Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
When Adobe was developing the Clarity control, they had actually considered
calling the slider “Punch,” because it adds midtone contrast to your photo, which
makes it look, well…more punchy. It's great for bringing out detail and texture, and
now in Lightroom 4, you can use a lot more Clarity than you could in the past.
If you used a lot before, you'd often get little dark halos around edge areas,
but now you can crank it up, bringing in detail galore, without the ugly halos.
Plus, the Clarity effect just plain looks better in Lightroom 4, too!
Step One:
Here's the original photo, without any
Clarity applied. This image is a perfect
candidate for a lot of Clarity, because it
works best on things that have a lot of
texture and detail, and this image, with lots
of rocks, sand, and a mountain bike, is just
begging for some Clarity. I apply between
+25 and +50 Clarity to nearly every photo
I process. For cityscapes, landscape photos,
and anything with lots of detail, I crank it
up even more. The only photos I don't add
Clarity to are ones you wouldn't want to
be punchy, or ones where you don't want
to accentuate the detail or texture (so, for
a portrait of a mother and baby, or a close-
up portrait of a woman, I don't add any
Clarity at all).
Step Two:
To add more punch and midtone contrast
to our image here, drag the Clarity slider
quite a bit to the right (here, I dragged it
to +80, which is higher than I could usu-
ally get away with back in Lightroom 3.
But, like I said up top, you can get away
with a lot more here in Lightroom 4). You
can really see the effect of Clarity in the
example here. Look at the sky and the
added detail in the clouds, then look at
the ground, his bike, and his clothes—the
detail is pumped up in all those areas.
Note:
The improved Clarity slider in
Lightroom 4 does have one side effect
(which I happen to like) and that is that it
tends to brighten the areas it affects a bit,
as well as just enhancing the detail.
