Source
r/Lightroom•
Key_Chain

Washed out/Lifted Blacks/Brown Tones? Help a color deficient designer

Worflow

TLDR; What am I missing here? How can something be so brown but bright and vivid but at the same time, without being washed out? Where do I start?

First a little about me. I’m a graphic designer with 4-6 years experience, so needless to say photography/Cinematography is little hobby of mine. Although unfortunate for me, I’m color deficient in my reds all the way to brown/deep purple tones. That lower third of the color wheel basically.

I’m a little late to the game with this specific trend - but this colorgrade or way of editing photos is very popular on Unsplash today, and Instagram in 2018/19. It’s this muted brown/autumn vibe with lifted blacks however it’s bright and crisp without being too contrasty or over saturated. I simply don’t know where to start. I’ve tried film presets, and many other paid presets to get this Dreamy-Cozy-Coffee look, however nothing quite nailed this tone. I’m at a loss and wanted some conversation about this.

To avoid editing photos I usually just shoot Portra to get a great look after pushing my film, but I’ve never been able to recreate the same richness in this example photo.

Any tips/videos/suggestions would be dope. Thanks.

Posted Apr 6, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

99
earthsworld•

There's no "richness" in that photo. It desaturated with crushed and lifted blacks.

Since that's been the most popular style for years, there are thousands of tuts showing how to reproduce the grade.

5
Key_ChainOP•

Thanks mate.

1
Josh_HaftelAdobe Employee•

Couple things:

  1. Drop the saturation down a bit.
  2. Add a matte curve. There’s even one built into the app as a preset.
  3. Go to color > color grading > global and add something like hue 22 sat 7

You may need to adjust the shadows / blacks to get the right balance, and the midpoint on the curve for the mid tones, but that should get you close :)

1
Key_ChainOP•

Okay! thanks for that. Should I worry about temperature or HSL at all, or is this a matter of preference?

1
Josh_HaftelAdobe Employee•

With hsl you can dial specifics in, but the main elements of this image are low sat, crushed blacks, and a slight brown tinge.

I’d start with the basics and then see where things don’t feel right. Or in other words, use the hsl to season to taste :)

For WB, focus on a neutral wb.

1
938961•

Lift the bottom end of your overall tone curve to achieve lifted/faded blacks in LR. This image is heavy contrasted and lacks depth in the shadows (at least on my phone screen), so likely they made a drastic S Curve shape in their tone curve. Style is subjective but I do recommend lifting shadows a bit if you plan to print an image like this for detail

1
Squigglificated•

You want overcast weather and a large aperture lens for this look. The clouds will give you the soft shadows and muted colors, and the large aperture gets you that nice shallow depth of field. Not much you can do in lightroom if you don’t shoot it right...

-3
newephoto•

cringe

-4
Key_ChainOP•

How? Is there a better way to ask for help? 😂

1