Lightroom Retouching Toolkit

Hi, folks anyone purchased this product and has it helped in retouching?

There is no trial so I want to be careful here. https://www.lightroomr​etouching.com/

Cheers.

Ok so the guy is charging 90 bucks to give you a list of 48 different brush settings. Settings I am sure you could work out for yourself! They are simply saved brush presets, so they could be say -15 clarity, along with +10 shadows and -10 highlights. Why not do what I do, when you find a brush combination that works for what you are doing, simply save it as a preset. I'm sure you will soon find that you only need to use one or two different presets for most of your work. It strikes me that this is a nice way to make a few bucks off of those who don't actually realise what he is selling.

It's the same with many of the LR presets that you see for sale. There is nothing magical about them, find settings that work for you, save them as a preset and off you go. Saveing presets for anything in LR is easy, be that develop settings, local brushes, export or even printing, where you see the + sign on the sidebar just click to save the current settings as a new preset. That's all this guy is doing.

Alan

Search for posts in this area from nathancarter. If you want to do retouching in LR, then you want to study his workflow carefully, where he has described it.

kirk

+1 to Alan's post. There aren't a large number of adjustments that can be applied to the local brushes so it wouldn't take long to sit down and play around with them to see what they do (and save the ones you like as your own brush presets).

kirkt wrote in post #18001816
Search for posts in this area from nathancarter. If you want to do retouching in LR, then you want to study his workflow carefully, where he has described it.

kirk

That's quite the compliment, thanks Kirk. All my LR retouches are in the "Post your RAW conversions" thread. I'm due to post a new one, I've done some more fun photos lately.

I only have a handful of adjustment brush types that are worth making a preset for.
[note to self, I'll try to update this post with specifics next time I'm in front of Lightroom]
[note 2: Updated with preset details marked with five dashes, below ------]


- Skin soften. Lightroom comes with this one but it's too much! Back it down halfway, to -50 clarity and +12 sharpening, and save over the original. -100 clarity will turn skin to 80's Glamour Shots.
--- On some subjects, I'll adjust it down even more, depending on the size of the subject (number of pixels they occupy), and their original skin quality. And, if -50 isn't enough (very rare), you can increase it by doing another round of the brush in problem areas, or just moving the slider off the preset.

- Skin brighten. This is essentially "Skin soften" plus a little bit of dodge in the exposure and shadows, and a little saturation adjustment (decrease, I think). This is for fixing shadow areas, most notably undereye dark circles and other moderately dark blotches on skin.
--- It's important to use a low-flow medium-feather brush here and work slowly. Definitely don't work faster than your computer can render the results. And, look away every now and then, don't get subject fixation.
----- +0.60 Exposure, +40 Shadows, -40 Clarity, -5 Saturation.

- Skin darken. This is essentially "Skin soften" plus a little bit of burn in the exposure and highlights, and saturation increase. I use this for sculpting a soft jawline into a well-defined jawline, adding definition to the sides of the nose, and toning down any hotspots on cheeks and forehead, etc. Again, it's important to use a low flow, medium feather, and work slowly.
----- -0.40 Exposure, -40 Highlights, -40 Clarity, +5 Saturation

- Sunburn/redness fix. This is a more complex one: It reduces clarity, lifts exposure and shadows, decreases saturation, and adds a little bit of green-yellow color. The result, when used sparingly, will reduce redness and ruddiness and replace with a bright and creamy skin tone.
--- I have two versions of this preset, the second one is a "Heavy" version for very severe redness. Usually the milder one is plenty.
----- Mild version: -5 Tint, +0.50 Exposure, +35 Shadows, -30 Saturation, Color H55 S25.
----- Heavy version: +26 Temp, +31 Tint, -25 Highlights, +20 Shadows, -30 Clarity, -75 Saturation, Color H59 S33 [note, this will need fine-tuning per individual skin tone]
Example: https://www.flickr.com …/album-72157628340181079/

- Tattoo enhance. I've posted a screenshot of this one before, somewhere around here. If I recall correctly, it greatly increases contrast and saturation, and decreases vibrance. The result is that the blacks and colors of the tattoo are enhanced, while the surrounding skin tone is not heavily affected. You don't have to be super precise with it, which is nice.
----- +25 Contrast, +50 Clarity, +25 Saturation. (no Vibrance slider on the adjustment brush)
Example: https://www.flickr.com …/album-72157628340181079/

- Hair boost. Can't remember what's in this one. Increased Clarity, Contrast, Highlights, and Saturation, I think. Gives hair a little more pop. Generally doesn't have to be super precise, just use a high-flow brush and go over all the hair.
--- A nice trick with hair is to "color outside the lines" then turn the brush to Erase mode with Auto Mask on, and erase from all the surrounding area - that'll leave the brush adjustment intact on the hair.
----- +20 Contrast, +50 Highlights, +10 Clarity, +20 Saturation

- Hair boost Red - this one gives a nice boost to red hair that's fading or doesn't quite have enough POP. Also changes dark blonde to strawberry blonde with a little further tweaking.
----- +0.10 Exposure, +20 Contrast, +50 Highlights, +10 Shadows, +10 Clarity, +20 Saturation, Color H25 S25.

- Hair color change - you can fool around with the color adjustment box to make it whatever color you like, for instance, change blonde hair to auburn-red. Sometimes I'll use this one to fix up a fading color treatment. Needs fine-tuning based on individual subject and desired results.
----- -1.00 Exposure, +75 Contrast, +40 Highlights, Color H8 S75
Example before: https://www.flickr.com …/album-72157646797134710/
Example after: https://www.flickr.com …/album-72157646797134710/

- Hair boost smoothing. I use this one pretty infrequently, but it's good for hair that looks overprocessed (salon processing, not photo processing) or "crispy."
----- +20 Contrast, +70 Highlights, -30 Clarity, +20 Saturation

- Iris Glow (yellow) - don't go throwing this one on every photo, but paint it gently onto the irises to give glowing yellow special-effects eyes. Needs tweaking based on lighting and individual eye color.
----- +3.00 Exposure, -40 Clarity, +10 Saturation, Color H60 S65
Example: https://www.flickr.com …/album-72157656644895244/

I also use the included "Teeth whitening" preset, it's surprisingly good, and works nicely on the whites of eyes as well.

That's all the brush presets I can think of for now.

None of them are one-click fixes, it takes a little practice of course, but hopefully my posts in the "Raw conversions" thread will give you pointed in the right direction.