- Hey, hello mesdames and messieurs.
In this video I just want to do a really cool,
fast tip on how to use a brush in Lightroom.
It is the most powerful tool in Lightroom.
It's kind of a beginner tutorial,
but there's some really cool tricks
I'm sure you've never heard.
So let's get started.
(people vocalizing dramatically)
All right. We have a beautiful photo from Iceland
I shot last year.
Let me just do a quick retouching.
I'm just gonna open shadows, bring down the highlights,
I'm gonna hold down the Option key, the Alt key on Windows,
and I'm gonna set my black point.
My black point is pixels, which are a 100% black.
So I like to have about 2% of my photo a 100% black,
which you see in blue here is a 100% black.
And then I hold down the Option key
and I do the same thing on the white here.
I like to do it manually.
There's ways to do it automatically,
but I like to do manually.
So what you see here in blue is 100% white,
meaning it's burned, there is no more information.
So I'm gonna back it down, something like this.
Okay, cool.
And then maybe add a bit of contrast.
Let me clean up the photo
because there was a lot of sensor dust.
I was on that beach.
Oh my God. Iceland is the best.
And this is one of my favorite photo of Iceland.
I mean, not my favorite,
because it was not very colorful,
but I really liked this photo
and it's already looking kind of cool,
but I want to take it to the next level with a brush.
So for this,
I'm gonna lower the exposure and we're gonna do
something that's cold and we are gonna do something
that's called a clare-obscure,
meaning we go from darkness and we relight it.
So where is the brush?
You brush is located here. You click on it.
And basically the idea is there's a whole bunch
of settings here that you can do.
And when you brush this settings
are gonna be applied here.
So I'm gonna double click here on effect to put
everything down to zero.
And all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna add some exposure,
a lot of exposure.
I'm gonna overdo this,
but I want to show you a few things first.
Let's talk about size.
So size, you can change it here and you can see in real time
or even better if you have a mouse.
And you can use the magic,
the middle mouse and you on the screen,
you can make it bigger or smaller, which is kind of cool.
So that's the way I do it faster.
Okay.
And then the other one, the other thing is the feather.
Okay. The feather, so let me show you something.
If I put the feather at the zero and I start brushing,
you will see you're gonna get some really weird results.
So I'm gonna, you see, it created a pin as I brushed,
and it's not good.
But if I now put the feather at a 100%,
you see there is two circles now.
See how I changed the feather and let me make the brush
bigger so you can see?
As I change, basically this is gonna be the soft part, okay?
So I always use it at 100% almost all the time.
Let me make a bit smaller and I'm gonna brush and now
you can see, but you can less see the brush strokes.
So that's very important.
The next one is flow and density.
Let me put flow at a a 100%.
And let me put the feather at zero percent so you can see.
So flow at a 100%.
This is what happens. Now let's go to flow at 50%.
You see it's less powerful,
and we put flow at 0% and now nothing happens
or just a little bit.
Okay? Same thing.
Let's put flow back and density on a 100%.
So I'm at density down a 100%.
I'm gonna put density at 50%.
And it's very similar to what flow does.
And I'm gonna put it at 0% and nothing happens.
So basically flow and density to make it simple is how much
energy you're putting out on this brush or data.
I like when it comes to dodge and burning, and in this case,
dodging, meaning may get it brighter.
I like to get my flow in density in the 70's,
because I find with a soft brush I can do some cool dodging.
And it's not so visible in your face.
Now in this case, it's way too much.
My rule of thumb when I do dodging is basically to go like
at .71 or something .60.
Yeah. Not more, but it still does something.
Check it out.
If you want to see the before and after at the end of the
panel, you have this little thing here
before, after, before, after.
Kind of cool.
By the way guys, very important.
If you can just smash that like button,
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Tell me what you think about this video,
what you would like to learn.
I try to do, like right now,
I'm a lot doing like sections of Lightrooms by section
and like, tell me what you want,
whether it's a on Lightroom, Photoshop,
on composite, you know, composition,
photographic techniques, you know, gear, whatever you want.
I read all your comments.
All right. So now I want to make a new brush.
And this time I want to add a lot of exposure
and I want to add some mist.
So to add some mist,
what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go minus Clarity
and minus Dehaze.
And I'm gonna brush here in the back and it's gonna
add a whole bunch of mist.
I think that's kind of cool.
Okay, it's a little too much so I can lower the Exposure
and maybe lower the Dehaze and lower the Clarity.
Yeah. Something like that.
But it's kind of cool.
And if you want to see the before and after.
Before, after.
So, and let's say you don't like this, or you said, oh,
I put it too much on the mountain.
I want it to be more on the water.
Well, make sure, so if you over that little circle,
that in you can see in red where I brushed the mist.
And if you over, if you click here and you're over there,
you can see where I brushed on the first brush.
So I want to create the first brush.
I'm gonna click on this one and you can use
the Option key, Option is the most used key
in Lightroom and I can,
and it becomes an eraser that I can make big or small
using the middle mouse, and I'm gonna basically,
erase the mist pass on the top of the mountain.
So now it's still there, but just of the bottom,
Check it out, before after.
And if I put my mouse over here,
you can see that the mist pass is much lower.
Okay?
I can make it even more lower by making a a bigger brush
with the eraser.
See how it's a minus?
It's an eraser because I'm holding Alt
and I'm just gonna do that.
And it's gonna erase it,
but it's gonna keep it on the water, okay?
Okay, it's still there on the water.
Another way you can see where the, you have brush is
you can click here on the first pin and you can click here
on Show Selected Mask Overlay,
and you can see where you brushed or I can click here
and I can see where I brushed here.
Okay.
Maybe I don't want to add mist there or maybe I won't.
Okay, now I'll show you something really cool.
I'm gonna create a new brush.
And this is something not in a lot of people
know about this.
And let's say, I want to make,
I want to make that snow pop out,
but not the mountain, just the snow.
So check it out.
I'm gonna double-click on effect.
I'm gonna add some exposure.
I'm gonna add some clarity
and a lot of exposure actually.
And I'm gonna make a small brush and I'm gonna paint,
oh, I'm gonna take this show selected mask away,
I'm gonna paint on the mountains where the snow is.
But you see, it's kind of everywhere.
I just want it to be on the snow.
So check it out. I can go here with my brush selected,
range mask off,
and I can go to luminance and I can move my range mask
to the right.
A lot to the right.
And check it out, before it's everywhere after.
And it's only on the white.
And you can decide
how much you want it to be just on the white here,
he can even find you in it here and check this out.
I only made the white snow come out and nothing else.
Before, after, before, after, okay.
And one more cool trick with a brush.
Let's say, because it actually works with other,
the gradient and the circle.
Let me show you.
So if you take a gradient, let's say, I want to make
that sky darker.
I'm gonna, double-click on Effect.
I'm gonna lower the Exposure.
I'm gonna click and drag.
I'm gonna overdo it so you can see.
And I like it gives me moody sky, but it's,
it's not influencing the mountain.
I don't want it to influence the mountain.
So two solution.
One is the solution of using a luminosity mask,
which I actually did a whole video dedicated on that,
see it somewhere, you must have link to this one.
So you, basically what I explained is here you can move this
to the right,
and now most of the sky's gonna be affected
and not the mountains, but there is another way.
There is another way.
You can click here, not on this brush, but on this brush.
And now you see you have a brush, okay?
And basically let me show you if I do
the Show Selected Mask Overlay see,
I can see in red where my gradient is gonna be influenced.
If I brush, I'm gonna add some red, okay?
I don't want that. I actually want the opposite.
So same thing I can hold down the Option key,
make a small brush.
And now I'm gonna erase the effect of the gradient
on the mountain.
I only want, let me make it a bit bigger, very soft.
I only want the sky to be darkened and not the mountain.
So let's take that out and you will see.
Check it out.
And now if I go before
and after, it's only the sky is influenced.
It's a bit too much.
So what you can do is you can do a bit of range mask
on top of it.
You can mix both things.
And now we have a darker sky.
I think I'm gonna just,
I'm just gonna make this go a little higher up,
but that's the general idea.
Okay, now one more cool thing about the brush
that I want to show you is let's say I want to brush
and I want to make this water a little more bright,
but not the sand.
So if I take a regular brush and double-click on effect
to put everything onto zero, add some exposure,
let me overdo it.
And I brush here.
You see, it makes the sand brighter
and to makes the sea brighter.
I don't want that.
So there is an option called Auto Mask.
And the way Auto Mask work is
as long as your plus is on the white on a very contrast,
contrasty area, I mean, there's a lot of difference
between, you know, the white here and the black here,
check this out.
I'm gonna make a small brush, now if I brush here,
it's only gonna effect the, it's only gonna affect
the water and not the sand.
That's what Auto Mask is for.
It's beautiful, auto mask can make, so it's too much,
I'm gonna erase it, but it's a really cool feature.
I only use it for this kind of, you know,
when you come close to a border, but check it out.
Before, after. I think I want to add more mist here.
So I'm gonna add a new brush, new brush.
Double peak on effect add a bit of exposure,
minus clarity, minus the dehaze.
Just want to add a bit of mist here in the back,
like in the back here.
Okay.
It's way too much. It's too strong on the back.
So hold down, you can hold down the Option key
and can erase the effect if it's too much.
And then I can, of course lower the Clarity and the dehaze
so it's not that strong and voila.
I can click on done and check it out.
Oh, sorry, go back here.
You have to be active on the brush
and this is gonna give you the before
all the brushstroke and after.
I totally changed the photo.
Make sure, under this video
you will find, you will find the shortcuts for Lightroom.
It's just a really quick page.
You can just print and it's gonna blow your mind.
Also, you're gonna find a lot of free goodies,
including my free masterclass on how to find your voice
as a photographer.
It's a one hour course on so that you can find your voice
as a photographer.
I think it's so important today,
as an artist, as you, as you grow,
as you start learning that you have a very strong voice
and I have a really cool technique for this, check it out.
You know, you can see all the beat photographers
in the world.
Like I can see them on Instagram when they post a photo.
You know, if I see an Ansel Adams photo for example,
even if I don't see his name,
I know it's an Ansel Adams photo.
You know, same thing for Erik Almas, Joey Grimes,
Trey Ratcliff, Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, Lindsay Adler,
all the people I love, all the photographs I admire,
Henri Cartier-Bresson and so many others.
Nick Page. Oh my God, so many.
Like I just see their work and I know it's them.
'Cause they have a strong voice.
How to find that, link down below.
All right, guys, I'll see you next time.