If I could download this video into my head I would. This has been hands down one of the most informative and educational/helpful videos on color I have ever seen. You have a very unique talent for teaching, it’s spectacular. I wish there was a second like button because I went back to the video a second time to like it and realized I already had.
I've been using Lightroom since it's inception, and this is one of the best videos I've come across. I'm a retired civilian army, photographer, and I really enjoyed this video. You can teach an old dog new tricks.
These are excellent tips, Todd. Thank you so much. I almost NEVER use Saturation in my photos and use Vibrance instead, because as you pointed out, when you use Saturation it applies it to EVERYTHING regardless of whether it's already saturated or not, but when you use Vibrance, it only applies it to the dull parts of the image. Love the tip especially about bending the colours together. Keep up the great work Todd.
I just got into Lightroom for like half a year and this has been the best video I have watched so far! This helped me so much with editing my trips to Madeira and Malta
Hi Todd, I have watched dozen of videos full editing tips, yours however was easy to learn easy to remember and very helpfull. You have a great way of explaining! It reignited my interest into going through my older pictures and editing them with your tips
This is one of the most informative video related to photo editing I've been watching so far. It is not really about Lightroom. I believed that it is software agnostic knowledge about colors in general. 1) Content. Wow. I've learned so much. I'm a hobbyist, but after that video I've realized that I know nothing about colors. I would like to "print" that video and put it on the wall next to my desk. The bad thing is that now I would like to re-edit hundreds of photos I was editing "mechanically" ;-) 2) Video quality wise, it is almost perfect, audio/voice, edit - top quality. Camera was missing a focus a few times but it does not matter at all - content always wins! 3) I'm finding the video really unique in the on YT. I was able to find your channel just last week. I need invest some time and explore your past videos! Thank you very much Todd. Please continue. I'm more that sure that it will be appreciated and I hope that YT platform is and will work for you.
Amazing explanation of every aspect, it was one of the best I saw in terms of merging the technicalities with the artistic side of photography. Thank you.
Thank you, this is an excellent tutorial. I have watched a fair number videos on colour, a few have been really useful but this definitely tops them. The negative luminance tip is great, I have often struggled to achieve a natural green in flora which I am happy with.
One of your best tip videos Todd and an excellent mini guide to adjusting and refining color! You also addressed using camera matching profiles which makes a big difference and hardly anyone addresses this critical first step in the edit process. Thanks Todd for an excellent tips and info. One question, I often try to use the free Linear Camera Profiles from Tony Kuyper to get try and get a good starting point; however, most of the time I don’t like the results. Have you used linear profiles and do you have any thoughts on using them?
I thought I was pretty proficient in Lightroom but there were things I learned here, very clearly explained without rushing. One thing from the start about colour settings, I couldn’t find the camera settings option although there were lots of effects options. However the camera setting was in the Preferences route so I was able to load my different camera bodies instead of Adobe which is great, so thank you.
Very useful info, thanks. I've been trying to get my head around colour grading for a while and generally finding that I don't know what I'm doing, although I did figure out the colour opposites affecting the colours as you mentioned, so I got that right. The calibration looks more instinctive to me so I'll be experimenting with that. Thanks again.
Are you kidding me! 😂 This deserves infinite views and likes, it’s actually laughable how impactful and helpful this video is, not to mention your god given talent and passion for teaching this art form, this should probably be taken down if I’m honest because you just completely levelled the playing field. Where were you 12 years ago when I was starting! 😅
Super friendly & engaging video, thanks! A couple comments: when you recommend editing in b&w w/o color, you click the BW button, but that changes the color profile to Adobe Monochrome, which has a TOTALLY DIFFERENT tonal map-so edits you make there will make no sense tonally when you switch back to the camera matching profile. Instead, you should just set the desaturation to -100, make your edits, & then set Sat back to 0. Next, the calibration panel (formerly Camera Calibration) is there as a stopgap in case there are no camera matching profiles, like with unsupported cameras or jpegs w/o metadata. If there is a camera matching profile, choose that & your image is correctly calibrated, & all you're doing by messing w/those sliders is breaking the profile. Of course there's lots of ways to skin a cat & you can get something nice looking by randomly moving sliders all around-but imho folks would be better using the Color Mixer / Temp/Tent / Color Grading / Color Curve tools, since that's what they're meant for ... & using tools in ways they aren't intended to be used can bite you; the calibration tool, for example, is excluded when using masks. Also, when you warn peeps against using the global saturation slider, that's essentially what the calibration Sat sliders are, so mixed messages there.
I use the camera calibration sliders a lot, Once I understood how they work... I don't touch the global saturation/vibrance any more as I feel they aren't needed... If I need to fine tune a color I'll use the HSL panel to do that works great. Each image I dial up something different as no 2 images are the same... I don't go over board, I start with Green, then Red, and Blue... Just a little plus the tone curve to add or subtract contrast...Don't use the global contrast slider anymore either... Tone curve is more powerful way to control contrast along with the brightness slider can really make things punch as much as I want depending on the image.
Straight out of camera looks better. Fuller colours, warm, while maintaining the broader range of dark red to bright in the hair. Would it make a difference to change colour profile in C1? Also, youve proved that the repputation sony has of an awful greenish skin tones tint is only an issue if you use LR, and not a hardware issue.
I LOVE your editing videos. One of the best I’ve found out of watching hundreds over the years. Love the tip about bending the colors together. Thank you!
Todd, what a great video! Agree, colour is one of the hardest things to come to grips with in RAW editing, and you have just made it a good bit easier. Thank you.
Without a doubt the most useful video I have watched on color science. I have been taking and editing photos for about 3 years and have watched dozens, probably hundreds of videos on color correction in Lightroom and have yet to find anything 1/10th as valuable as this. Thanks for the very thorough tutorial!
Has anyone told you you’re an amazing teacher? That’s a college course on color in less than 30 minutes……. I will be watching this many more times! Thanks so much for sharing.
Those were some hell of a lot of very good tips sir! Despite editing in LR since around 2009, this might have changed the way I work with color editing a whole lot. So: Thank you very much!
Excellent video. I personally prefer editing photos on a white background, because I find judging colours, tones and especially brightness much easier. Most of my images end up being presented surrounded by white. Lightroom and other editing software allows you to easily set your own background colour.
Exceptionally well done, Todd. I thought I had a pretty good handle on color editing before watching your tutorial, and I'm glad to say I was wrong. There are any number of gems in your presentation that I'm anxious to put into practice. Kudos too for your teaching skills, especially your gift for making the complex simple and easy to grasp. Can't wait to see what you'll be doing as AI infiltrates more and more of the photo editing realm. Slainte !
That being said though, just because those AI features are there in that program, that doesn't necessarily mean you need to take advantage of them. If you find that you would be better served, by editing the normal way without using AI, well then do it. Just don't touch those features. Adobe isn't necessarily putting a gun to your head (so to speak) and saying you HAVE to use those AI features. And for the record, I HATE AI for the most part, so I'm not going to use it. It's like the Beta that came out for Photoshop for Generative AI. People are going to say 'oh but it will have its uses', but from what I've seen so far, it's taking away the creative thought that you as the photographer would need to make, so I'm never going to touch it even if it's there.
Todd, love the videos, but one quick question. I shoot with a Z6ii and Z8. If I set Lightroom up to go off default camera profile, will it recognize the difference between the two bodies and apply to each RAW file independently?
Hey Todd, I rarely comment on RU-vid and tutorial in general but I’ve been doing photography for two years and have watched hundreds of videos on the subject. I’ve experimented with all these options in Lightroom, but the way you explain them really stands out. It’s better than TikTokers who just repeat what they’ve seen without truly understanding it, and it’s less technical than some overly complex tutorials. You’ve helped me see these options in a new light, and I’m sure it will improve my editing in Lightroom. Thanks!
I switched to linear profiles and not switching back! I used them with my EOS R and now with my R5….it’s completely changed how I edit in Lightroom! Put the linear profile on and click Auto to get my starting point! Saves so much time! I’ll be doing a basic video on them soon!
This video along with 10 Step RAW Photo Processing / Where to Start, What To Do Next, Where to Finish, are very helpful. Sometimes I think that if you master the techniques well, plugins or programs related to luminosity and chromance are not necessary. Particularly sometimes I start from a neutral profile and Adobe's is better than Canon's neutral profile in my opinion.👍👍
You are the first one to explain the difference between saturation and vibrance. And i watched a LOT of videos. It gets overlooked very often. Thanks for that! :)
I've been struggling with color in Lightroom for so, so, so long. I would use presets and still the photos never came out the way I wanted them. This video literally opened my eyes and even without presets the photos are the way I want them! Thank you!!!
I have to admit, this video has added more ways to edit my images in ways I never knew. The tip to switch to b/w and adjust tones before going back to colors is something I will start adding to my workflow... Thanks Todd!!!
I've been a Nikon & Lr user now for a few years > only very recently switched to Fujifilm. Just watching this video and have found it extremely useful and it has altered the way I edit .... thank you
Could anyone comment on why my LR panel would have "Auto" B&W" and "HDR" as the options instead of "Color" and "Black & White" like his screen does (and it seems everyone else's)?? I can switch to black and white to edit, but then get messed up getting back to my color view. Thank you for any insight!
Very useful and instructive. Especially liked the bit on how to use tone curves. Am posting a link to your video on my Quora space titled Photography - tools, tricks, tips, apps. gear, since it's the best post-processing guidance I've yet seen.
Great content! I hope someday LrC will add Curves with the Lab colour model like in Affinity where it switches momentarily to Lab for the adjustment... Lab is so much more powerful when it comes to luminance adjustments
Todd this video was absolutely AWESOME! I've taken college courses, watched videos, and mindless hours editing trying to really get a grasp of LRC but this summed up things I've been trying to do for years. Thanks a ton for the short but balanced video, and I'm sure I'll be back on here when I forget how it all works. 10/10
Really good tutorial, calm and really understandable! loved the part about reducing the complexity of color to help the viewer focus on the subject! Thank you! :)
for the midnight shot in Iceland, what did you set your camera white balance to, so that your camera didn’t try to correct it in your original raw file?
Only just found this. It’s brilliant. Been using the black and white tip all day and it works! Downside is that I now want to re-edit my whole catalogue 😂
4:35 But why do you think that colors should not influence decisions on the lightness/contrasts of the whole photo? Yellow looks best in light areas, cold colors are deeper in shadow areas. Not to say that the black and white photos naturally tend to be more contrasty.
Great vid, as usual. Validates what I have learned on my own, but wish I knew years ago. This style of editing is why I left Adobe and now use Capture One. Thanks Todd.
