The tool you should use next is the
Basic tool. This name Basic is a bit
of a misnomer because it does some
important and advanced operations.
It is called so because it comprises
of a set of adjustments that are most
essential for development. In fact in
many cases, the Basic tool is all what
you would need for development.
The Basic tool can be used to adjust
several parameters, with help of
sliders (Picture 5-6). Before you start
any development, let us assume that
you are going to process the image in
colour (Picture 5-6↓1). So, click on
colour option first. The Basic tool
parameters themselves can be divided
into three groups - White Balance
(Picture 5-6↓2), Tone (Picture 5-6↓3)
and Presence (Picture 5-6↓4), each of
which has several parameters as given
here.- White Balance (WB) (Picture
5-6↓7): Temp and Tint (Picture 5-6↓7). - Tone (Picture 5-6↓8): Exposure,
Contrast, Contrast, Highlights,
Shadows, Whites and Blacks. - Presence (Picture 5-6↓9): Clarity,
Vibrance and Saturation.
Let us start looking at WB first. As you
know the camera sets a WB to remove
the colour cast that might have been
caused due to the colour temperature
of the light source. If the camera has
done a good job then you need not do
anything. In case it has not, then you
must adjust the WB to remove the
colour cast.There are two ways of doing this.
All of them work with JPEG or Raw
files but their effectiveness is much
greater when you use Raw files.Method 1: The simplest way
is to use the WB Selector tool
(Picture 5-7↓2) but there is a catch
to this. You need to locate a pure
gray area in the image (called the
“neutral area”) and just click on
it and Lightroom will remove the
colour cast. The catch is that it is
not always possible to find a neutral
area and this limits the usage of this
tool. Hence, wherever possible, you
should keep a gray card (Picture
5-7↓3) to provide the neutral area
in the same lighting conditions as
the subject.Method 2: The second way to
correct WB is by selecting a
WB from the choices available
(Picture 5-7↓5). The first option
is As Shot which means that WB
currently is what the camera had
used when capturing the image. If
you click here you will get a range
of choices viz., Auto, Daylight,
Cloudy, etc. These are called preset
WB values. You can try these one
after another and see if one of them
suits you or at least is close to what
you want.If you are not satisfied with
the result you obtained after
you choose a preset WB as just
described then you can fine tune
the WB with Temp and Tint
(Picture 5-7↓6) sliders as explained
below:Temp Slider: This is based on the
Kelvin colour temperature scale.
As indicated by the colour of the
slider itself, dragging the slider to
the left will make the image more
blue (cooler) while dragging it to
the right will make the image more
orange (warmer).Tint Slider: This is used for
correcting green or magenta cast.
As before the colour of the slider
gives you the hint. Dragging the
slider to left adds green and the
opposite direction adds magenta.Picture 5-6: The Basic tool with its various parameters.
5-6↓1 colour or Black & White
5-6↓2 WB group
5-6↓3 Tone control group
5-6↓4 Presence group
5-6↓5 WB Selector tool
5-6↓6 WB selection
5-6↓7 WB group sliders
5-6↓8 Tone group sliders
5-6↓9 Presence group sliders
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Smart Photography December 2015