- Hey, hello mesdames and messieurs. In this video I just
want to do a really cool, fast tip on how to use
a brush in Lightroom. It is the most powerful tool in Lightroom. It's kind of a beginner tutorial, but there's some really cool tricks I'm sure you've never heard. So let's get started. (people vocalizing dramatically) All right. We have a
beautiful photo from Iceland I shot last year. Let me just do a quick retouching. I'm just gonna open shadows,
bring down the highlights, I'm gonna hold down the Option
key, the Alt key on Windows, and I'm gonna set my black point. My black point is pixels,
which are a 100% black. So I like to have about 2%
of my photo a 100% black, which you see in blue
here is a 100% black. And then I hold down the Option key and I do the same thing on the white here. I like to do it manually. There's ways to do it automatically, but I like to do manually. So what you see here
in blue is 100% white, meaning it's burned, there
is no more information. So I'm gonna back it
down, something like this. Okay, cool. And then maybe add a bit of contrast. Let me clean up the photo because there was a lot of sensor dust. I was on that beach. Oh my God. Iceland is the best. And this is one of my
favorite photo of Iceland. I mean, not my favorite, because it was not very colorful, but I really liked this photo and it's already looking kind of cool, but I want to take it to
the next level with a brush. So for this, I'm gonna lower the
exposure and we're gonna do something that's cold and
we are gonna do something that's called a clare-obscure, meaning we go from
darkness and we relight it. So where is the brush? You brush is located
here. You click on it. And basically the idea
is there's a whole bunch of settings here that you can do. And when you brush this settings are gonna be applied here. So I'm gonna double click
here on effect to put everything down to zero. And all I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna add some exposure, a lot of exposure. I'm gonna overdo this, but I want to show you a few things first. Let's talk about size. So size, you can change it here
and you can see in real time or even better if you have a mouse. And you can use the magic, the middle mouse and you on the screen, you can make it bigger or
smaller, which is kind of cool. So that's the way I do it faster. Okay. And then the other one, the
other thing is the feather. Okay. The feather, so let
me show you something. If I put the feather at the
zero and I start brushing, you will see you're gonna get
some really weird results. So I'm gonna, you see, it
created a pin as I brushed, and it's not good. But if I now put the feather at a 100%, you see there is two circles now. See how I changed the feather
and let me make the brush bigger so you can see? As I change, basically this is
gonna be the soft part, okay? So I always use it at
100% almost all the time. Let me make a bit smaller
and I'm gonna brush and now you can see, but you can
less see the brush strokes. So that's very important. The next one is flow and density. Let me put flow at a a 100%. And let me put the feather at
zero percent so you can see. So flow at a 100%. This is what happens. Now
let's go to flow at 50%. You see it's less powerful, and we put flow at 0%
and now nothing happens or just a little bit. Okay? Same thing. Let's put flow back and density on a 100%. So I'm at density down a 100%. I'm gonna put density at 50%. And it's very similar to what flow does. And I'm gonna put it at
0% and nothing happens. So basically flow and density
to make it simple is how much energy you're putting out
on this brush or data. I like when it comes to dodge
and burning, and in this case, dodging, meaning may get it brighter. I like to get my flow
in density in the 70's, because I find with a soft brush
I can do some cool dodging. And it's not so visible in your face. Now in this case, it's way too much. My rule of thumb when I do
dodging is basically to go like at .71 or something .60. Yeah. Not more, but it
still does something. Check it out. If you want to see the before
and after at the end of the panel, you have this little thing here before, after, before, after. Kind of cool. By the way guys, very important. If you can just smash that like button, it makes a huge difference and if you did not subscribe to my YouTube channel, please do. Also, I try to do weekly
videos. Leave me a comment. Tell me what you think about this video, what you would like to learn. I try to do, like right now, I'm a lot doing like sections
of Lightrooms by section and like, tell me what you want, whether it's a on Lightroom, Photoshop, on composite, you know, composition, photographic techniques, you
know, gear, whatever you want. I read all your comments. All right. So now I want
to make a new brush. And this time I want to
add a lot of exposure and I want to add some mist. So to add some mist, what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna go minus Clarity and minus Dehaze. And I'm gonna brush here
in the back and it's gonna add a whole bunch of mist. I think that's kind of cool. Okay, it's a little too much
so I can lower the Exposure and maybe lower the Dehaze
and lower the Clarity. Yeah. Something like that. But it's kind of cool. And if you want to see
the before and after. Before, after. So, and let's say you don't
like this, or you said, oh, I put it too much on the mountain. I want it to be more on the water. Well, make sure, so if you
over that little circle, that in you can see in red
where I brushed the mist. And if you over, if you click
here and you're over there, you can see where I
brushed on the first brush. So I want to create the first brush. I'm gonna click on this
one and you can use the Option key, Option
is the most used key in Lightroom and I can, and it becomes an eraser
that I can make big or small using the middle mouse,
and I'm gonna basically, erase the mist pass on
the top of the mountain. So now it's still there,
but just of the bottom, Check it out, before after. And if I put my mouse over here, you can see that the
mist pass is much lower. Okay? I can make it even more lower
by making a a bigger brush with the eraser. See how it's a minus? It's an eraser because I'm holding Alt and I'm just gonna do that. And it's gonna erase it, but it's gonna keep it on the water, okay? Okay, it's still there on the water. Another way you can see
where the, you have brush is you can click here on the first
pin and you can click here on Show Selected Mask Overlay, and you can see where you
brushed or I can click here and I can see where I brushed here. Okay. Maybe I don't want to add
mist there or maybe I won't. Okay, now I'll show you
something really cool. I'm gonna create a new brush. And this is something
not in a lot of people know about this. And let's say, I want to make, I want to make that snow pop out, but not the mountain, just the snow. So check it out. I'm gonna double-click on effect. I'm gonna add some exposure. I'm gonna add some clarity and a lot of exposure actually. And I'm gonna make a small
brush and I'm gonna paint, oh, I'm gonna take this
show selected mask away, I'm gonna paint on the
mountains where the snow is. But you see, it's kind of everywhere. I just want it to be on the snow. So check it out. I can go
here with my brush selected, range mask off, and I can go to luminance
and I can move my range mask to the right. A lot to the right. And check it out, before
it's everywhere after. And it's only on the white. And you can decide how much you want it to
be just on the white here, he can even find you in it
here and check this out. I only made the white snow
come out and nothing else. Before, after, before, after, okay. And one more cool trick with a brush. Let's say, because it
actually works with other, the gradient and the circle. Let me show you. So if you take a gradient,
let's say, I want to make that sky darker. I'm gonna, double-click on Effect. I'm gonna lower the Exposure. I'm gonna click and drag. I'm gonna overdo it so you can see. And I like it gives me
moody sky, but it's, it's not influencing the mountain. I don't want it to influence the mountain. So two solution. One is the solution of
using a luminosity mask, which I actually did a whole
video dedicated on that, see it somewhere, you must
have link to this one. So you, basically what I explained
is here you can move this to the right, and now most of the
sky's gonna be affected and not the mountains,
but there is another way. There is another way. You can click here, not on
this brush, but on this brush. And now you see you have a brush, okay? And basically let me show you if I do the Show Selected Mask Overlay see, I can see in red where my
gradient is gonna be influenced. If I brush, I'm gonna add some red, okay? I don't want that. I
actually want the opposite. So same thing I can hold
down the Option key, make a small brush. And now I'm gonna erase
the effect of the gradient on the mountain. I only want, let me make
it a bit bigger, very soft. I only want the sky to be
darkened and not the mountain. So let's take that out and you will see. Check it out. And now if I go before and after, it's only
the sky is influenced. It's a bit too much. So what you can do is you
can do a bit of range mask on top of it. You can mix both things. And now we have a darker sky. I think I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna make this
go a little higher up, but that's the general idea. Okay, now one more cool
thing about the brush that I want to show you is
let's say I want to brush and I want to make this
water a little more bright, but not the sand. So if I take a regular brush
and double-click on effect to put everything onto
zero, add some exposure, let me overdo it. And I brush here. You see, it makes the sand brighter and to makes the sea brighter. I don't want that. So there is an option called Auto Mask. And the way Auto Mask work is as long as your plus is on
the white on a very contrast, contrasty area, I mean,
there's a lot of difference between, you know, the white
here and the black here, check this out. I'm gonna make a small
brush, now if I brush here, it's only gonna effect
the, it's only gonna affect the water and not the sand. That's what Auto Mask is for. It's beautiful, auto mask
can make, so it's too much, I'm gonna erase it, but
it's a really cool feature. I only use it for this kind of, you know, when you come close to a
border, but check it out. Before, after. I think I
want to add more mist here. So I'm gonna add a new brush, new brush. Double peak on effect
add a bit of exposure, minus clarity, minus the dehaze. Just want to add a bit
of mist here in the back, like in the back here. Okay. It's way too much. It's
too strong on the back. So hold down, you can
hold down the Option key and can erase the effect if it's too much. And then I can, of course lower
the Clarity and the dehaze so it's not that strong and voila. I can click on done and check it out. Oh, sorry, go back here. You have to be active on the brush and this is gonna give you the before all the brushstroke and after. I totally changed the photo. Make sure, under this video you will find, you will find
the shortcuts for Lightroom. It's just a really quick page. You can just print and
it's gonna blow your mind. Also, you're gonna find
a lot of free goodies, including my free masterclass
on how to find your voice as a photographer. It's a one hour course on so
that you can find your voice as a photographer. I think it's so important today, as an artist, as you, as you grow, as you start learning that
you have a very strong voice and I have a really cool
technique for this, check it out. You know, you can see all
the beat photographers in the world. Like I can see them on Instagram
when they post a photo. You know, if I see an Ansel
Adams photo for example, even if I don't see his name, I know it's an Ansel Adams photo. You know, same thing for
Erik Almas, Joey Grimes, Trey Ratcliff, Scott Kelby,
Matt Kloskowski, Lindsay Adler, all the people I love, all
the photographs I admire, Henri Cartier-Bresson and so many others. Nick Page. Oh my God, so many. Like I just see their
work and I know it's them. 'Cause they have a strong voice. How to find that, link down below. All right, guys, I'll see you next time.
