have you ever wondered how to add realistic color to an image today I'm
going to share how I used double RAW processing to go from this image to this
image hello I'm Robin Whalley welcome to lenscraft when I posted this
image to Instagram the other day a few people commented on the soft light and
the colors in this video I'll explain how to do this using a single raw file
processed twice what we'll do is process the raw file a first time to create a
base image will then process it a second time with different settings to create
the color for the sky after that we'll combine the two in Photoshop to produce
a realistic effect this techniques called double raw processing and it's
often combined with luminosity masking I'm starting with my image in Lightroom
I've previously applied adjustments to create a base image and have saved those
as a snapshot if I applied a snapshot you can see the difference it creates
these adjustments are aimed at reducing the image contrast so the dark shadows
don't appear as dark and it gives the image a bit of a brighter and softer
feel I'll then open the image as a smart object in Photoshop now this is
important because it preserves my ability to adjust the raw file further
in Photoshop you can see the icon on the image layer showing that this is the
smart object if I double click the layer it opens in Adobe Camera Raw and you can
see the changes that I made in Lightroom the next step is to make a copy of the
layer it's important when you do this that you don't just make a copy if you
do that any changes you make to one layer will show up in the other which is
what we don't want
we need to be able to adjust the Smart Objects independently of each other to
make the copy right click on the layer and select new smart object via copy now
I'm also going to rename the new layer to call it sky color just to distinguish
it I can then double click the new layer and open it in Adobe Camera Raw to
create the color effect for the sky I'll just increase the temp and I'll also
increase the orange in yellow saturation using the HSL tool
finally I'll apply a split toning adjustment with yellow for the sky and
blue for the shadows
the changes aren't very convincing at the moment but it's just the starting
point also remember although I'm making changes to the color you can use the
this technique to blend almost any changes together
no when I hide the top layer you can see the bottom layers not affected by the
changes I made I can adjust the two layers independently my next step is to
add a layer mask to the top layer an inverter
this hides the layers effect and means I can paint the color into the image using
a brush tool I'll set the brush color to be white I'm also using a low hardness
and opacity setting to help blend the two images I can then brush the color
into the areas of the sky and water where I want it to appear
now at first glance the result is okay but it doesn't stand up to any scrutiny
I can improve this though by painting through a luminosity mask and I'll just
reset the layer mask to explain how once you can create luminosity masks manually
I'm going to be using an extension panel just for speed there's a lot of these
available including Raya Pro Lumenzia and Mask Equalizer I'll include a list
in the YouTube video information I'll also include details of a video I
published where I demonstrated a free luminosity masking panel you can use for
this example I'll be using TK Actions to create a zone must to work with
I can then refine this using a curve what I'm trying to produce is a mask
that selects the brighter areas of the sky but not the mountains
I'll then use this to create a selection now I can paint onto the mask in the
areas of the sky where I want the color to appear as I paint and painting
through the selection I created with the mask you can't see the selection because
the panel's hidden the marching ants when it created it
I'm sure you agree though that by painting through a luminosity mask I've
created a much better result and because these are two separate smart objects I
can continue to open and adjust each separately
once you're happy you can finish the adjustments of the image with the other
effects you want to add if you find this video useful please let me know in the
comments and please share it with others I'm Robin Whalley you've been watching
Lenscraft I'll see you next week for another video