Answers X-rite webinar
During the webinar for X-rite there are always questions I answer right away, but sometimes that’s not possible and I get the questions after the webinar. Today the answers from the webinar.
Q: Hello Frank, some photographers, including me, mainly rely on Lightroom actions to process the images. It seems that you only involve Lightroom as a library and to color-correct with the X-rite Colorchecker. Don’t you consider using Lightroom to do the main processing of your photos in order to speed up your workflow as you can avoid a photoshop step?
A: You know it depends. I love Lr a lot, and don’t worry I’m not only using it as DAM system I use almost all my filters also straight from Lr, however with most fashion work I do I will have to retouch the skin (a little bit or a lot) because this works faster with layers I will make the jump to Photoshop, this is really easy (one click) and after saving it stores the files in Lr so there is no extra import. Whatever works fastest. If I can I will stay within Lr, however sometimes it’s faster to go to Photoshop.
Q: Frank, I am a wedding photographer in England and find that on a day when the sun is in and out of clouds the white balance continues o shift. How will you use the colourChecker Passport to colour correct the images
A: Sometimes you can’t, a quick tip is to use a small gray patch and attach to the dress and use that to balance on and remove it later in Photoshop or Lr. If that’s too much work, use ONE part of the dress or suit to balance on and use THAT balance on ALL images, if they are ALL wrong the series is actually right…. sounds weird but if all images look the same we will often see it as correct, if the color changes a lot during the session this is often seen as not correct.
Q: You have created a look – but you crushed the blacks completely, is there a way to have midtone contrast, like we had with film, without crushing the blacks?
A: Yes it can be done, just use a little bit of curve, in both Alien Skin Exposure as in DxO software you can play with this, or plan ahead, when you know a filter will crush blacks and you can’t correct this in the software, add a little bit too much detail with “shadows highlights” in Photoshop and run the filter, because I always promote to use a “steady” workflow you will very quickly know how much to add before running the filter, you could even make several actions for it.
Q: Do you make any changes in lightroom before going to photoshop?
A: Not so much with exposure etc. I try to get everything as close to possible in camera (with my lights), but if that doesn’t work I will do let’s say as much as possible in Lr, and only after that jump to Photoshop to do the stuff I really need to do there, best is to do 100% in Lr (all in one package and one file) however sometimes you just need Photoshop, but the more I can do in Lr the better.
Q: merge visible or flatten make the same effect?
A: Often yes.
Q: Do you use x-rite for architectural or landscape work?
A: If I would do that work YES, having correct color as your starting point is incredibly important, so yes.
Q: how do you do the colour and sparkle in the eyes? Not with this photo.. #sunglasses 😛
A: There are many techniques for that. Often you don’t have to do that much because the light will already give you the effect if placed correctly. What I will do sometimes is use the dodge tool and just brush over the iris, that’s about it.
