I have said this many times and I will keep saying it. It's astonishing how you are able to pump out high-quality content every week, always great topics and high production value! Great work as always Nigel!
And this - free high-quality content - is the reason why I already bought two books from Nigel. Those are also high-quality. And I want to give something back to Nigel. Thanks for your work!
I use these extensively in wildlife photography. First I expand the black point and white point. Then I use the texture and clarity sliders to sharpen the subject's fur or feathers using Select Subject. Then I duplicate and invert the subject mask and use negative texture and negative clarity to soften and haze the background. Finally I add about -11 vignette to pull the eye to the center subject. Wildlife within a landscape benefits from these local adjustment techniques really well, allowing just enough landscape elements like reeds or grass through to give a sense of place while making the critter the definite focus of interest. I normally shoot 200-600mm wide open for a really shallow depth of field. So, while you'd do the opposite for deep depth of field for landscape photography, the technique works incredibly well with wildlife photography too.
I tend to use Clarity, Texture and Dehaze sliders quite a lot and not really understood what they actually did. You have now explained how they work on an image and I will in future use less of them, only in very small amounts to make very subtle changes to an image. Thanks Nigel, that was a very informative video which will help me go forward in perfecting my processing techniques.
I'm similar in that I've had a subconscious sense of what they do, but not understood the circumstances each is most suited to. Very useful to have this laid out.
I'm curiouse, Grahame, if you liked the outcome, previously, regardless whether you totally understood the behind-the-scenes workings of the tools why would your usage change now? I understand if you're using the tools and end up with an image that doesn't look "right" but even in that case wouldn't you just apply less? I guess I'm confused as to why knowing how it does what it does changes one's perspective. To me that's like saying something akin to "oh, now that the immense complexity of computer operations has been explained I'll change the way I use it".
@@watchdogu.s.a.8973 I agreed with Grahame, so for me knowing what they are targetting has now armed me with the knowledge to get the desired more by skill and judgement, rather than the fiddle fiddle, no, fiddle fiddle hmmm, fiddle fiddle YES! Therefore maybe not use them less, but reduce the excess random jiggling, and leave alone what you know shouldn't work. That's my view anyway.
I agree with Graham too, now looking forward to using the tools with a better understanding of their function and results. Thanks Nigel, more like that format would be great…. noise reduction …… sharpening ? 👍
I remember when I first used Lightroom, and how I thought the Clarity slider was the best thing ever, and pushed it all the way to the right for every single photo I took because to my newbie eyes, the dramatic change was the most amazing thing ever. Obviously I know better now, and I have learned that moderation is the key in using these awesome tools. 😁
Nigel, I've been using Photoshop for about 15 years then 5 years ago I subscribed to the Adobe Photographers plan which also gave me access to Lightroom but I carried on using Photoshop, never using LR until I started watching your LR tutorials when I realised that is more useful to photographers than Photoshop 90% of the time. You have converted me..... thanks.
Thank you for the video. Very informative. Just to add that the dehaze is also very good at helping to reduce the effect of light pollution in astro landscape images.
Like many, I’ve been learning by making elementary mistakes with many sliders in LR, but I’m pleased to say, with your help and others, I’m getting much better. I tend to use global blacks, whites and highlights after any initial levelling/cropping, before getting into the tone curve and then possibly dehaze, texture and contrast. Very interesting to hear how exactly these affect the image and how to intersect brushwork with gradients. Not so easy to get right tho’, keep up the great work, Nigel. You are a must watch every week! 👍
This is the video I had been looking for for a long time. I never understood why the sky was turning into a horrible teal or greenish hue. After watching this it finally makes sense and I am looking forward to experiment with Lightroom again !
Fantastic video. Love the analytical approach. Just a bit of nitpicking: texture and clarity do not act on contrast change (which is in itself already the diference between bright and dark), but brightness change, i.e contrast.
Thank you, Nigel, I feel like I finally understand these tools and how to use them!! This video has been a great help to me going forward in my post processing. 😊
Thank you Nigel for a fantastic video and all the concentrated gems of information. I love your passion and the way you gift your knowledge forward to all of us.
I had a feeling that this week's video was going to be a banger, and--wow--was I right! Easily the most helpful Lightroom tutorial I've seen on UA-cam and some of Nigel's best work.
Thanks Nigel. I always learn so much from your processing videos. You have a great way of taking a technical subject and making it easy to understand. Also I enjoy and learn a lot in your in the field shooting videos. You make them fun to watch and offer a lot of valuable shooting ideas and tip. Thanks for all your hard work in creating these very helpful UA-cam videos.
6 years on...as usual very professional videos being outputted. I actually went back to your first you tube video for fun....you have come along way with your photography and video production. Might be nice to see a video looking back at your old photos and the gear you used to use...and how you have obviously improved your photos in 6 years.
I have to admit, as a Capture One user, I usually give your Lightroom videos a bye ball however this one was particularly insightful - most of it is transferable to other editors and I found it a very worthwhile watch. Thanks Nigel!
Indeed perfect timing, thanks for sharing this information, Nigel! Knowing more about what these 3 Lightroom-sliders exactly do will help me to experiment with knowledge, so it becomes less random fidling around.
Brilliant explanation Nigel. Clear, detailed and great examples. I use the tools similar ways to you, but I have still learn some excellent ideas from your video, thank you.
Great information to share with us all, really helpful. I use MPB and they are fantastic , i made the mistake of using a different online company once and they were a nightmare, but never had a problem with MPB
Hi Nigel. Here's a challenge. Landscapes via a MACRO LENS. All tools are available from Panos to Focus Stacking. From Intimate to grand vistas. My macro lens does not get out of its cabinet ofter enough.
My photos wouldn't be what they are and I wouldn't have the following I have without these settings. Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it gets very hazy and the dehaze helps so much. However... these settings can destroy an image very quickly. I learned that the hard way after exporting images with too much iso. Finding a balance with these is just another part of the Lightroom learning process. Just as well, utilizing the white, black and shadow faders can get similar results. I noticed I use the clarity more (usually no more than 10) when I'm using the 24-200 mm, whereas the 24-120mm I don't use it as much. Then again... I just recently acquired the 24-120mm and haven't had a chance to use it in the spring/summer haze yet.
Thanks for demystifying dehaze, and clarity and texture too. I also finally noticed your mousepad. So, there is such a thing as a “gamer’s mousepad.” Watching Nick Page has inspired me more than once to get out my trackpad and try to learn to love it, but I’m back to the mouse in due course. The jumbo pad solves the one mouse curse, running off the pad before reaching one’s destination.
Thank you, that was a really useful video; I'm definitely going to change the way I use those tools after watching this - I now have a waaayy better idea of how to use them!
This is a fantastic video. I'd figured out that the Clarity tool was a sort of specifically mid range contrast device but I really appreciate your analysis of the dehaze and texture tools. And the way they interact and how to intersect maks etc. Thanks Nigel.
Good talk. I use Dehaze atc for Indoor photos sometimes, and remove glare from windows. I would use it more, but Its not modified by the Auto button, and I am an Auto king of guy, processing 100's of pics at a time. But I need you sitting behind me to say "no thats too much" on all those sliders.
Great explanation, Nigel. I use these tools often, almost always with a local mask. Negative texture is great for removing wrinkles. ;) I keep a list by my monitor to remind me of the ways in which the different Lightroom sliders affects "details" in my image. I list them from largest to smallest "scope": Contrast, Dehaze, Clarity, Texture, Detail (Sharpening). And yes, I agree Dehaze is perfect for finding Sensor dust. ;-)
Hi Nigel, I totally agree with you. Negative Dehaze is the most interesting. But I love playing around with Texture and Clarity in B&W images. I often reduce Clarity and increase Texture or vice versa. I also like to manipulate the midtones towards high or low key, but before I increase Clarity, I try Whites (and Blacks) first.
Completely agree on Dehaze. I typically slide it between -10 and +10, depending on the scene and use it - mostly - for skies and, interestingly, backgrounds for my wildlife shots - negative clarity, dehaze and exposure to wash out the background and separate the bird or animal. Outside those limits the colours go wonky.
Interesting way to think of these sliders. I do use them a lot but usually with masks. One point though is Joe Houghton, Lightroom ambassador, recommends texture for clouds to bring out the finer detail in the best way. It’s worth trying, probably not so much for big grey blocks of clouds but for most other interesting cloudy skies.
Thank you for another excellent vid. I tend to use local adjustements, I don't have a favourite but tend to play around until I see something I like then fine tune it from there. My artistic vision is probably a bit shortsighted but I still have quite a bit to learn.
Very interesting. Thanks! I think I might have understood what you are saying intuitively. But, understanding how these tools work explains why they seem either: to not always work, or to produce effects unexpected.
Thank you for that clear explanation of the three adjustments. I have been using Nik Pro Efex 4 in photoshop particularly the detail extractor and tonal contrast that I brush in. A subtle change can make all the difference like you say. I’m now confident to use the three adjustments in Lightroom to have more control.
Hi Nigel, recently I stumbled across your videos and I have found them very inspiring. I appreciate the balanced mix of technical information and artistic commentary. Cheers from California 😊
This is very helpful. I love masks, especially in the latest upgrade of Lightroom. I’m going to practice bring even more selective and use the color range option more as well. Thank you!
Last year I discovered applying a very aggressive negative clarity (over -90) saved a flat mid-day high contrast fall woodland scene. It turned into a whispy feeling scene and looked amazing. Overall though I tend to do light global adjustments and keep changed for those 3 to localized areas.
Another great,informative video. I know when I first started, I over did these tools. I have a large print of Cliffs of Moher that I almost want to take down and redo because it's so overly processed
Interesting - maybe its Nikon thing but especially on Drone shots the dehaze tool is invaluable. Plus with lightroom now you can easily just select everything but the sky and apply it to the landscape. One of the main reasons I use Lightroom is for the Dehaze tool and it makes a massive difference to landscape shots.
I use texture the most, but do use all 3 …. Clarity I rarely go over 20, and dehaze I rarely go over 10. With texture I sometimes go a bit higher, but agree you need to be subtle when using these tools
To bring out colours in some holiday snaps taken underwater many many years ago, I duplicated the photo as another layer and chose multiply as the blend mode (in Paint Shop Pro - that's how long ago it was!) I haven't bothered testing it out but that seems to be the same sort of behaviour as dehaze.
Thanks Nigel very explanetory video!, I don't use dehaze or texture all that much, (except for the negative dehaze which I also learned through your videos and as you also explained here🙂) Texture, I sometimes apply locally to bigger wildlife if that is in my picture so that for example their fur would pop a bit (but also only if needed), I would never add it to a full image.
I think your last statement was the crux of the whole issue.......a lot of subtle changes (ie - brushing or using other selective masking) can make a big change. Great vid ND.
Hah, I was about to comment that my most common use of dehaze is to find dust spots, but you mentioned the same! I'm not scared of these tools but you're right that a light touch is usually needed
Thanks for the superb explanations and guidance Nigel. I’ve been a long time user of LR (I often exclaim - I love this software) and tweak my editing occasionally based on feedback like yours. I recall learning about the difference between clarity and contrast a long time ago and use clarity often. But I would agree with comments about being careful with the amount of adjustment to apply. And this is definitely the case when using dehaze. I can’t remember exactly when I learned about it’s benefits but I associate it with misty, foggy, distant? and (based on your explanation) skies without much definition. It can definitely create some drama, but can easily be overdone. And it’s treatment of colour can have unusual effects. With dehaze, I’m very careful in how much to apply. Texture is something that you helped explain better for me and something that may help me in deciding when it could be beneficial. I’m thinking your guidance may change a little if you were a portrait photographer (which I am not), but what about urban landscapes? I live in Toronto and take many pictures of city architecture, skylines and street scenes. I’d say my urban style often leans towards harder tones, punchy elements and dramatic skies. So I’m a little more generous with clarity and get happy with dehaze to bring background skies more to life. Finally, thanks for the tips on local adjustment options. I enjoy the ease of selecting skies and occasionally use linear gradients, but I’m new to intersections and rarely use radial gradients. I also get nervous with my brushing and the borders of the selection - but applying larger general areas with softer edge masks is something I’ll try.
Very interesting.... thanks! Maybe in a future video you could do some further comparison between the effect of texture vs. sharpness, when to use which... Greetings, Stephan
These were my favourite tools when I used to use LR. However, they are so powerful that they can become a crutch and make you less aware when taking photos.
This is a perfectly timed video. I'm just about to hit the editing section of your Masterclass I so I'm going to use this as an add on to those lessons.
Very nice discussion. I've been using dehaze for years, in fact, probably 90% of my photos use dehaze, even for non-landscapes. That said, it's a micro-adjustment, going beyond 8 or 10 on the slider is too much. I thought it was a bit weird that almost every photographer on youtube discounted it, and it's probably the name... "dehaze" implies it's only for the purpose of clarifying distant horizons, but that's not the only application it's useful for. In a forest shot, for example, it will add contrast and colour shift in an interesting way, punching up contrast and saturation slightly in the oranges and darkening the green/blue shaded backgrounds. It's a bit like selecting the Adobe Landscape profile, but that's way overkill and dehaze is far more subtle when used sparingly.
The tools I use in Lightroom Classic (LrC). Take this lightly. Well, naked LrC gives me asset management (with rating methods and tagging with keywords), the catalogue that documents per-photo-edits, and the print functions. In that, I always use sidecar files too. These can relay edits to both Adobe and 3rd party plug-ins and can help rebuild a crashed catalogue. On my high performance system (98th SPEC percentile) farther optimised for I/O, the sidecar files are not noticeable in the performance way. The heart of LrC is "empty" and this void is filled by Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) but LrC hides this in its UI - while in Photoshop (Ps) it is very visible. So, taking the question very literally, I could say that ACR is a tool (i) I use in LrC. Here is my dissatisfaction, though with ACR's raw processing. And I hasten to add that a Tuner inspired British landscape will never reveal that. ACR does a rather insufficient job at raw processing in several ways: (1) guessing of missing colours, (2a) dealing with (preventing) jagged edges and (2b) banded gradation. As we use LrC with ACR under a subscription because bottom-line, no matter how bad it is, we still need Ps, then note that the (2b) banding is easily solved by converting your image to 32 bits in Ps. And this turns Ps into a tool (ii) I use in LrC too. As jagged edges come from a sensor grid of square cells, and it is an age old problem, this aliasing is dealt with reasonably well, but this (2b) is also the home of sharpening and detail loss or the prevention thereof. ACR does not do detail retrieval very well and trying to recover from that by sharpening or variants can lead to very unnatural artefacts. When I want to print big, or display at 100%, then I may run my images through a Topaz plug-in. For printing I may go to (iii) Gigapixel AI (GPAI) and upsample an image so as to get the pixel density nearer the DPI. GPAI does a much better job than nondescript LrC print code, printer drivers, Windows, and the printer's print engine together. GPAI's detail retrieval is astonishing - and you would never need that for clouds, rocks, water surfaces, and so on. The primary task of ACR is colour guessing and it does not do a great job here either. So here I use tools from Topaz like Sharpen AI (iv) or DeNoise AI (v). In some cases I may sidestep this suite entirely in order to see how Nikon's NX Studio processes my images. You see, in camera with its SOOC JPEGs and with its movie formats too, Nikon does an excellent job at (1) and (2 a & b). And it happens in the real ;) time of its FPS, even. As it can be awkward to figure out the best way to run my image through the Topaz trinity, I happily use the recently added fourth module Photo AI (vi) that helps sort this out. To be able to do the assessments and plan the three plug-ins, the way I see it, Photo AI uses simplified logic from the three plug-ins and can apply these independently. But that is not as good as taking the image through the separate plug-ins. As to ACR's (1) responsibility, I must say that it can give grainy results in the darker zones (as in zone system of exposure). To me this is failed raw processing - failed (#1) and e.g. DeNoise AI does a better job. DxO PureRAW would do that better too - the PureRAW plug-in's functions are in DxO's LrC competitor "PhotoLab" as well. We have to be fundamentalists here and hold Adobe responsible - grain that's well within the camera's dynamic range is failed raw processing and has nothing to do with the camera or its sensor. The same applies to residual colour noise (also under (1) responsibility). ACR may do a good-enough job regarding details up to A4 size, depending on what is in the image and how recognizable the details are, but not good enough beyond that. To complete the line-up of tools, I also have Negative Lab Pro (vii) that easily converts scanned or photographed negatives. You can do this manually without such a tool, but it is somewhat awkward finicky messing with black and white points and sliders. Negative Lab Pro does it better, faster, consistently. I do have a scanner but the Z 105/2.8S macro lens with slide/negative copying adapter, on the Z 7ii, works a lot faster. Scans can be superior but that would need multipass scans and that's too time consuming in most - almost all - cases.
Fantastic, Nigel, thank you, your explanations are always so easy to understand and follow along the steps ‘how to’, and also explaining the why, and where to use, and what results are. One question, I’ve always wondered and I may have asked you before, does the Lightroom edits ‘overwrite’ the original file, therefore changing it forever, or does it save a copy, so the original file is left unchanged? I think this is why I’ve been afraid to use Lightroom on my images. I seem to stick with photoshop and I can see from this video how much potential I am missing out on, by not using Lightroom. I’m off to have a go, with ‘copies’ of my originals (just in case I mess up!).
Sorry to say, but had good experience with mpb (in germany) a few years ago. This time around, thta is unfortunately no longer the case. Did not stick to offer agreement made, no response whatsoever since a few weeks, although they still have my camera equipement (for which I have better offers elsewhere). Frustrating.
I have said this many times and I will keep saying it. It's astonishing how you are able to pump out high-quality content every week, always great topics and high production value! Great work as always Nigel!
You are both awesome! You guys inspire me with every video.
And this - free high-quality content - is the reason why I already bought two books from Nigel. Those are also high-quality. And I want to give something back to Nigel. Thanks for your work!
Absolutely AGREE
I use these extensively in wildlife photography. First I expand the black point and white point. Then I use the texture and clarity sliders to sharpen the subject's fur or feathers using Select Subject. Then I duplicate and invert the subject mask and use negative texture and negative clarity to soften and haze the background. Finally I add about -11 vignette to pull the eye to the center subject. Wildlife within a landscape benefits from these local adjustment techniques really well, allowing just enough landscape elements like reeds or grass through to give a sense of place while making the critter the definite focus of interest. I normally shoot 200-600mm wide open for a really shallow depth of field. So, while you'd do the opposite for deep depth of field for landscape photography, the technique works incredibly well with wildlife photography too.
I tend to use Clarity, Texture and Dehaze sliders quite a lot and not really understood what they actually did. You have now explained how they work on an image and I will in future use less of them, only in very small amounts to make very subtle changes to an image. Thanks Nigel, that was a very informative video which will help me go forward in perfecting my processing techniques.
I'm similar in that I've had a subconscious sense of what they do, but not understood the circumstances each is most suited to. Very useful to have this laid out.
Was about to write very similar, but then Grahame's was the first comment I saw, so no need!
I'm curiouse, Grahame, if you liked the outcome, previously, regardless whether you totally understood the behind-the-scenes workings of the tools why would your usage change now?
I understand if you're using the tools and end up with an image that doesn't look "right" but even in that case wouldn't you just apply less?
I guess I'm confused as to why knowing how it does what it does changes one's perspective. To me that's like saying something akin to "oh, now that the immense complexity of computer operations has been explained I'll change the way I use it".
@@watchdogu.s.a.8973 I agreed with Grahame, so for me knowing what they are targetting has now armed me with the knowledge to get the desired more by skill and judgement, rather than the fiddle fiddle, no, fiddle fiddle hmmm, fiddle fiddle YES! Therefore maybe not use them less, but reduce the excess random jiggling, and leave alone what you know shouldn't work. That's my view anyway.
I agree with Graham too, now looking forward to using the tools with a better understanding of their function and results. Thanks Nigel, more like that format would be great…. noise reduction …… sharpening ? 👍
I remember when I first used Lightroom, and how I thought the Clarity slider was the best thing ever, and pushed it all the way to the right for every single photo I took because to my newbie eyes, the dramatic change was the most amazing thing ever. Obviously I know better now, and I have learned that moderation is the key in using these awesome tools. 😁
Nigel, I've been using Photoshop for about 15 years then 5 years ago I subscribed to the Adobe Photographers plan which also gave me access to Lightroom but I carried on using Photoshop, never using LR until I started watching your LR tutorials when I realised that is more useful to photographers than Photoshop 90% of the time. You have converted me..... thanks.
Thank you for the video. Very informative. Just to add that the dehaze is also very good at helping to reduce the effect of light pollution in astro landscape images.
Like many, I’ve been learning by making elementary mistakes with many sliders in LR, but I’m pleased to say, with your help and others, I’m getting much better. I tend to use global blacks, whites and highlights after any initial levelling/cropping, before getting into the tone curve and then possibly dehaze, texture and contrast. Very interesting to hear how exactly these affect the image and how to intersect brushwork with gradients. Not so easy to get right tho’, keep up the great work, Nigel. You are a must watch every week! 👍
This is the video I had been looking for for a long time.
I never understood why the sky was turning into a horrible teal or greenish hue.
After watching this it finally makes sense and I am looking forward to experiment with Lightroom again !
Fantastic video. Love the analytical approach. Just a bit of nitpicking: texture and clarity do not act on contrast change (which is in itself already the diference between bright and dark), but brightness change, i.e contrast.
Thank you, Nigel, I feel like I finally understand these tools and how to use them!! This video has been a great help to me going forward in my post processing. 😊
Nigel, these instructional videos are soooo helpful! You really are a great teacher/mentor. Thank you.
Thank you Nigel for a fantastic video and all the concentrated gems of information. I love your passion and the way you gift your knowledge forward to all of us.
Love how you use the test grid to demonstrate how these tools work. Great video
I had a feeling that this week's video was going to be a banger, and--wow--was I right! Easily the most helpful Lightroom tutorial I've seen on UA-cam and some of Nigel's best work.
Phenomenal video Nigel. Glad to see you’re doing so well.
Thanks Nigel. I always learn so much from your processing videos. You have a great way of taking a technical subject and making it easy to understand. Also I enjoy and learn a lot in your in the field shooting videos. You make them fun to watch and offer a lot of valuable shooting ideas and tip. Thanks for all your hard work in creating these very helpful UA-cam videos.
6 years on...as usual very professional videos being outputted. I actually went back to your first you tube video for fun....you have come along way with your photography and video production. Might be nice to see a video looking back at your old photos and the gear you used to use...and how you have obviously improved your photos in 6 years.
I have to admit, as a Capture One user, I usually give your Lightroom videos a bye ball however this one was particularly insightful - most of it is transferable to other editors and I found it a very worthwhile watch. Thanks Nigel!
I love all these tools and have used them. However, you gave me some new applications to try. Thanks Nigel!
Thanks Nigel! Really appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge!!
Will be playing more with these tools. Thanks for the info on how to work them better.
Indeed perfect timing, thanks for sharing this information, Nigel! Knowing more about what these 3 Lightroom-sliders exactly do will help me to experiment with knowledge, so it becomes less random fidling around.
Brilliant explanation Nigel. Clear, detailed and great examples. I use the tools similar ways to you, but I have still learn some excellent ideas from your video, thank you.
Great information to share with us all, really helpful. I use MPB and they are fantastic , i made the mistake of using a different online company once and they were a nightmare, but never had a problem with MPB
Hi Nigel. Here's a challenge. Landscapes via a MACRO LENS. All tools are available from Panos to Focus Stacking. From Intimate to grand vistas. My macro lens does not get out of its cabinet ofter enough.
best Explainer on YT. And even I am straight I am in love in this dialect 🙂regards from Germany
Awesome in-depth explanation. I use these tools all the time and somewhat understood them but never to this level. Great video 👌
Thanks for this very clear, very useful differentiation of the texture, clarity, and dehaze tools. This will help me a great deal!
My photos wouldn't be what they are and I wouldn't have the following I have without these settings. Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it gets very hazy and the dehaze helps so much. However... these settings can destroy an image very quickly. I learned that the hard way after exporting images with too much iso. Finding a balance with these is just another part of the Lightroom learning process. Just as well, utilizing the white, black and shadow faders can get similar results.
I noticed I use the clarity more (usually no more than 10) when I'm using the 24-200 mm, whereas the 24-120mm I don't use it as much. Then again... I just recently acquired the 24-120mm and haven't had a chance to use it in the spring/summer haze yet.
Thanks for demystifying dehaze, and clarity and texture too. I also finally noticed your mousepad. So, there is such a thing as a “gamer’s mousepad.” Watching Nick Page has inspired me more than once to get out my trackpad and try to learn to love it, but I’m back to the mouse in due course. The jumbo pad solves the one mouse curse, running off the pad before reaching one’s destination.
Just a terrific explaination of theses tools! Thanks for doing this. Cheers, Erik
Good video! You can always learn more about Lightroom! Thanks for the great explanations!
Thank you for this Nigel!
Good explanation Nigel and with the masking capabilities in LR, the option to control these adjustments locally is a good option
Thank you, that was a really useful video; I'm definitely going to change the way I use those tools after watching this - I now have a waaayy better idea of how to use them!
This is a fantastic video. I'd figured out that the Clarity tool was a sort of specifically mid range contrast device but I really appreciate your analysis of the dehaze and texture tools. And the way they interact and how to intersect maks etc. Thanks Nigel.
Good talk. I use Dehaze atc for Indoor photos sometimes, and remove glare from windows. I would use it more, but Its not modified by the Auto button, and I am an Auto king of guy, processing 100's of pics at a time. But I need you sitting behind me to say "no thats too much" on all those sliders.
It never occurred to me to brush on the clarity, dehaze or texture edits. Thanks Nigel... always enjoy your instructional videos.
So glad that you emphasize using the tools to make subtle changes and not going crazy with them. Thanks!
Excellent explanation of how these three sliders work and what they affect. Sounds like moderation is the key.
Always great info. I had not thought of brushing in dehaze locally! Thank you.
Great explanation, Nigel. I use these tools often, almost always with a local mask. Negative texture is great for removing wrinkles. ;) I keep a list by my monitor to remind me of the ways in which the different Lightroom sliders affects "details" in my image. I list them from largest to smallest "scope": Contrast, Dehaze, Clarity, Texture, Detail (Sharpening). And yes, I agree Dehaze is perfect for finding Sensor dust. ;-)
very useful techniques, thanks Nigel.
There is so much in Lightroom and so much to learn but your videos really do help.
Thank you for this...I have been using those said tools as I now see it way too much, thumbs up Mr.
Enjoyed the video Nigel! good to learn more about the dehaze tool and when to use it!
Thank you so much for explaining these fantastic tools! I never understood exactly how they worked until now!
Hi Nigel, I totally agree with you. Negative Dehaze is the most interesting. But I love playing around with Texture and Clarity in B&W images. I often reduce Clarity and increase Texture or vice versa. I also like to manipulate the midtones towards high or low key, but before I increase Clarity, I try Whites (and Blacks) first.
Thank you! I’ve been wondering about this so I appreciate it!
That's been really helpful thank you Nigel
Great tips. Thanks Nigel.
Completely agree on Dehaze. I typically slide it between -10 and +10, depending on the scene and use it - mostly - for skies and, interestingly, backgrounds for my wildlife shots - negative clarity, dehaze and exposure to wash out the background and separate the bird or animal.
Outside those limits the colours go wonky.
Fabulous tips/tricks, thank you!
Enlightening as usual!! Thank you!
Interesting way to think of these sliders. I do use them a lot but usually with masks. One point though is Joe Houghton, Lightroom ambassador, recommends texture for clouds to bring out the finer detail in the best way. It’s worth trying, probably not so much for big grey blocks of clouds but for most other interesting cloudy skies.
Thank you for another excellent vid.
I tend to use local adjustements, I don't have a favourite but tend to play around until I see something I like then fine tune it from there. My artistic vision is probably a bit shortsighted but I still have quite a bit to learn.
Excellent video... perhaps, in the future consider discussing the Detail tab.
Very interesting. Thanks! I think I might have understood what you are saying intuitively. But, understanding how these tools work explains why they seem either: to not always work, or to produce effects unexpected.
Really good video Nigel. Love that image with the heather and rocks, very painterly.
Thanks for sharing this, great information. Really nice photos too.
Thank you, great learning experience again from you Nigel.
Thank you for that clear explanation of the three adjustments. I have been using Nik Pro Efex 4 in photoshop particularly the detail extractor and tonal contrast that I brush in. A subtle change can make all the difference like you say. I’m now confident to use the three adjustments in Lightroom to have more control.
Hi Nigel, recently I stumbled across your videos and I have found them very inspiring. I appreciate the balanced mix of technical information and artistic commentary. Cheers from California 😊
This is very helpful. I love masks, especially in the latest upgrade of Lightroom. I’m going to practice bring even more selective and use the color range option more as well. Thank you!
Last year I discovered applying a very aggressive negative clarity (over -90) saved a flat mid-day high contrast fall woodland scene. It turned into a whispy feeling scene and looked amazing. Overall though I tend to do light global adjustments and keep changed for those 3 to localized areas.
"Subtle changes make a big difference." Good tutorial, Nigel.
0:42 that's usually the noise I make when I use the dehaze slider too
Thans for this clear and very usefull video. I tend to use "a lot" of dehaze for astrophotography / nightscapes photos.
Thank you for another great video and super useful tips😍
Really good eyplanation of these 3 sliders and how to use them in landscape editing. This video was really helpful for me!!
Another great,informative video. I know when I first started, I over did these tools. I have a large print of Cliffs of Moher that I almost want to take down and redo because it's so overly processed
Interesting - maybe its Nikon thing but especially on Drone shots the dehaze tool is invaluable. Plus with lightroom now you can easily just select everything but the sky and apply it to the landscape. One of the main reasons I use Lightroom is for the Dehaze tool and it makes a massive difference to landscape shots.
I use texture the most, but do use all 3 …. Clarity I rarely go over 20, and dehaze I rarely go over 10. With texture I sometimes go a bit higher, but agree you need to be subtle when using these tools
To bring out colours in some holiday snaps taken underwater many many years ago, I duplicated the photo as another layer and chose multiply as the blend mode (in Paint Shop Pro - that's how long ago it was!)
I haven't bothered testing it out but that seems to be the same sort of behaviour as dehaze.
Thanks Nigel very explanetory video!, I don't use dehaze or texture all that much, (except for the negative dehaze which I also learned through your videos and as you also explained here🙂) Texture, I sometimes apply locally to bigger wildlife if that is in my picture so that for example their fur would pop a bit (but also only if needed), I would never add it to a full image.
Learned so much!!! Thank you!
I think your last statement was the crux of the whole issue.......a lot of subtle changes (ie - brushing or using other selective masking) can make a big change. Great vid ND.
Great processing information and the theory behind it. The take away experiment and less can be more.
Hah, I was about to comment that my most common use of dehaze is to find dust spots, but you mentioned the same! I'm not scared of these tools but you're right that a light touch is usually needed
Some great tips, thanks for sharing.
The dehaze could be rescaled to 20 being the max value for all that I use it for, but I am really happy about this tool.
Excellent information, thank you!
Thanks for the superb explanations and guidance Nigel. I’ve been a long time user of LR (I often exclaim - I love this software) and tweak my editing occasionally based on feedback like yours. I recall learning about the difference between clarity and contrast a long time ago and use clarity often. But I would agree with comments about being careful with the amount of adjustment to apply. And this is definitely the case when using dehaze. I can’t remember exactly when I learned about it’s benefits but I associate it with misty, foggy, distant? and (based on your explanation) skies without much definition. It can definitely create some drama, but can easily be overdone. And it’s treatment of colour can have unusual effects. With dehaze, I’m very careful in how much to apply. Texture is something that you helped explain better for me and something that may help me in deciding when it could be beneficial.
I’m thinking your guidance may change a little if you were a portrait photographer (which I am not), but what about urban landscapes? I live in Toronto and take many pictures of city architecture, skylines and street scenes. I’d say my urban style often leans towards harder tones, punchy elements and dramatic skies. So I’m a little more generous with clarity and get happy with dehaze to bring background skies more to life.
Finally, thanks for the tips on local adjustment options. I enjoy the ease of selecting skies and occasionally use linear gradients, but I’m new to intersections and rarely use radial gradients. I also get nervous with my brushing and the borders of the selection - but applying larger general areas with softer edge masks is something I’ll try.
Really good demonstration and explanation Nigel, thanks!
Well done! Most helpful!
Very interesting.... thanks! Maybe in a future video you could do some further comparison between the effect of texture vs. sharpness, when to use which...
Greetings, Stephan
These were my favourite tools when I used to use LR. However, they are so powerful that they can become a crutch and make you less aware when taking photos.
This is a perfectly timed video. I'm just about to hit the editing section of your Masterclass I so I'm going to use this as an add on to those lessons.
This was really helpful, Nigel. I do wish the dehaze slider didn't affect the colors so much, and I don't know why Adobe did that.
Very nice discussion. I've been using dehaze for years, in fact, probably 90% of my photos use dehaze, even for non-landscapes. That said, it's a micro-adjustment, going beyond 8 or 10 on the slider is too much. I thought it was a bit weird that almost every photographer on youtube discounted it, and it's probably the name... "dehaze" implies it's only for the purpose of clarifying distant horizons, but that's not the only application it's useful for. In a forest shot, for example, it will add contrast and colour shift in an interesting way, punching up contrast and saturation slightly in the oranges and darkening the green/blue shaded backgrounds. It's a bit like selecting the Adobe Landscape profile, but that's way overkill and dehaze is far more subtle when used sparingly.
What a great and informative video. Thank you very much. I will be taking on this advice and hoping the results won’t be too obvious in my own images.
Great video! I have always wonder what the specific were about those sliders
Thank you for the content Nigel. 🙏
The tools I use in Lightroom Classic (LrC). Take this lightly. Well, naked LrC gives me asset management (with rating methods and tagging with keywords), the catalogue that documents per-photo-edits, and the print functions. In that, I always use sidecar files too. These can relay edits to both Adobe and 3rd party plug-ins and can help rebuild a crashed catalogue. On my high performance system (98th SPEC percentile) farther optimised for I/O, the sidecar files are not noticeable in the performance way.
The heart of LrC is "empty" and this void is filled by Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) but LrC hides this in its UI - while in Photoshop (Ps) it is very visible. So, taking the question very literally, I could say that ACR is a tool (i) I use in LrC.
Here is my dissatisfaction, though with ACR's raw processing. And I hasten to add that a Tuner inspired British landscape will never reveal that. ACR does a rather insufficient job at raw processing in several ways: (1) guessing of missing colours, (2a) dealing with (preventing) jagged edges and (2b) banded gradation. As we use LrC with ACR under a subscription because bottom-line, no matter how bad it is, we still need Ps, then note that the (2b) banding is easily solved by converting your image to 32 bits in Ps. And this turns Ps into a tool (ii) I use in LrC too.
As jagged edges come from a sensor grid of square cells, and it is an age old problem, this aliasing is dealt with reasonably well, but this (2b) is also the home of sharpening and detail loss or the prevention thereof. ACR does not do detail retrieval very well and trying to recover from that by sharpening or variants can lead to very unnatural artefacts.
When I want to print big, or display at 100%, then I may run my images through a Topaz plug-in. For printing I may go to (iii) Gigapixel AI (GPAI) and upsample an image so as to get the pixel density nearer the DPI. GPAI does a much better job than nondescript LrC print code, printer drivers, Windows, and the printer's print engine together. GPAI's detail retrieval is astonishing - and you would never need that for clouds, rocks, water surfaces, and so on.
The primary task of ACR is colour guessing and it does not do a great job here either. So here I use tools from Topaz like Sharpen AI (iv) or DeNoise AI (v). In some cases I may sidestep this suite entirely in order to see how Nikon's NX Studio processes my images. You see, in camera with its SOOC JPEGs and with its movie formats too, Nikon does an excellent job at (1) and (2 a & b). And it happens in the real ;) time of its FPS, even. As it can be awkward to figure out the best way to run my image through the Topaz trinity, I happily use the recently added fourth module Photo AI (vi) that helps sort this out. To be able to do the assessments and plan the three plug-ins, the way I see it, Photo AI uses simplified logic from the three plug-ins and can apply these independently. But that is not as good as taking the image through the separate plug-ins.
As to ACR's (1) responsibility, I must say that it can give grainy results in the darker zones (as in zone system of exposure). To me this is failed raw processing - failed (#1) and e.g. DeNoise AI does a better job. DxO PureRAW would do that better too - the PureRAW plug-in's functions are in DxO's LrC competitor "PhotoLab" as well.
We have to be fundamentalists here and hold Adobe responsible - grain that's well within the camera's dynamic range is failed raw processing and has nothing to do with the camera or its sensor. The same applies to residual colour noise (also under (1) responsibility). ACR may do a good-enough job regarding details up to A4 size, depending on what is in the image and how recognizable the details are, but not good enough beyond that.
To complete the line-up of tools, I also have Negative Lab Pro (vii) that easily converts scanned or photographed negatives. You can do this manually without such a tool, but it is somewhat awkward finicky messing with black and white points and sliders. Negative Lab Pro does it better, faster, consistently. I do have a scanner but the Z 105/2.8S macro lens with slide/negative copying adapter, on the Z 7ii, works a lot faster. Scans can be superior but that would need multipass scans and that's too time consuming in most - almost all - cases.
Thank you!
Fantastic, Nigel, thank you, your explanations are always so easy to understand and follow along the steps ‘how to’, and also explaining the why, and where to use, and what results are.
One question, I’ve always wondered and I may have asked you before, does the Lightroom edits ‘overwrite’ the original file, therefore changing it forever, or does it save a copy, so the original file is left unchanged? I think this is why I’ve been afraid to use Lightroom on my images. I seem to stick with photoshop and I can see from this video how much potential I am missing out on, by not using Lightroom. I’m off to have a go, with ‘copies’ of my originals (just in case I mess up!).
Again very usefull video. Thank you!
Great Video! Thanks so much!
Great info…thanks!
Sorry to say, but had good experience with mpb (in germany) a few years ago. This time around, thta is unfortunately no longer the case. Did not stick to offer agreement made, no response whatsoever since a few weeks, although they still have my camera equipement (for which I have better offers elsewhere). Frustrating.