How to get particular look in shadows.

[johnwind]

Hi, I am trying (unsuccessfully) to find a way to process raws to get this look in shadows (using Lightroom 5). All of the photos has the same 'tale' in histogram in shadows area (marked), and I can't find the way to make it right. This way of processing creates pleasantly looking shadows in my taste. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[skoobey]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

Lift the black point (one on the lower left) in the curves tab.

EDIT: Hm... not working the same as in Capture one, in lightroom Curves are stuck on white and black point? Anyone has a solution?

[johnwind]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

Lift the black point (one on the lower left) in the curves tab.

EDIT: Hm... not working the same as in Capture one, in lightroom Curves are stuck on white and black point? Anyone has a solution?

Yep, this is not just a simple fade... but thanks anyway

[skoobey]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

It's not fade, it's clipping blacks. You can do it easily in Photoshop using curves or levels.

[johnwind]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

It's not fade, it's clipping blacks. You can do it easily in Photoshop using curves or levels.

can you be a little more specific (maybe a screenshot of curves), I tried various configurations with curves (LR and PS) with no success. Thanks!

[skoobey]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

LIft-black-point.gif Like that.

[johnwind]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

[ATTACH]95174[/ATTACH] Like that.

Thank You!

[klev]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

Note you may have to do more, but that's a good starting point. You may have a little more flexibility if you do this on raw images.

[johnwind]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

Note you may have to do more, but that's a good starting point. You may have a little more flexibility if you do this on raw images.

If anyone figures out how to get exact histogram 'tale' without any bad transitions in shadow area let us know

[skoobey]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

By starting with the same image and then playing with the black point? It will affect blacks on any image, but to get the same, you start with the same.
By not using a low quality JPEG? Artifacts, blocks, moire, whatever is happening is because your initial image is of bad quality(compressed).

Ah, why don't people just believe me from the start?

[klev]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

If anyone figures out how to get exact histogram 'tale' without any bad transitions in shadow area let us know

Histograms are very misleading. They plot relative frequencies for a 2 dimensional image, and that tail isn't going to tell you much. What it says to me is that they used a method similar to what was described above on a raw image. The reason it produces that effect is that raw images (for the purpose of our discussion here, it's a lot more complicated than this and varies by raw processor) aren't clipped at 0 to 1 or 0 to 255 until they're processed. You also gain a bit of a tail if you're adjusting the black point to something that deviates from r=g=b = lower bound. Does that make sense? It appears as if he lifted it as Skoobey mentioned, then did a slight tweak on the shadow color. The peak and subsequent dropoff is a good indication that there isn't much happening outside that range, and it was probably clamped there previously.

That's about the best explanation anyone is going to give you on any forum. What I don't understand is why you aren't posting your current settings or attempts.

[BayotR]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

[ATTACH]95174[/ATTACH] Like that.

you can do exactly the same in Lightroom using the Tone Curve

[skoobey]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

Which is what I initially suggested, but I can't seem to make and adjustment with only the black point, it results adding more points so it looks like a curve rather than a straight line?

Care to explain how to do this? I am mostly a Capture one user.

EDIT: Yep, linear curve can be made and edited in ACR using Point curve option, but it's not available in LR 3 for some reason? Maybe earlier or newer versions are different.

[BayotR]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

Place the cursor right in the bottom corner untli it turns into a double sided arrow. Once the cursor changes you can drag up and to the right the line

[BayotR]

Re: How to get particular look in shadows.

Oh and also on the bottom right there is a small image of a curve line.

Click on this icon to edit the point curve. If you hover the mouse over the curve icon, a speech balloon will appear and it will say"click to edit point curve"

Once you have clicked it you can then change the Balck point as discussed