How to correct red and green colour casts in Lightroom / HSL and Camera Calibration
I think most portrait photographers would agree with me when I say that the dealing with colour casts coming off a red brick wall and green grass are are a classic pain in the butt. To be honest, most of the time when I shoot I like to position my subjects away from potential colour correction headaches - but sometimes the brick wall is irresistible and a shooting in a forest is always so worth it.
When editing a portrait session in Lightroom, I used to rely on using adjustment brushes to alter saturation, tint, temperature, and add a neutralising colour to specific areas, but this is time consuming and only feasible for a small number of hero shots. More recently I’ve started learning and experimenting with colour correction techniques in the HSL and Camera Calibration - with edits that can be synced across multiple photos.
Read on to find out more!
Studio Portrait 1 Lightroom Preset Pack
The Studio Portrait 1 Lightroom and Photoshop ACR preset works well for portraits photographed with studio lighting. The edit gives images a subtle magazine-like feel with it’s understated colour toning, especially when shot against a neutral backdrop. This works well for both corporate headshots and lifestyle portraits.
There are 2 versions of the Studio Portrait preset - a standard, and a warm version. There is also a one click contrast boost tool.
White Gold Lightroom Desktop Preset for Editorial and Lifestyle Photography
White Gold is a warm, clean preset for Lightroom Classic (desktop) and Photoshop ACR - bringing out gold and beige tones in an image, with lovely skin tones. In that works well with both diffuse light as well as direct dramatic light, making it a versatile edit for fashion, portrait and wedding images. This is a great one for jewellery and beauty photography.
Film Luxe- A cool toned cinematic Lightroom and Photoshop ACR preset
The last few editorials I shot called for a more dramatic edit than my previous work, and one in particular ('Tonal', published in the September issue of Feroce Magazine) was all about greens and blues. This is where the inspiration for the colour palette of my new preset 'Film Luxe' came from- cool toned, striking greens and reds, clean whites, and with a touch of a cinematic feel. This preset is great for portraits in fashion / editorials, still life (think cool toned instagram feeds), and travel.
Film luxe is a complex, multifaceted preset- for high key images, it has a very clean 'Scandinavian' lifestyle type look, and for darker images it has a more filmic edgy feel.
There are three versions.
Film Luxe 1 - cleanest version, with the least amount of highlight and shadow fading.
Film Luxe 2 - increased highlight fade, more desaturated, has a 'dreamy' quality and a more obvious slate blue tinge to the shadows.
Film Luxe 3 - increased highlight and shadow fade, more contrast and crushed blacks, and more saturated greens than the others. This has more of an edgier, slightly polaroid film type feel.
Available for download at my Etsy store.
Using Lightroom Preset Part 2: Customizing Contrast, Fading, and skin tones
Why customize?
Personal style. You might like to be able to control how much highlight or shadow fading there is in your images, amongst other things.
Consistency in varying shooting situations. Being able to tweak settings can help you achieve a similar look across both high contrast and low contrast scenes.
Skin tones. Sometimes skin tones can look a bit funky in certain lighting with certain presets. Tweak the settings to flatter skin.
In this post I go through how to customize your presets to suit a variety of situations. I will be mostly using my own presets (you can find them at my preset store on Etsy), but I also include an example of customizing a Dawn Charles preset.
How to install and use Lightroom Presets: Part 1
BASIC FOUNDATION ADJUSTMENTS - START HERE
When your image comes out of the camera exactly as you expect it- it is editing heaven, especially when you want to do the one click preset magic thing. This post goes through what you need to do when that doesn't happen.
Black and White Preset Lightroom Bundle NEW
My black and white editing has evolved since I released the last collection, so I've discontinued that one and replaced it with a new updated one! This preset pack includes:
- Clean Fade: smooth silky dreamy B&W
- Clean Fade HC (high contrast)
- Filmic Fade : B&W with characteristics of film
- Filmic Fade + : increased grain and fade
- Filmic Fade ++ : even more dramatic version of the above.
- High Contrast : Contrast contrast contrast
- Signature : a beautiful all rounder, great for portraits.
Download the pack here.