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Regardless of the quality of your lens or camera, it can be challenging to shoot photos with the proper contrast in poor lighting. Learning how to use the Tone Curve in Lightroom can help you correct the contrast issues during the post-processing phase.
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When capturing real estate interior photos in brightly-lit conditions, the balance between the highlights and shadows can be a significant issue. The best way to solve this is to shoot the photos in RAW format and then use the Lightroom Tone Curve to rectify the color imbalances.
The Tone Curve looks like a 45° graph and lets you adjust the colors and tones of specific areas of the image. Keeping in mind that the color tones range from the darkest darks to the whitest whites, the curve is divided into shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
That means you can use the graph to improve the contrast by brightening or darkening the highlights or shadows. Depending on the color distribution, overall brightness, and contrast of the photo you are editing, you can use the following Tone Curve tips to improve an image.
After opening Lightroom and importing the photo, you want to edit, switch from the Lightroom Library Module to the Develop Module by pressing the D key on your keyboard. You can locate the Tone Curve tool by scrolling down the tools on the right-hand side of the interface in the Develop Module.
If you see the name Tone Curve without seeing the graph, click on the tiny inverted triangle on the right-hand side of the name to expand the panel. You should now see a 45° graph with a histogram in the background and three sliders at the bottom, dividing the graph into three parts.
Since this is a normal graph stretching from the bottom-left corner of the darkest dark to the top-right corner of the whitest whites, the shadows are right after the beginning of the graph, mid-tones at the center, and highlights right before the ending of the graph.
Keeping in mind that the human eye has three different color receptors: red, green, and blue, the primary colors in digital images are red, green, and blue (RGB). The Lightroom Curve allows you to adjust the following colors as a combination or individually under the channels option below the graph.
You can play around with individual color channels, especially the reds and greens, to give your photos an aesthetically pleasing film effect. However, avoid adjusting the individual colors to extreme levels as the resulting photo might not look realistic.
The Tone Curve allows you to use the sliders or points depending on the precision you want in your adjustments. You can decide what to use by choosing one of the first two buttons right above the graph on the right-hand side of the name Adjust as follows.
Generally, the parametric curve is the default Lightroom setting. However, if it's not selected by default, you can choose it by clicking the first button indicated by two white lines. This option allows you to use the sliders located below the graph to determine the range of the shadows, the mid-tones, and the highlights.
Although it is not as precise as the points option, the adjustments look much smoother, making it easier to use, especially for beginners., with the sliders dividing the graph into equal portions.
You can choose this option by clicking on the second button, the button on the right-hand side of the parametric curve button. This option allows you to use your mouse to add points to the graph and then make adjustments between the points. Typically, this allows you to add as many adjustment points as you want for a more precise adjustment.
Now that you understand what the different buttons and parts of the curve do, it’s time to make the adjustments and improve the overall contrast of the photo. Whether you want to increase or reduce the contrast using the parametric curve or points, you can use the following techniques.
Even with high-quality camera gear, it’s common for real estate interior photos to lack contrast, especially when shooting in bright lighting or backlit conditions. The best way to increase contrast is to adjust the curve to look like an S shape.
Simply click and drag the upper third of the line upwards as you keep checking on how the highlights on your image increase. Once satisfied, click and drag the lower third downwards as you keep checking on how the shadows on your image darken.
Typically, you will brighten the highlights and darken the shadows to increase the overall contrast. You can also achieve this by setting the Darks slider below the graph to around -39 and the Lights slider to around +29. However, these values will depend on the photo contrast and your preference.
It’s common for the shadows of real estate properties to turn too dark and the windows were blown out, especially when shooting on a sunny day. Since this can hide important details of the property exteriors, you can consider reducing the contrast to reveal some details in the dark shadows and blown-out windows.
You can do this by adjusting the curve to form a reverse S shape, a typical opposite of what you do to increase the contrast. Simply click and drag the upper third of the line downwards to reduce the highlights and reveal details.
Then click and drag the lower third upwards to reduce the shadows and reveal some details. Again, like when increasing the contrast, the extent of the adjustments will depend on your photo and preference.
You can save the curve adjustments for future use by saving the curve as a custom preset. After making the adjustments on your graph, click the Preset dropdown box, choose Save and then enter the name of your new preset. Instead of making the adjustments in the future, you will simply click on this dropdown and choose your saved adjustments.
You can apply tonal adjustments to multiple images in Lightroom using the Lightroom batch editing feature. Simply hold down the Ctrl key on your Windows PC or the Command key on your mac, select the images in the Library Module and then apply the curve adjustments preset.
Whether you have blown-out real estate exterior photos shot in broad daylight or interior photos with hard shadows, learning how to use the Tone Curve in Lightroom can help you improve the contrast, reveal the details, and make the photo aesthetically appealing.
