LR4: Difference between clarity and sharpening

digital paradise wrote in post #15587061
I know this is the opposite of what clarity is intended for but I have a preset I sometimes use for brides which smoothens out skin and hides defects. I also am always looking to match Adobe to DPP skin tones. I may have gotten this info at POTN. I can't remember.

This includes setting Camera Profile to faithful. After I go through the basic pallet for further editing. I'm aways searching for other methods. Hint, hint.

It has it's negative side so I don't always use it.

Clarity -10
Vibrance + 10
Saturation -10

Actually, that's one of the best uses for negative clarity. I've got a soften skin preset for local adjustments in LR4 that allows me to paint negative clarity to reduce mid-tone contrast and smooth skin. It works wonders. Using negative clarity for the whole image would be less useful, IMHO, but as a local adjustment, its great.

I'd like to know more about how to "paint" negative clarity because as you said it does not benefit the whole image. I don't use it if it negatively effects the life of the image. I'm not that well versed in this part of LR. I'd appreciate any pointers or a link on to how to do this .

I got this tip at Canon Forums but when I try to change saturation the whole image changes - not just the skin tones. Not sure if it is the same as what we are talking about.

1) Get the skin exposure right with the exposure slider

2) Get the color temp, this is often the hardest one of the bunch!

3) Adjust the white and black sliders while holding down the cntrl key so that whites are pure white and blacks are pure black. This kind of stretches the DR a bit and adds contrast.

4) I will usually bump the vibrance up to 40-50 and the saturation to 10-15 to start. Doing this screws up the skin tones so I will go into the color saturation panel and use the dropper to click on the skin and draw down the saturation of just the skin tones. (I have a couple of presets for this and will tweak the presets for each wedding couple) This process adds the "pop" to the colors.

5) Add a little bit of contrast. You can do this with the slider but I find that adjusting the curve to an S curve is more natural. (just use the pre-programed curves) The amount of contrast is going to depend on the lighting and on your lens.

6) Tweak the white and black sliders again to get the final effect i'm looking for.

7) Tweak the noise reduction with the picture at 100%

Obviously I jump around these steps and use a little different settings based on lighting but for a "standard" picture this is basically it. Some might say that colors (particularly reds) become too saturated using these settings so you have to adjust for the scene but most people today are looking for the photos that "pop" rather than a very natural look.

digital paradise wrote in post #15587499
I'd like to know more about how to "paint" negative clarity because as you said it does not benefit the whole image.

This may not be of help since I use ACR and not LR. I choose the Adjustment brush, dial in negative clarity, and start painting. The good thing is you can adjust the setting after painting in. I would assume LR works pretty much the same.

Seems simple enough. I'll try it. Thanks

D Thompson wrote in post #15587564
This may not be of help since I use ACR and not LR. I choose the Adjustment brush, dial in negative clarity, and start painting. The good thing is you can adjust the setting after painting in. I would assume LR works pretty much the same.

It does. You can adjust the clarity slider, or any other local slider for that matter, after you've painted the area.

There are several localized presets built into LR4. Of course you can create your own or download more from a variety of online sites.

When you select the Local Adjustment brush in the panel just below the histogram, you see the various adjustment sliders. which you can use at is to paint over selected sections of your image. However, if you select the Effect drop down box by clicking on the word that appears just to the right of the word "Effects" on the top left, you will be presented with a list. Towards the bottom of that list are 5 presets. Burn, Dodge, Iris enhance, Soften Skin, and Teeth Whitening. Any of these presets can be modified and saved as new presets. If you select "Whiten Teeth" and carefully paint the teeth, you can make yellow teeth look white. If you select "Soften Skin", negative clarity and some positive sharpening are applied to the painted areas. You can adjust the amount of clarity and sharpening used. You can also adjust the size of the brush, the feathering, the flow, and the density. So, as an example, you can apply significant clarity to the overall image in the Basic panel to make things pop, and soften the skin of a female face in the same image by using the Soften Skin preset in Local Adjustments panel. You can, of course apply local changes just using the sliders without resorting to presets, they just makes the work go faster. Hope this helps.

digital paradise wrote in post #15587499
I'd like to know more about how to "paint" negative clarity because as you said it does not benefit the whole image. I don't use it if it negatively effects the life of the image. I'm not that well versed in this part of LR. I'd appreciate any pointers or a link on to how to do this .

I got this tip at Canon Forums but when I try to change saturation the whole image changes - not just the skin tones. Not sure if it is the same as what we are talking about.

1) Get the skin exposure right with the exposure slider

2) Get the color temp, this is often the hardest one of the bunch!

3) Adjust the white and black sliders while holding down the cntrl key so that whites are pure white and blacks are pure black. This kind of stretches the DR a bit and adds contrast.

4) I will usually bump the vibrance up to 40-50 and the saturation to 10-15 to start. Doing this screws up the skin tones so I will go into the color saturation panel and use the dropper to click on the skin and draw down the saturation of just the skin tones. (I have a couple of presets for this and will tweak the presets for each wedding couple) This process adds the "pop" to the colors.

5) Add a little bit of contrast. You can do this with the slider but I find that adjusting the curve to an S curve is more natural. (just use the pre-programed curves) The amount of contrast is going to depend on the lighting and on your lens.

6) Tweak the white and black sliders again to get the final effect i'm looking for.

7) Tweak the noise reduction with the picture at 100%

Obviously I jump around these steps and use a little different settings based on lighting but for a "standard" picture this is basically it. Some might say that colors (particularly reds) become too saturated using these settings so you have to adjust for the scene but most people today are looking for the photos that "pop" rather than a very natural look.

Most books and experts often recommend avoiding the use of the Saturation slider in the Basic panel. Use the Vibrance control just above it instead. As you've noticed the Saturation changes are often too broad for just a tweak. The Vibrance control has a much more subtle impact. Generally, its also recommended that in the basic panel the adjustments should be made in order from top to bottom, although this doesn't always work out for me. You can also try the Auto feature in the Basic panel as a starting point in your adjustments. Sometimes auto is a great place to start, sometimes not. I've found that it tends to either overexpose or underexpose and have to tweak the Exposure slider accordingly.

Very helpful. I have tried this before and this was were I was struggling so I left to for a another day. Note: I installed some some sunflare effects where the teeth, etc are located.

1. I whitened the teeth

2. Selected clarity, painted the skin.

3. As soon as I touch the clarity slider it switches to custom and the teeth revert

4. Then I moved the clarity slider and both the teeth and skin change

5. I tried teeth with brush A and clarity with brush B and still the teeth change. They actually the teeth revert as soon as I select clarity whether I use A only or both A and B

It appears that you need to press done after each effect adjustment but that does not make sense to me. Why would adobe do that? I'm sure I'm missing something.

digital paradise wrote in post #15588151
Very helpful. I have tried this before and this was were I was struggling so I left to for a another day. Note: I installed some some sunflare effects where the teeth, etc are located.

1. I whitened the teeth

2. Selected clarity, painted the skin.

3. As soon as I touch the clarity slider it switches to custom and the teeth revert

4. Then I moved the clarity slider and both the teeth and skin change

5. I tried teeth with brush A and clarity with brush B and still the teeth change. They actually the teeth revert as soon as I select clarity whether I use A only or both A and B

It appears that you need to press done after each effect adjustment but that does not make sense to me. Why would adobe do that? I'm sure I'm missing something.

If you've adjusted say the teeth, you need to then select "New" on top right for a new set of adjustment to do something like soften skin.You can apply several adjustment at one time, but they will all effect whatever is painted. Its like different layers of adjustments. Not sure if this is part of your problem or not.

Oh I see. Thanks. Looking better.

digital paradise wrote in post #15588265
Oh I see. Thanks. Looking better.

The attached link is to a Lightroom 4 video by one of Adobe's gurus specifically geared to the Graduated Filter and the local Adjustment Brush. The first 7 or 8 minutes is all about using the graduated filter. The remaining 15 minutes or so is a detailed tutorial on using the local adjustment brush. I think it will answer many of your questions.

http://tv.adobe.com …nt-brush-in-lightroom-4-/

Great. Gonna watch it and book mark that in my LR file. Thanks again.

digital paradise wrote in post #15587499
3) Adjust the white and black sliders while holding down the cntrl key so that whites are pure white and blacks are pure black. This kind of stretches the DR a bit and adds contrast.


5) Add a little bit of contrast. You can do this with the slider but I find that adjusting the curve to an S curve is more natural. (just use the pre-programed curves) The amount of contrast is going to depend on the lighting and on your lens.

6) Tweak the white and black sliders again to get the final effect i'm looking for.

This sounds pretty horrible to me. Why would you thoroughly clip both the highlights and the shadows? Sure you get more contrast, but this is tantamount to the old method of raising contrast, by pulling in the white and black points, that was thrown out of Photoshop a dozen years ago. Any sensible way of raising global contrast is with an S-curve that does not affect the white and black points. You must be losing significant amounts of highlight detail and blocking up the shadows. I raise Whites until the first white spot appears and then back off until it disappears (unless it is a spectral reflection) and I set Blacks for just a smidgeon of clipping, certainly not the whole image.

Also, Vibrance is designed to work primarily in the blue and green channels and hardly at all in the red and skin tones.

I just copied it and played around a bit but never adopted it. It was not what I was looking for.

What I'm trying to achieve are these skin tones. That creamy look.

http://meninenuotrauka​.lt/lt/wedding/2011/ol​ga_igor/

The poster stated it did this and was based on the techniques on the link above.

http://www.flickr.com …#in/set-72157632377172935