Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Although Curves have been in Lightroom for a while now, Lightroom 4 is the first
version that lets you adjust the individual Red, Green, and Blue channels (just like
Photoshop does), which can come in really handy for things like fixing sticky white
balance problems by adjusting an individual color channel, or for creating cross
processing effects (which are very popular in fashion and fine art photography).
Here's how to do both:
Step One:
You choose which RGB color channel you
want to adjust by going to the Tone Curve
panel, and then choosing the individual
color channel from the Channel pop-up
menu (as shown here, where I'm choosing
the Blue channel to help me remove a
color cast from the background and her
skin—the background is supposed to be
solid gray, and her skin isn't supposed to
be “bluish”). So, now that you have just
the Blue channel selected, notice that the
Curve readout is tinted blue, as well, to give
you a visual cue that you're adjusting just
this one channel.
Step Two:
So, how do you know which part of the
curve to adjust to remove this blue tint
problem? Well, Lightroom can actually tell
you exactly which part to adjust. Get the
TAT (Targeted Adjustment tool) f from the
top-left corner of the panel and then move
it over the area you want to affect (in this
case, the gray background), and you'll see
a point appear on the curve as you move
your cursor. Just click once while you're
over the background and it adds a point to
the curve that corresponds to the area you
want to adjust. Take that new curve point
and drag at a 45° angle down toward the
bottom-right corner and it removes the
blue from the background (as seen here).
Of course, since you have the TAT, you
can use it, instead—click it directly on the
background and drag your cursor down-
ward, and it edits that part of the curve
for you.
