HOW TO CREATE A SPLIT TONING TONE CURVE IN LIGHTROOM OR CAMERA RAW

Showing just a couple tips for Lightroom and Camera Raw that I learned a while ago from my favorite Photoshop Guru, Jack Davis. This image is of a Pirate that sits atop a kiddie ride at the Boardwalk in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Desaturate and Add Back Localized Color

The first trick is to desaturate the image setting all the Saturation (SAT) sliders in the HSL section of Lightroom to 0. Then they were adjusted to show just a hint of any colors I wanted to show up in the image, so in this case, Red was set to -81, Orange -61, Yellow -54 and Aqua -85. All the other sliders were set to -100 so no color showed through at all.

Next the Adjustment Brush was opened and 2 pins were painted to darken the colors in localized areas. The reds and blues were saturated more by setting the brush to Clarity 77, Saturation 100, and Sharpness 83 on the Pirate. The brush Flow was only 70 and Density 61. Also added another point for some less intense color in the Pelican picture and boats setting the Saturation to 53. On the last pin point the Saturation was set to -100 to remove extraneous reds and yellows in the background. Jack Davis does a wonderful job of tinting a photo using this technique where he starts with all the Saturation sliders at -100. Check out most of his video classes on Creative Live. As an aside note, if you wanted more of the same effect created with the Adjustment Brush, you can always add a second pin and repaint with the same settings the area to double-up the effect.

Split Toning Effect Using Tone Curves

Next a Split Toning effect was applied using the Tone Curve to get the pretty vintage blue color in the image. This is a really neat section to use for split toning that you do not come across very often. Once again Jack Davis, in his wonderful Lightroom 5 Training (Day 3) videos for Creative Live, used these settings to achieve this look. In Lightroom, click the little icon on the bottom right of the section to make sure it shows the word Channel: RGB under the curve and not Region sliders (Parametric Curve tab in ACR) so you will be able to access the individual channels. This is the Point Curve tab in Camera Raw. Open the Channel drop-down field to select the Red Channel and Green Channel and create a very soft S curve by clicking in the grid and dragging. By using these settings for the Blue Channel, you are taking the blues out of the highlights and darkening the shadows.  (My settings for this Curves preset are: Red points are roughly set to bottom left corner, 26.7/31.6%, line goes directly through the center, 73.3/76.1%, and top right corner; Green points are set to bottom left corner, 32.1/17.3%, through the center point, 74.9/76.1%, and upper right corner; and Blue Channel set to a straight line that starts at 0/21.6% for left side and ends at 100/85.1% on right side.) In Lightroom there are two ways to save the Tone Curve settings: Save it down as a regular Develop preset by clicking the (+) sign on upper left corner of the Presets Panel – name it and only check Tone Curve in the dialog; and the second method is to be sure you are in the Point Curve screen (icon on) and the Point Curve field drop down should show the word Custom. Open list and at the bottom select Save and name – now it will be added to drop-down list for use again. If you are having trouble finding where to put these curve points on the grid in Lightroom, it is much easier to do in Camera Raw by entering the numbers using the Input and Output fields in the Point Curve tab. To save as a preset, go to the pop-out in upper right, select Save Settings and choose Point Curve, Name it, and it appears in the Curve drop-down choices, and not just in Photoshop Camera Raw but also in Lightroom! Pretty cool and it is a little easier to do this in Photoshop than in Lightroom. I hope a future Lightroom update will add the Input and Output fields to this section.

Opening Lightroom Settings in Photoshop as a Smart Object

Since there was a lot going on in Lightroom with this image, I decided to bring it into Photoshop as a Smart Object in case further editing was needed. By right clicking on the Image in Lightroom, and choosing Edit In -> Open as a Smart Object in Photoshop, the photo will contain all the Lightroom settings. In Adobe Bridge, highlight image and right click – select Open in Camera Raw. When finished with edits, hold the SHIFT Key and press the Open Object button for image to be a Smart Object in Photoshop with saved settings. Of course in Photoshop CC, the image can be first opened in Photoshop, then right click on image and select Convert to Smart Object. Go to Filter -> Camera Raw filter and the edits will also be saved to this layer. If you look in the upper right corner and behind the pirate, you can see some distracting reds that were missed when painting out with the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom. By double-clicking on the little icon inside the Layer icon , the image can be reopened with all the Lightroom settings still available. If editing using using the Adjustment Brush, the settings, (that is the Size, Feather, Flow and Density sliders) do not carry over between programs. Whatever the brush was set to the last time it was used in Photoshop will still be there, not the ones used in Lightroom. Therefore if the results do not look right, look at those brush sliders! In this case the pin point that had the Saturation slider set to -100 was clicked on so these areas could be further edited – otherwise a new pin point will be dropped down. When finished editing, just click the OK button and Photoshop will automatically update the image to the new Camera Raw settings.

The last step was to add a Black and White Adjustment Layer to check the focal point (the pirate) and do a little adjusting with the sliders to get his colors just right. The layer opacity was set to Luminosity blend mode where the layer mask was filled with black (CTRL+I in mask) and just the parts needing adjustment were painted back. That was it.

I hope everyone will try out this some of these little tips – Lightroom and ACR are so powerful! And for my American friends, hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
Can You Get a Painting Look With a Photoshop Action? Jack Davis Can!
How to Use a Black & White Adjustment Layer to See Contrast in an Image