I use the Rotate tool from the upper toolbar to straighten the image. Unlike the prior blog that worked on RAW, this time it's a TIFF file scanned from a slide (remember those?) The image, taken at the beautiful Nizwa Fort in Oman, is nice but I want better tonality, I also want it black & white. (as you can see, mine have horrible names like 'Style Number 1', really meaningful!)Īn example is the best way to learn, so let's create a Black and White image using Styles, and while we're at it, we'll look at the Crop and Straighten tools, something we never used last time. you can save your own edits as a Style and you can apply them to other images with one click. Want to simulate an image taken with infra-red film? There's a Style for that. See the left of the screenshot from the last blog. Styles are a set of predefined LZ tool stacks that enable amazing 1-click changes to your image. Once again, the non-destructive nature of LZ means my original image is unscathed. To be honest, I can't always pre-visualize how an image will turn out before applying a Style, so a lot of times I apply one thinking it will work, only to undo it after. Last time I gave an overview of working with LightZone, today I'm going to touch on the Styles, and for Black and White images in particular. I hope I don't take as long on the next one! Using the Spline Region tool, I quickly created an editable selection around my face and used the ZoneMapper tool to darken that specific area.It's been awfully long since I last did a blog entry, a lot of real life got in the way of my online life, so apologies for those waiting for the second Lightzone beginners installment. I clicked once within that area of the ZoneMapper to create a zone lock, and dragged it upward to brighten that area.

By hovering over the scale, I was able to visually target the specific area I wanted to lighten (the man’s shirt).

The ZoneMapper allows you to see the shadows, highlights, and midtones of your photo as zones that light up in the ZoneFinder at the top right. In this example, I’ve applied the Black and White Red Filter, Local Contrast, and Golden Sepia styles. The tools used to create the effect are in the tool stack on the right, wherein you can tweak each one. In Edit mode, you can add a preset Style to a photo by clicking its name in the list on the left. , is a freelance writer, chief evangelist of The new Relight tool lets you adjust contrast and lighting even further, and most tools have blend modes for controlling how adjustments in the tool stack interact with each other, complete with an opacity control. This unique ability to see the highlights, shadows, and midtones is nothing short of revolutionary, and it’s more intuitive than methods used in other editors, like Photoshop’s Levels and Curves. To make a change, click once in that area of the ZoneMapper and drag the resulting blue line (the zone lock) up to brighten or down to darken. To see the lightest area (highlights), hover over the whitest bar. (If this sounds a bit complicated, don’t worry LightZone’s help system is amazingly well developed, and it will get you up to speed quickly.)įor example, to see the darkest area (shadows) in your photo, hover over the blackest bar in the ZoneMapper. Hover your mouse over any shade and the corresponding areas light up in the ZoneFinder, a small grayscale representation of the photo at the top right of the window. Photos are broken into 16 shades of gray, displayed in a linear scale called the ZoneMapper (derived from Ansel Adams’ photographic Zone System), wherein each shade represents the lighting difference of half an f-stop. LightZone’s individuality shines brightest in its unique approach to lighting and tonal corrections. A new History tab, located on the far left side of the interface when you’re in Edit mode, keeps track of everything you do however, it records every adjustment you try, not just the ones you apply.

Editing tips in lightzone