Hey Todd, I recently came across your channel while looking for backing up using the iPhone while traveling, it was very helpful. Using Photoshop for contrast is excellent. I'll be checking out more of what's on your channel. Thanks for the informative videos.
What I like about your videos and channel besides excellent information and well done videos?.... :-) you don't use "CLICK-BAIT" TITLES.... like.... "What Pros know that amateurs don't!"... "Ten things to do to be a Pro!" I find it rather condescending.
Todd, well done! Very important lesson on contrast! I think that the contrast slider is used way too much in a global fashion as well. "Blend if" is the game changer for me. I don't know of any other editing programs that have this. I think luminosity masks are great. However, I believe it is important to be able to protect a specific tonal range with it and feather it off for a smooth transition. I just started diving into PS. I don't think I can go back. Thank you for this video! Yes, and TK9 rocks!
Hi Todd, once again I want to than you for the videos you put out. I knew most of the things you mentioned here and also use TK's product. But your teaching is very good and enjoyable. It is always refreshing to find photographers like you who not only have awesome work but know how to teach! looking forward to receiving my copy of "Keeler" Thank you again! Be well!
Cool to get all these different possibilities of adding contrast demonstrated. I think the most important bit to take away is that every picture may need a different technique.
This is just unbelievable. As a beginner bird photographer, I never knew what is missing on my pictures (of course as a beginner, probably a lot of stuff, but as far as the overall feeling after editing it). I always had that same problem, I wanted my picture to be a little bit more light, a little bit more contrasty, but I always lost the highlights. You perfectly explained the problem with the contarst/dehaze tools. Sometimes the oversaturation is okay, I can turn it down in the saturation or vibrance modul, bur tha too dark shadows and the too light highlitses were the real problem. I watched some great photographers, but I never learned the aswer to what was missing, my pictures looked okay, but a little bit dull, not vivid enough. And here we are. I didnt even reached the end of your video, I tried the lights/darks at the tone curve panel with some of my previous pictures, and the difference is mindblowing. After that, you were actally the first person who made me understand tone curves (granted, I didnt put much exploration in it, it was scary). Which is - I understand now - the refined version of the shadow/dark/light/highlights. Thanks so much! Subscribed of course.
Your lucid videos have certainly added some much needed method as an antidote to going from slider to slider, to curves and then God knows where... A much earlier video of yours on your sequential approach to editing was also very helpful. Thank you!
Good video. I have used TK actions for years. As you say, can’t live without it. I also use the midtone selection and curves to target midtone contrast.
Truly brilliant! This was so fascinating and informative, and there's a lot to unpack here. I'll no doubt rewatch this numerous times. One additional thing I'd love to see is what you'll continue to do with this particular image, now that you've created your baseline. By the way, I'm an amateur who loves working in B&W landscapes. Cheers!
Great video on the myriad of ways to adjust contrast! Definitely picked up a few things and liked to see how you were using blend modes, might need to play more with he Soft Light option when working in PS! Thanks!
Thanks a lot for all this explanation... Until 3 days before, i always used the white and shadow... Now i'm using the curve and the results change dramatically. THANKS again for sharing your passion and all these valuable information !!! If you come once in switzerland, don't hesitate to contact me for breathtaking landscape ;-)
Excellent video. I generally keep the contrast slider at zero but it can help with images that have an abundance of midtones equally spread about the center point of the histogram. Also the new refine saturation slider on the curve in Lightroom helps prevent saturation badness when making adjuatments. I don't think that has come to curves in PS yet though, unfortunately.
Why wouldn't you use the Luminance Range mask in ACR/Lightroom instead of your Photoshop plugin to add mid-tone contrast? You get way more control over the gradient & avoid baking down the raw image; I'd much prefer keeping the ACR edits live & having more control vs gaining access to those black-box blend modes.
I absolutely agree with trying the Luminance Range mask in Lightroom. But I would recommend learning Blend Modes in Photoshop. Once wrapping your mind around the 5 or 6 most important ones, things get easier.😀
Excellent video showing refinement in Photoshop. Nothing against Photoshop, but wondering if we could do almost the same in Lightroom Classic my making a luminance range mask on the mid tones, apply clarity, and it you get a color shift, reduce saturation?
Hi Todd, I was one of the lucky few to put in an order for your Zine.....now wondering when they will ship out? Thanks for your excellent videos....always enjoy watching them. All the best Marc Soracco
First I would use a linear profile before anything else. It will balance out the harshness of the highlights and shadows. Then I would TRY the Auto button to see how Lightroom would edit the photo. Many times that gets me to a good starting point. If not then I’ll undo the auto and start with my whites/blacks/highlights/shadow. If anything I’d LOWER the contrast slider a bit.
One thing to remember when applying global contrast like the Contrast slider or the tone/parametric curves, is what I call "conservation of contrast". I.e. there's a fixed amount of global contrast that can be added to an image, and in order to add contrast to one tonal range, you must by necessity remove contrast from other tonal ranges. It's easiest to understand this by looking at a tone curve, where contrast at a particular tonal value is represented by the slope of the curve. If you apply an S-curve to increase the contrast in the midtones (i.e. steeper slope in the midtone area of the curve), it automatically decreases the contrast (i.e. shallower slope) in the shadows and highlights.
Want more contrast? Just push the Whites slider to the right and the Blacks silder to the left (hold down the alt key while doint this to avoid going too far).
Great content and advice for a topic I sometimes struggle with quite a bit. Thank you!! I can't understand why LrC doesn't restrict the contrast slider to the luminosity channel after all these years. This would avoid the uncontrolled increase in saturation.
This is the reason why Lightroom introduced a Slider underneath the Tone Curve a few months ago to fine-tune the Saturation applied with Contrast. With that slider you can decrease the added Saturation to zero.
Interesting and informative lesson. I know the topic well, we more or less use the same approach. (TK are also part of my workflow) Your way of proceeding is interesting, reviewing some steps and details always helps to do the simplest things better:-) Thanks for your contributions!!
