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Dan Rodney/4 min read

Using the Adjustment Brush Tool

Color Grading Steps

1

White Balance First

Get neutral colors right before any creative grading.

2

HSL Panel

Shift, lighten, or darken individual color ranges.

3

Color Grading

Set highlight, midtone, shadow color tints for mood.

4

Match Across the Set

Sync settings across selected images for consistency.

Master Adobe Tools at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Graphic Design Certificate covers Photoshop alongside the broader Adobe toolkit that complements Lightroom in any photography workflow.

Unveil the power of the Adjustment Brush tool in Lightroom as you delve into this tutorial that includes adjusting exposure, saturation, viewing and deleting brush masks, and more.

Topics Covered in This Lightroom Tutorial:

The Adjustment Brush Tool, Adjusting Exposure & Saturation, Viewing Masks, Deleting Adjustment Brush Masks

Exercise Preview

lightroom preview4C

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you will experiment with the Adjustment Brush tool to apply very precise changes to a photo. Specifically, we’re going to “brush” a sky darker and “brush” flowers grayer.

The Adjustment Brush Tool

  1. If you have not imported the photos that were imported in Exercise 2E:
    • Go into the Library module.
    • At the bottom left of the screen, click Import.
    • In the dialog box that appears, on the left under Source, navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Lightroom Class and select the Develop folder.
    • At the top, above the photos, make sure Add is selected (highlighted).
    • On the bottom right, click Import.

  2. In the Library module, select the Hampton Court Palace & violets photo (_CAS4948).

  3. Press D to go into the Develop module.

  4. In the Navigator panel, click on FIT if it is not already highlighted.

  5. Under the Histogram panel, click the Adjustment Brush tool adjustment brush.

  6. In the panel that appears:
    • From the Effect menu, select Exposure if it’s not already selected.
    • Drag the Exposure slider to around − 1.00.
    • In the Brush section under Flow, check Auto Mask.

  7. Press the right bracket key ] a few times to increase the brush size.

    NOTE: The left bracket key [ will decrease the brush size.

  8. Brush the entire sky (try to avoid brushing the buildings and trees, though it won’t cause much damage).

  9. When finished, click the Adjustment Brush tool adjustment brush again to deselect it.

  10. Click the Adjustment Brush tool adjustment brush to select it again.

  11. On the photo, locate the circle gray circle, which corresponds to the sky’s mask.

  12. Click on this circle gray circle to reveal the mask.

    NOTE: A black dot will appear inside the circle black dot circle to show it’s activated

  13. Hover over that circle for a few moments, and the mask will be indicated by the color red (appears pink/light red).

  14. Next to Exposure, drag the slider to − 3.00.

  15. If you’ve missed some spots, use the Adjustment Brush tool adjustment brush to brush them now.

    If you’ve accidentally brushed too much, press Opt (Mac) or ALT (Windows) and brush over those areas to subtract from the mask.

  16. Notice that some buildings and trees have a slight halo where the sky meets them. We need to tone down the exposure.

  17. In the right side panel, set the Exposure to − 1.60.

  18. Click the Adjustment Brush tool adjustment brush to deselect it.

  19. At the bottom of the screen, click the Before & After icon before after yy button to examine your work. Neat!

  20. At the bottom of the screen, click the Loupe View icon loupe view.

Adjusting Saturation Via Adjustment Brush

Let’s decrease the saturation of the bright purple flowers.

  1. Click the Adjustment Brush tool adjustment brush.

  2. In the panel that appears, from the Effect menu, select Saturation.

  3. Below that, drag the Saturation slider left to − 20.

  4. Press O to show the red mask color as you brush.

  5. Brush some of the flowers.

  6. Press the O key again to hide the mask and to see the flowers desaturated.

  7. Press O again to reveal the mask.

  8. Brush the rest of the flowers.

  9. Press O to see the changes. Neat!

Deleting Adjustment Brush Masks

  1. To get rid of one of the adjustment masks that you brushed onto the photo, click on the circle corresponding to the sky’s reduced exposure to select its mask.

  2. Press Delete on your keyboard to delete it.

  3. Delete all the remaining masks:
    • Click on the circle gray circle on the flowers.
    • Make sure it now has a black dot black dot circle inside it.
    • Press Delete to delete it.

    We’ve now reverted to the original photo.

    As you’ve observed in this exercise, the Adjustment Brush tool easily makes nondestructive, reversible changes to a photo. Good stuff!