April 11, 2008
Getting negative with Clarity in Lightroom 2.0 beta
Here is a quick tutorial about one of the subtle new features in the Lightroom 2.0 Develop module.
A less obvious innovation in Lightroom 2.0 is the ability to apply a negative Clarity adjustment. But now that it is implemented, one can foresee quite a few creative possibilities. Negative Clarity does the opposite of a normal Clarity adjustment as it softens the midtones, and the way that it does this produces an effect that is not too dissimilar to a traditional darkroom diffusion printing technique. The net result is that you can create some quite beautiful diffuse soft focus image effects which are particularly suited to black and white photography. It’s a bit like being able to add a cloudy sky lighting effect. Here’s how it works…