Smart_Photography_-_January_2016_

Picture 6-6: Using TAT to alter saturation of colour. The

top image in the Preview area shows the image before

and the bottom one after the saturation was increased

by using TAT..

6-6↓1 HSL / colour / B&W tool

6-6↓2 All option

6-6↓3 Home position of TAT for saturation

6-6↓4 Point chosen for representing the colour

6-6↓5 Aqua slider

6-6↓6 Blue slider

6-6↓7 Result after increasing the saturation

two sliders Aqua and Blue (Picture
6-6↓5 and 6-6↓6) were selected
automatically. If you now drag the
cursor upwards or downwards, the
saturation (of both blue and aqua) will
correspondingly increase or decrease
(Picture 6-6↓7). After you are done,
bring the cursor back to the TAT home
position (Picture 6-6↓3) and click. You
can repeat the operation for other
colours. To alter hue and luminance,
you need to pick up the corresponding
TATs and follow the same procedure.
Simple and brilliant isn’t it?

Soft proofing: This is an advanced
topic and is needed only if you are
concerned about accurate colour
reproduction while printing. It
needs some knowledge of colour
managed workflow. If you need more

information on this topic please refer

to the article titled “colour spaces

are not empty spaces” published in

Smart Photography, July 2014. For a

colour managed workflow you must

start with a monitor that has been

profiled. Even then, you will find

that many deep (highly saturated)

colours that you have seen on the

monitor are not appearing in the

print. The discrepancy is due to the

fact that some of the colours that

you see may not be reproducible by

the printing device. These are called

‘out of gamut colours’. As you can

expect, these will differ from printer

to printer depending on the specific

printer’s capability. Commercial

lab printers (like Fuji Frontier

etc.) follow a smaller colour gamut

that corresponds to a colour space

called sRGB. A larger colour space

called Adobe RGB (or aRGB) is also

available and is supported by inkjet

printers.

Lightroom allows reasonably

accurate simulation of the printing

device on your computer itself. This

is called ‘Soft Proofing’. Its purpose

is to show you if there are any out

of gamut colours. To soft proof, you

need to know the make and model of

the printer along with the paper that

you are going to use. You also need

to have the corresponding printer

profile loaded on your computer.

In case you do not know all these

details, you can use standardised

profiles of sRGB (for lab printing) or

aRGB (for inkjet printing) that Adobe

provides by default.

For all its complexity, soft proofing

is easy to use in Lightroom. First,

enable soft proofing by clicking on

the Soft Proofing check box (Picture

6-7↓1) in the Tool bar. (Press “T” if

you don’t see the Tool bar). Next,

click on the Destination Gamut

Warning icon (Picture 6-7↓2). You

also need to tell Lightroom the type

of printing device you are going to

use by choosing the Profile (Picture

6-7↓3). If you don’t know what the

device is or if you don’t have the

appropriate profile, choose either

sRGB or aRGB profile as explained.

Now, if you look at the Preview area

and if there any out of gamut colours,

you will see that they are highlighted

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Smart Photography January 2016