finished the whole video thinking i was watching some youtuber who has a million subs. honestly wow amazing video bro! i defo will experiment more with the tone curve and stop being afraid of it haha
Jalen, so glad I found your channel. I watch folks like Michael Shainblum, Simon d’Entremont, and Woodland Colours Photography for inspiration. Now I’ve added you to the list. Always great to support a fellow UA-camr as well.
This is a good basic tutorial on curves. Adjustment is necessary on most digital images because most scenes exceed the dynamic range of the sensor which results in some degree of underexposure, relative to how scene reflectance is perceived by eye with adaptive vision and images must be exposed “to the right” with non-specular white 1/3 under clipping to avoid blowing out the solid white / specular white 3D shape clues on any white objects. Down in the deep shadows though lifting of the curve will result in mostly noise being amplified so one must be judicious there. In photos where the shadow detail is very important the technique I use is bracket and blend with layers and masks. I will take one exposure for the highlights 1/3 stop under clipping on tripod then a second with +3 stops exposure for the shadow detail, copy/pasting it over the first with a black mask when editing then opening the mask on shadow exposure layer “painting in” actual well exposed detail instead of just increasing gain and noise on a single exposure. I prefer his over automatic HDR software because it can be done selectively similar to dodging, but by adding more detail while lifting the tonal values in deep shadows. The opacity slider on the masked shadow layer can be adjusted after opening the mask from 100% to 0% allowing before and after visualization of baseline “expose to the right” exposure and the image with the second shadow exposure blended it. When doing adjustments to individual channels I find it easier to do with RAW files which are in CIE*Lab format rather than RGB JPGs. The A and B channels are blue-yellow and green-magenta the same as the WB and TINT adjustments which makes it simpler to shift cool / warm balance and much simpler to eliminate the greenish cast causing by light filtered / reflected off foliage in outdoor forest scenes, especially when there are people / skin tones in the photo. The greenish bias of the light gives pinkish caucasian skin an odd dull gray look that disappear with a + magenta correction in RAW.
Jalen, very good video explaining the tools in Lightroom. I have also watched your Photoshop videos and learn new things each time. It appears you are located in the Eugene, Oregon area. Is that correct? I live in Pleasant Hill. Do you conduct photo tours or provide onsite training for Lightroom and Photoshop? I am interested in Milky Way photography in the dark sky area in Eastern Oregon. Have you done this and, if so, what are good locations. I always thought a Milky Way at Fort Rock would be interesting. If you are up for a trip let me know.
@@johnsullivan9320 Hi John, thank you so much for supporting the channel! That’s correct, I’m in the Eugene area. I occasionally, casually, do free meetups in an area I would be in. I think it would be so fun to do photo tours and meet with new people. I have not explored Eastern Oregon all that much, yet. However, it’s beautiful over there. It’d be great to meet you and shoot some photos. Do you have an Instagram?
@@jalenobanphotography no I don't do Instagram. Is there a way we can exchange either emails or phone numbers or both? By the way my name is John. Just so you know I am a lot older than you are based on your videos. Perhaps we could meet up for coffee. I'm married and I live in Pleasant Hill.
Thanks for your feedback! I’ll definitely take that into account for future videos. If you’d like, you can always slow it down with UA-cam’s playback speed. Set it to 0.75x and you should be good to go. Thanks again for watching!
finished the whole video thinking i was watching some youtuber who has a million subs. honestly wow amazing video bro! i defo will experiment more with the tone curve and stop being afraid of it haha
@@locipro9937 Wow, thank you so
much!
Very enlightening and well produced video; clear, concise and pithy.
Jalen, thank you for taking the time to share the tone curve information and tips. As you promised, it was concise, clear, and informative. Thank you!
@@r5photography Thank you for watching the video! I am very happy you got some value out of the video:)
Jalen, so glad I found your channel. I watch folks like Michael Shainblum, Simon d’Entremont, and Woodland Colours Photography for inspiration. Now I’ve added you to the list. Always great to support a fellow UA-camr as well.
@@WanderingMonkHikes Thank you so much for watching and following:) Means a lot!
Nicely presented… Very informative!
@@dennisdragan1128 Thank you, Dennis!
This was a great explainer! Thanks!
This is a good basic tutorial on curves. Adjustment is necessary on most digital images because most scenes exceed the dynamic range of the sensor which results in some degree of underexposure, relative to how scene reflectance is perceived by eye with adaptive vision and images must be exposed “to the right” with non-specular white 1/3 under clipping to avoid blowing out the solid white / specular white 3D shape clues on any white objects.
Down in the deep shadows though lifting of the curve will result in mostly noise being amplified so one must be judicious there. In photos where the shadow detail is very important the technique I use is bracket and blend with layers and masks. I will take one exposure for the highlights 1/3 stop under clipping on tripod then a second with +3 stops exposure for the shadow detail, copy/pasting it over the first with a black mask when editing then opening the mask on shadow exposure layer “painting in” actual well exposed detail instead of just increasing gain and noise on a single exposure. I prefer his over automatic HDR software because it can be done selectively similar to dodging, but by adding more detail while lifting the tonal values in deep shadows. The opacity slider on the masked shadow layer can be adjusted after opening the mask from 100% to 0% allowing before and after visualization of baseline “expose to the right” exposure and the image with the second shadow exposure blended it.
When doing adjustments to individual channels I find it easier to do with RAW files which are in CIE*Lab format rather than RGB JPGs. The A and B channels are blue-yellow and green-magenta the same as the WB and TINT adjustments which makes it simpler to shift cool / warm balance and much simpler to eliminate the greenish cast causing by light filtered / reflected off foliage in outdoor forest scenes, especially when there are people / skin tones in the photo. The greenish bias of the light gives pinkish caucasian skin an odd dull gray look that disappear with a + magenta correction in RAW.
Very helpful! Your walkthrough of using the tone curve gave me a new perspective on using the PS tool I am very familiar with.
@@FastCutFilms713 That’s great, thank you! I’m glad you were able to take something away from this video
Really great job taking a lot of the mystery out of the tone curve functionality. Subscribed!
Thank you so much for this!!!
The basic Brightness/Contrast doesn't even come close, the fine control and picture improvement is amazing!
@@adriansmith5348 I’m so glad you were able to learn something from this video, Adrian!
I watched the whole thing because its interesting, but also because I wanted to see if your smile muscle ever gets tired.
Jalen, very good video explaining the tools in Lightroom. I have also watched your Photoshop videos and learn new things each time. It appears you are located in the Eugene, Oregon area. Is that correct? I live in Pleasant Hill. Do you conduct photo tours or provide onsite training for Lightroom and Photoshop? I am interested in Milky Way photography in the dark sky area in Eastern Oregon. Have you done this and, if so, what are good locations. I always thought a Milky Way at Fort Rock would be interesting. If you are up for a trip let me know.
@@johnsullivan9320 Hi John, thank you so much for supporting the channel! That’s correct, I’m in the Eugene area. I occasionally, casually, do free meetups in an area I would be in. I think it would be so fun to do photo tours and meet with new people.
I have not explored Eastern Oregon all that much, yet. However, it’s beautiful over there. It’d be great to meet you and shoot some photos. Do you have an Instagram?
@@jalenobanphotography no I don't do Instagram. Is there a way we can exchange either emails or phone numbers or both? By the way my name is John. Just so you know I am a lot older than you are based on your videos. Perhaps we could meet up for coffee. I'm married and I live in Pleasant Hill.
@@johnsullivan9320Definitely. If you go to my website and the “About” section, all of my contact info is on there.
Great!
@@samurephath Thank you!
you talk too fast
Thanks for your feedback!
I’ll definitely take that into account for future videos. If you’d like, you can always slow it down with UA-cam’s playback speed. Set it to 0.75x and you should be good to go. Thanks again for watching!
I think your talking speed is just fine. Well done!