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Author Topic: Black point in LR  (Read 1426 times)

G*

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Black point in LR
« on: April 21, 2019, 08:14:55 am »

Happy Easter!

I am shooting Nikon (NEF-files) and recently I tried Lightroom (LR) and RawTherapy (RT). What I like about RT is the smooth transition in the dark tones and the data that RT extracts from the RAW files. How can I make LR behave in a similar way? Whatever I try, the dark tones end abruptly, with a very steep curve, and loads of information seem to be left unused.

Thanks in advance!
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2019, 09:34:14 am »

Most of the time such differences result from differences in the default initial settings that these different raw comverters present to us. You can probably adjust your settings in LR's Develop module to achieve similar outcomes. Have you tried this yet, or are you relating observations from your first impression of opening the photo in both?
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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G*

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2019, 03:15:06 pm »

I guess, I did not nail my experience properly with my initial posting, but it’s hard for me to find the right words.

I fiddled with the Contrast and the Blacks sliders in LR, but they flatten out everything or lighten up a large portion of the darker tones respectively. The contrast of the whole image suffers when I just want to work on the nearly-black areas.

Maybe a screenshot helps (Z7, 100% TIFs; a building site’s detail of tarmac; out of focus area):
 
Left: LR, camera profile "neutral" --- strong contrast, black shadows
Middle: LR, camera profile "flat" --- less contrast (but also different color), still pretty strong shadows
Right: RT, no further adjustments, film-like curve --- lighter and less contrast still, smoother gradient of tones

I can further work on the RT file in Photoshop and preserve the finely detailed tones in the shadows, even if I push the very darkest tones to 0/0/0. If I do this with the LR files, I get large areas of black blotches.

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Mark D Segal

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2019, 06:09:37 pm »

Between the two sets of tone controls in LR you can make all this look the same, or very nearly so. It's a matter of learning how to use the application. A ten point lock-down curve in LR could be helpful to control adjustments to exactly where you need them.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Onslow

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2019, 08:06:16 pm »

Between the two sets of tone controls in LR you can make all this look the same, or very nearly so. It's a matter of learning how to use the application. A ten point lock-down curve in LR could be helpful to control adjustments to exactly where you need them.
Hi Mark,
Could you expand on what you mean by a ten point lockdown curve please? I am not sure I understand what you are referring to.
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Cheers

Onslow

Mark D Segal

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2019, 08:11:50 pm »

Hi Mark,
Could you expand on what you mean by a ten point lockdown curve please? I am not sure I understand what you are referring to.


Create a custom curve preset that looks like that in the attached image, done by setting ten diagonally equidistant points all the way up the curve. Then you can adjust each one of them independently without any of the others moving. Gives you lots of fine control, but you need to be careful not to create transitions that are overly abrupt.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2019, 08:13:01 pm »

PS, you can put more than 10 points if you want, but in practice 10 usually suffices.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Onslow

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2019, 03:22:41 am »

PS, you can put more than 10 points if you want, but in practice 10 usually suffices.
Got it, Thanks for that.  :)

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Onslow

nemophoto

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Re: Black point in LR
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2019, 02:16:02 pm »

Your best bet is to optimize your output from LR is to create custom camera profiles with the X-rite Colorchecker Passport. With my Canons, especially my 5Ds and the EOS R I've used, a custom camera profile makes a dramatic difference, especially in skintones, but it will affect many aspects as well. These were a couple of quick screen shots I did for a friend when we were discussing the camera profiling issue.
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