Selective Edits without Selecting

You guys know that I hate selecting parts of my images in Photoshop.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s the magnetic lasso, the Magic Selection Tool, or anything else.  I just don’t like it. So much so, that I’m developing a Miraculous Selection Assistant Action.  More on that later.

One of my favorite Lightroom features is the Adjustment Brush. This tool lets you “paint in” the following edits to various parts of your image.

You can use any combination and amount of adjustments, and Lightroom even has a built-in Soft Skin preset that uses Clarity and Sharpness to smooth out skin.  You can also find downloadable presets to whiten teeth, brighten eyes, etc.

Using this Adjustment Brush is similar to using an adjustment layer with a mask in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, with the exception of the Auto-Mask feature.  With the Lightroom Auto-Mask feature enabled, it does an admirable job of reading the edges of the section that you’re painting and keeping the adjustment from bleeding into the surrounding areas.

The first brush stroke you make with the Adjustment Brush in a given area will place a “pin”.  You will need at least one pin for each different type of adjustment you make.  Change the type or amount of any adjustment by clicking on the pin to activate it.

Here is my basic workflow for using the Adjustment Brush:

• Select the Adjustment Brush and the type of edit I want to make
• Choose an exaggerated amount of adjustment to apply in order to easily see your changes.  I tone down the adjustment after painting.
• Paint.
• Hover over the pin with my mouse to enable the mask overlay and look for missed spots.
• Fine tune adjustment levels.
• Add new sections of adjustments if necessary.

This image shows adjustment pins with the mask overlay displayed.  The pin over the right eye is activated for editing, and the pin over the left eye is inactive.  At this point, I would probably increase the clarity and sharpness sliders, plus a add a little brightness or exposure and maybe a tiny bit of saturation.

Here are some Lightroom Adjustment Brush Tips:

• Keep the Auto-Mask box checked in nearly all cases.  This feature uses color to distinguish one area from the next, so it won’t work if you don’t have some color contrast in a given area.  It works great on eyes!
• Like Photoshop and PSE, use [ to decrease the adjustment brush size and ] to increase it.
• You can also use your mouse’s scroll wheel to adjust the brush size.
• Holding down shift while pressing [ or ] adjusts the feathering amount around your selecting to create hard or soft edges.
• Press O (the letter) to toggle the mask overlay on or off to make sure you didn’t miss any spots.
• After completing a section, press enter to record it and add a new one.
• Press shift while painting to paint in straight lines.
• Using the color adjustment, you can use the color selection eyedropper to select a color from your image itself.
• Press the Alt key (option on Mac) to switch your brush to an Eraser if you brush in the wrong place.
• Use the A and B brush presets to configure different sizes or styles of brush.  Especially handy if you need a larger and a smaller brush for the same area.
• Use the saturation brush for quick and easy selective coloring.

The brush on the left has no feathering applied, while the brush on the right has a high amount of feathering.  The space between the two circles is the area where the adjustment will be feathered.

I learned much of this info from two sources.  The first is Scott Kelby’s Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers.  You’ve got to have this if you are learning Lightroom.  The 2nd is this post at Lightroom Killer Tips, which is another great source of info for Lightroom users.

Do you like video tutorials?

The link to the tutorial above from Lightroom Killer Tips is a video tutorial.  I don’t usually watch them, thinking that I read faster than I watch.  However, this was a great tutorial, and I learned a lot.  And, when I read, I quickly skim and have to go back and re-read if the info is important.   So I’m thinking that it didn’t take me much longer to watch the video.  What do you think?   Would you watch video tutorials if I posted them here on Texas Chicks?  Use the poll at the right to vote!