Controlling Selective Color Changes in Lightroom

In this episode of The Complete Picture, Julieanne demonstrates how to use Hue, Saturation, Luminance and the Adjustment Brush to selectively control color in Lighroom. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop.

(dramatic music)

- Hi, and welcome.

My name's Julieanne Kost

and on today's episode
of The Complete Picture,

we're gonna take a look at how you

can make some selective color
adjustments using Lightroom.

Now, I think we probably all know

that you can make more global adjustments

using things like the
Temperature or the Tint sliders

and certainly in the Basic
panel we can come down

under presence and change
Vibrance and Saturation

but that's gonna change all of

the colors in the image at one time.

So if we wanna have a
little bit more control

we need to take a look
at the Hue, Saturation,

and Luminance area of Lightroom.

Now, let's just start with the Saturation.

If I simply wanted to
de-saturate this entire image

I could use, for example, the V key

if I wanted to go all the
way to black and white.

But I actually want to
leave the image in color

'cause that's gonna enable
me to do a few more things.

So I'll just take down the saturation

by clicking here on each
one of the color sliders.

So, obviously if I did this often

what I'd wanna do is I'd wanna go ahead

and create a preset for that and, in fact,

there's a preset that you can download

from my blog if you want to,

that simply de-saturates everything.

But it's really easy,
you would just set all

of the sliders up if you
wanna create your own

and then click on the plus icon

and save out the saturation
color adjustments right here.

And save that as your preset.

Alright, so that's one way
to de-saturate an image

but obviously because I can go into

each one of these color ranges
I have a lot more control.

So say, for example, I
might not want to have

this top red area as
de-saturated as it is right now.

Well, if we grab the
targeted adjustment tool

by clicking on it and then click

in that color that we want to manipulate,

if we drag up it would
increase the saturation

and if we click and drag down,
it decreases the saturation.

So it might be a little
confusing because when you click,

Lightroom hides the cursor
but I'm actually clicking

and dragging up and you can see

the sliders going to the right.

If I click and drag down the
sliders move to the left.

And you'll also notice that
it's not just the red slider

that's moving because where
I clicked in this image

that color is made up
of both red and orange

so Lightroom goes ahead and moves both

the red and orange slider
in the correct relationship

to how much color is underneath
the point where I clicked.

So we can go ahead and do that
for this blue area, as well.

Again, clicking and dragging
up would add saturation,

click and drag down to
decrease the saturation.

So it's kind of an easy
way to balance things out.

Then I could also go under
the Hue, for example,

if I wanted to change the color.

Maybe I don't quite like
that blue so, again,

clicking and dragging up
in that area will shift

the blues and in this case
a little bit of the aqua

more towards the purple colors.

Clicking and dragging down would

bring them back towards the aqua.

So, again, all I'm
trying to do is just get

two colors that match a
little bit better here.

Alright, now you might also
wanna take this one step further

and go and select your adjustment brush.

Because I do have a lot
of blue that's reflecting

up here in this giant container.

And so what I'll do is I'll
grab my adjustment brush

and just bring down the saturation here.

And we can go ahead and bring it down

to -100 and now you can
see when I paint in here

I can selectively change the color here

because I'm just painting out 100%.

If you tap the A key, that
would give you the auto-mask

right down here, that toggles it on.

So we don't have to be quite as careful

where I paint because
Lightroom's gonna see the line

between this container here
and the little building

and it won't jump over to
de-saturate that orange color.

Alright, let's move to the
next image for one moment

'cause I also wanna show maybe

a little bit of a different use of this.

Now I will start here with the Basic panel

because I do want to change
the overall color balance.

So, again, that's a global
change so in that case,

I would go ahead and use my
Temperature or my Tint slider.

I just want that background
a little bit more blue.

Now, what if we wanted to match
the bicycle with the door?

Well, then I need to
scoot down again to HSL.

And, by the way, HSL and
Color, these two options...

The functionality is almost identical.

Let me just show you the difference.

The main difference is that HSL,

the Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity area

that has the targeted
adjustment tool which

I use all the time
instead of trying to guess

what color this is, you
know, is it more orange

or does it have more yellow or red in it?

I'll use the targeted adjustment

tool to make my adjustments.

If we scoot over to the Color area,

we don't have that
targeted adjustment tool.

And the reason that we
have them both though

is they're just a different
way of accessing color.

See, when I'm in HSL
I've got Hue, Saturation,

and Luminosity so I can
click on any of these

and then I get all of the
different color ranges.

When we scoot over to
color, basically I can click

on any color and then quickly access

Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity.

So it's just a different
way of laying it out.

If you click on HSL and then
you actually click on All

we can see HSL, Hue,
Saturation, and Luminosity

for each color range so that
might be an option as well.

When I'm on a smaller monitor though,

I like to pick just Hue,
Saturation or Luminosity.

Okay, so if I want to make the bike

and the door the same color, again,

I'll pick up my targeted adjustment tool

and I'll be sure that I've
got my option here set to Hue

and then you can click
and drag on that orange

and you'll notice that by
clicking and dragging up,

I'm shifting those reds and oranges

more towards the yellow hues.

Now that's a little bit too
far so I'm gonna back off.

I'm also going to
de-saturate that a little.

So I'll click and just drag
down a little on my saturation.

Then I'll go back to Hue
and I'm gonna pick up

on the yellow door and I'm gonna go ahead

and start dragging that
down to bring those values,

the orange and yellow,

closer to the orange value in the bike.

So you can see, you can
make a lot of color changes.

And if you think about it,

we could actually take
this to black and white

as well and use the Black
& White options to change

the color ranges, how that
converts to black and white.

But now I wanna keep this in color

and I just wanna show you one other way

because you might be thinking,

"Well, maybe you didn't
wanna bring those two colors

"closer together, maybe you wanted to have

"the bike change to a different color."

You'll notice that when I click
and drag to change the hue,

we really can't get a green bicycle.

If you wanted to do that, then we need

to switch over to our adjustment brush.

I'm gonna bring the
saturation all the way down.

So I'm actually removing the saturation.

And then I'm going to click in
this color swatch right here,

and we can go ahead
and pick a green color.

So now when we paint, and I'll just get

a little bit smaller
of a paint brush here,

you can see that what's happening is

I've got auto-mask turned on
so Lightroom is automatically

creating a mask so that I don't
go over into the blue area.

And the adjustment brush
is basically taking out

all of the saturation wherever I paint

and then overlaying the
green color that I selected.

And if I paint too far all I need

to do is hold down the Option key

and then we can go ahead and back that out

'cause I didn't mean to
paint that in the tire there.

And then, again, I can get a smaller brush

just using the left bracket key

and go in and refine this and
make any other adjustments.

Again, I went a little
too far there so, again,

hold down the option key
and just paint that out.

What the Option key or
the Alt Key on Windows

does is it basically just changes

from your brush to the eraser tool.

So that's a way that you would go in

and actually hand color an image.

Just remember, if you are going

to hand color an image
don't take it to grayscale,

don't tap the V key and go to grayscale,

use the Hue, Saturation, and
Luminosity area down here

and just remove all of the saturation.

Otherwise you're not going to
be able to paint in the image

because you told Lightroom
to take it to grayscale.

So, using a combination of
Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity

as well as the adjustment
brush should allow you

to make all of the selective color changes

that you need in Lightroom.

My name's Julieanne Kost,
thanks for watching.

(dramatic music)