How To Best Use the Powerful New Color Grading Tool in Lightroom

In the latest Lightroom update, Adobe removed the Split Toning tool and replaced it with Color Grading, a move that photographer Mark Denney explains in this 12-minute video has forever changed the way he develops color – for the better.

Denney says that of the three factors that make for a compelling landscape image – composition, light, and color – the most important of those is color. Since what you can do with composition and light is pretty limited in post, how you work with color is critically important during editing.

Lightroom’s newly-added Color Grading tool is, in Denney’s opinion, the most exciting update the platform has seen in a long time.

“If you’ve already updated to the newest version then you might have noticed that the section titled Split Toning has been removed, which may be a bit alarming,” Denney says. “But what it was replaced with is so so much better – more color control and precision then ever before. There’s even another much overdue and welcome change in the new Lightroom 10 update that has nothing to do with color that I’m pretty excited about as well!”

Denney covers details on how he uses the Color Grading tool, which should be familiar to anyone who has worked in Adobe Premiere in the last few years. It allows you to color the tone of shadows, midtones, and highlights independently, and also has controls for blending and balance. If you have been wondering how to best take advantage of the update, Denney’s instruction will prove invaluable.

For more from Denney, you can subscribe to his YouTube Channel or his host of photography tutorials.

(via Fstoppers)

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