -20
Put your pointer from the outside of the highlight area and drag toward the center of the photo. See... I got some detail back.
7. While the Graduated Filter still open, let darken the sky a bit.
My setting for this one is,
• Exposure: -0.80
I leave everything else at its default setting.
8. Right click on the photo thumbnail, choose
1. Edit In
2. Open as Smart Object in Photoshop...
*Open as Smart Object will allow you to toggle between Lightroom and Photoshop. I'm not going into detail here since this tutorial is not about Smart Object.
9. My habit is make a copy of the original layer before I do anything to it. In case I need to do another version or make some major changes, I always have it there without the need of open another file.
10. I'm going to make a Black and White Layer Adjustment so that I can desaturate this photo even more. The reason for me to use Layer Adjustment is that I want full control of my edit as well as going back and fine tune my settings later, if need.
• Red: -69
• Yellow: +300
• Blue: -6
Everything else is at its default setting.
Your bw should look similar to this.
11. Select the Black and White layer, lower the Opacity to 75%.
12. Select Curves and adjust the Master Curve
• Output: 206
• Input: 173
Adjust the two mid points for Light and Dark areas so that we can get an even higher contrast photo.
Usually, I'd toggle my layers at this point to see the differences. I may go back and adjust the Black and White sliders or its Opacity to see if I can get more from from here...
13. Switch to the Green Channel and set the Input to about 253. This will give your highlight area a hint of green. If you go the opposite direction, you will get a red tint. Try it. See what will suit more with your photo.
14. Switch to Blue Channel and raise the mid point up a notch, also pull the top of the curve down a little. Your Output should read 249 and Input 255. This adjustment will give your mid tone some blue while keeping the highlight the same.
15. Now go up to the top left and click on Image, then select Apply Image. Before we go one, let me explain a bit about this wonderful command.
Apply Image command one of the most powerful and flexible blending tools in Photoshop, it is fun and easy to use. Basically, Apply Image allows you to blend, or to apply, a layer and channel from one image with a layer and channel of another image. It's similar to using Layer Blending Modes to blend layers together in the Layers Palette, but much more powerful with its ability to blend individual channels together. This gives you more control over how the images are blended, also opens up far more creative possibilities and gives your images better results. You can even blend together channels from different color modes. I will go into more detail on this command in my next blog. Have you selected Apply Image command yet?
16. For this tutorial, we will leave everything at is except for the Layer and the Blending. If your Channels is not already at RGB, click on the Channels window and select it now. Next, click on the Blending window and choose Hard Light. Notice how the command automatically adds a layer mask to your Curves layer? Toggle on and off the Preview to see the change. Go back to the Blending window and choose another blend to learn the differences of different modes. Click OK to apply the change when you're ready.
17. Click on Create a New Layer button.
You probably won't need this step for your image, but I just throw it in just in case you need a *dirty trick* to enhance the contrast in certain area of your image.
18. Hit D to swap your foreground color to black. Then G to select Gradient tool.
19. In this step, you will select Radial Gradient, lower the Opacity to about 10% and choose Foreground to Transparent.
20. Select the new layer and set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay. Use the Gradient tool to add more black onto those shadow areas which you want to add densities to them.
21. Add another new layer, set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay then launch your Foreground Color Palette and choose a green tone. Mine is a1ab86. Click OK. We are about to give the photo an overall green cast like you see in those old color photos. Now fill the layer with the foreground color you just pick. Lower the Opacity to your liking.
This is the result. Now that you know the technique, you can give it a different color cast, add brushes and textures, explore to see what else you can possible do with this technique.
Drop me a line if you have something cool to share. Thanks for stopping by ApertureDiary 1.0.
Let's begin.
1. Open your RAW file in Lightroom. This is how my RAW file looks before the editing stage. Keep in mind that different lighting condition will require more or less adjustment to get the same result which show in this tutorial. Play around with your settings. Explore and have fun. You don't have to do the exact of what I do here and if you come up with something cool, please let me know. I love to learn new tricks.
2. Start with the Basic tab, this is my settings.1.
• Temp: Use the Eye Dropper to get the white balance that you like.
• Tint: +36
2.
• Exposure: +0.57
• Recovery: Preset (0)
• Fill Light: Preset (0)
• Blacks: Preset (5)
3.
• Brightness: +64
• Contrast: +100
4.
• Clarity: +100 *More or less depends on the clarity of your file
• Vibrance: +38
• Saturation: -64
By now, your photo should look similar to this.
3. On this stage, we are going to desaturate some of the colors that we *don't need* for the type of effect which we are after.1. Click on the HSL tab and then Saturation tab.
• Red: +5 *I want to keep the red and orange
• Orange: +76
• Yellow: -69
• Green: -33
• Aqua: Preset (0)
• Blue: -67
• Purple: -100
• Magenta: -100
Notice how the blue sky has gone and the wall looks almost black and white now.
4. To turn the sky into gray and push the colors of the roof and the red leaves in front of the house, we will have to do some adjustments with the Camera Calibration setting. On this stage, I will start with the Blue Primary first.
►Blue Primary• Hue: -24
• Saturation: -100
►Green Primary
• Hue: Preset (0)
• Saturation: +62
►Red Primary
• Hue: Preset (0)
• Saturation: +38
►Shadows
• Tint: +21
5. We're going to use Tone Curve to gain some contrast. You will see your red color pops out from the scene but some detail in the highlight area will disappear. Not to worry. I will show you how to recover it next. For now, let open the Tone Curve tab.
• Highlights: Preset (0)• Lights: -45
• Darks: -17
• Shadows: Preset (0)
6. Hit M or click on the Graduated Filter . Leave other sliders at default (0)• Exposure -1.30
• Brightness: -20
Put your pointer from the outside of the highlight area and drag toward the center of the photo. See... I got some detail back.
7. While the Graduated Filter still open, let darken the sky a bit.
My setting for this one is,• Exposure: -0.80
I leave everything else at its default setting.
8. Right click on the photo thumbnail, choose1. Edit In
2. Open as Smart Object in Photoshop...
*Open as Smart Object will allow you to toggle between Lightroom and Photoshop. I'm not going into detail here since this tutorial is not about Smart Object.
9. My habit is make a copy of the original layer before I do anything to it. In case I need to do another version or make some major changes, I always have it there without the need of open another file.
10. I'm going to make a Black and White Layer Adjustment so that I can desaturate this photo even more. The reason for me to use Layer Adjustment is that I want full control of my edit as well as going back and fine tune my settings later, if need.
• Red: -69
• Yellow: +300
• Blue: -6
Everything else is at its default setting.
Your bw should look similar to this.
11. Select the Black and White layer, lower the Opacity to 75%.
12. Select Curves and adjust the Master Curve• Output: 206
• Input: 173
Adjust the two mid points for Light and Dark areas so that we can get an even higher contrast photo.
Usually, I'd toggle my layers at this point to see the differences. I may go back and adjust the Black and White sliders or its Opacity to see if I can get more from from here...
13. Switch to the Green Channel and set the Input to about 253. This will give your highlight area a hint of green. If you go the opposite direction, you will get a red tint. Try it. See what will suit more with your photo.
14. Switch to Blue Channel and raise the mid point up a notch, also pull the top of the curve down a little. Your Output should read 249 and Input 255. This adjustment will give your mid tone some blue while keeping the highlight the same.
15. Now go up to the top left and click on Image, then select Apply Image. Before we go one, let me explain a bit about this wonderful command.Apply Image command one of the most powerful and flexible blending tools in Photoshop, it is fun and easy to use. Basically, Apply Image allows you to blend, or to apply, a layer and channel from one image with a layer and channel of another image. It's similar to using Layer Blending Modes to blend layers together in the Layers Palette, but much more powerful with its ability to blend individual channels together. This gives you more control over how the images are blended, also opens up far more creative possibilities and gives your images better results. You can even blend together channels from different color modes. I will go into more detail on this command in my next blog. Have you selected Apply Image command yet?
16. For this tutorial, we will leave everything at is except for the Layer and the Blending. If your Channels is not already at RGB, click on the Channels window and select it now. Next, click on the Blending window and choose Hard Light. Notice how the command automatically adds a layer mask to your Curves layer? Toggle on and off the Preview to see the change. Go back to the Blending window and choose another blend to learn the differences of different modes. Click OK to apply the change when you're ready.
17. Click on Create a New Layer button.You probably won't need this step for your image, but I just throw it in just in case you need a *dirty trick* to enhance the contrast in certain area of your image.
18. Hit D to swap your foreground color to black. Then G to select Gradient tool.
19. In this step, you will select Radial Gradient, lower the Opacity to about 10% and choose Foreground to Transparent.
20. Select the new layer and set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay. Use the Gradient tool to add more black onto those shadow areas which you want to add densities to them.
21. Add another new layer, set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay then launch your Foreground Color Palette and choose a green tone. Mine is a1ab86. Click OK. We are about to give the photo an overall green cast like you see in those old color photos. Now fill the layer with the foreground color you just pick. Lower the Opacity to your liking.
This is the result. Now that you know the technique, you can give it a different color cast, add brushes and textures, explore to see what else you can possible do with this technique.Drop me a line if you have something cool to share. Thanks for stopping by ApertureDiary 1.0.
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