Editing Color Using an Area of Lightroom Often Ignored

There are a number of ways to get creative with color in Lightroom. I just learned a new one and have a feeling you might too.

Many of us spend most of our time editing the way we are comfortable. Sometimes, there is a simple tip that can change that. Above, the YouTube channel Signature Edits delivers a great video showcasing a color editing technique that is a bit off the radar.

The trick all lies in a panel we might not think of. The calibration panel is all the way on the bottom, and I'll be honest, I had never even looked at it before today. The power it shows in the edits in the video make me a believer. All of the images in the tutorial were improved in some interesting ways.

Do you explore your editing software? I thought I did, but I am always amazed by the new and creative ways people work with their images. I would usually go for split toning as a way to add different color casts to a photo. This will give me a whole new bag of tricks to tweak the look and feel of a photo. I hope it helps you out too.

Michael B. Stuart's picture

Michael B. Stuart is a photographer at Stu Stu Studio in Lewiston, New York. Besides shooting weddings with his wife Nicole his specialties include long exposure, abstract monochrome creations, architecture, and bokeh. Work has been featured online by Adobe, Flickr, Google, and 500px with the most popular photo receiving over 950 million views.

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6 Comments

Camera calibration is the dumbest title for those tools in my opinion. It should be called “global color” or something to that effect so it’s clear how those sliders differ from HSL sliders or rGB tone curve.

Yes, probably keeps many away.

Agreed, the name makes it unappealing for making edits.

I photographed a concert at a poorly lit venue. Most of the gels in the stage lights were red. It washed out skin tones completely. I was experimenting with all the hsl sliders and the color in the tone curve. I started messing with the calibration and was able to get skin tones back to almost normal. Ever since I have always checked to see if these adjustments add anything to the images I edit.

This is excellent. Been using LR for years but I will add this to my techniques. There does not seem to be any way to save a setting as this would be helpful for me when I get photos from the same location to edit and have to bounce off tables to accommodate the mercury lights. Yes, I can do AutoSync but I'd like something a bit more long-lasting. Have you found any ways to save a setting?

Build a preset?