Adobe Lightroom 5: Use the radial filter correctly

Click the desired image in Lightroom 5 and change to the development module. There you switch on the new radial filter in the toolbar on the right. Right under the tools, double-click on the word “Effect” to set all controls to neutral. At the bottom of the panel, turn “Invert Mask” to change the main motif within the selection, not the outside.


Step 1: Activate Tool


Tip: Photoshop CC (2013) provides the same tool with the same options: Open your capture in Photoshop CC and select "Filter, Camera Raw Filter". At the top of the dialog, turn on the radial filter. Click the plus sign to the right of "Contrast" once to raise the contrast and neutralize all other controls. At the bottom right, use the Inside option, so Photoshop changes the selection inside.


Step 2: Select


Let's go to Lightroom 5: Click in the middle of the main motif and drag outwards to display an initial selection. Refine the outline by pulling at the touch points. Hold the mouse pointer close to the selection and then drag to rotate the selection. You can also move the selection as a whole in the image.


Step 3: Levels Correction


Tip: At any time, hide the oval selection line by pressing the H key and then on again. Or use the "View work points" menu under the image. If you do not see it, press the T button to display it.


Step 4: Further selection


Drag the Exposure slider to +0.80, so you'll see the main slider light up. Drag the depth control to +30 to bring more drawing into dark areas, especially in hair and jacket. With the controls "clarity" and "sharpness" you emphasize the contours. The rest is fine-tuning: increase the contrast and drag the temperature control a bit to the right in the direction of yellow, so the main motif appears warmer.


Tip: Would you like to see the original in Lightroom 5 again? The switch at the lower left of the control panel switches the radial filter off and on again. Alternative: Press the Y key to display a before-and-after comparison and then return to the single image.


Create any number of selections. We create another selection for the background. Click "New" in the upper-right corner of the panel, then click the middle of the main motif again and drag a selection to refine it with the touch points. The "Invert Mask" option turns off, so Lightroom only changes image zones outside the oval. To dampen the background, reduce the values ​​for clarity, saturation, and sharpness. Depending on the subject, you can also change the exposure or contrast.


Tip: To duplicate a selection in Lightroom 5, hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys at the center of the edit (on the Mac, use Cmd and Alt keys on the Mac). Then you can change all controls for the new area, and you can also change the interior-exterior effect.


Guide: Operate Adobe Lightroom correctly


Submit correction in Lightroom 5 to see more similar pictures. Select more subjects at the bottom of the filmstrip. Lightroom 5 shows the "Automatically synchronize" button at the bottom right. To the left of this button, click the small button so that the button is called "Synchronize" only. Click this button and then, in the "Synchronize settings" dialog, name all the changes you want to transfer - in any case, the radial filter. You can then refine the newly edited photos.


Tip: Corrections are now only saved in the Lightroom database, but not in the photos themselves. For all selected images, use Ctrl-S. In this case, the original pixels remain completely preserved, but Lightroom now writes "the mathematics" of the corrections directly into the individual photo files.


Step 5: Transfer Correction