Today’s interesting tutorial from the Lightroom-only Color & Editing Mastery channel encourages you to replace the conventional approach of editing with Curves, with a less- familiar method of employing Lightroom’s Curves panel that many pros prefer. And you can grab a FREE selection of time-saving presets in the description beath the video.
Instructor Maarten Schrader covers a lot of ground in this comprehensive 22-minute lesson, so we recommend taking a few notes for future reference. He begins by describing the many benefits of Lightroom’s Curves tools and how they function for different tasks.
His goal is to discourage you from using the widely-promoted S-Curve to add contrast and enhance other key attributes because “quite often we want the opposite.” Otherwise the results you achieve are likely to appear very generic without a recognizable look of your own.
Shrader insists that every image can be improved with an appropriate curve, especially if your goal is consistent edits from one session to another. By following his advice you’ll be able to achieve professional results, create unique styles, and avoid running your images. And you won’t be limited by presets that restrain your edit to a single style.
For those new to the game, Shrader provides a quick beginner-friendly curves workflow with step-by-step instructions for adjusting various important photo characteristics while avoiding common errors that can potentially kill a shot rather than improving it. And “training your eye” is also part of the game.
As the episode proceeds you’ll gain an appreciation of RGB color curves, learn the best way to refine contrast, and how to put Shrader’s free presets to work. There’s also an important discussion of avoiding common mistakes when copying styles in Lightroom.
And don’t miss a related tutorial we featured yesterday with an esteemed French post-processing expert who demonstrates how to shoot vibrant nature, landscape, and cityscape photographs without taking things too far during post-processing. The goal is a colorful yet realistic result.
