greg14

What are the definitions of the colors that are in the Lightroom Histogram triangles?

I have just got into working with the Lightroom Histogram.
I understand the basics and how to apply the adjustments to eliminate the white triangle and get it to gray when the triangle lights up.
I am noticing that the Triangle will at times light up different colors such as :
Yellow, white, red.

I read that it is the actual color, however if it lights up "Red" there may not be Reds that are even in the image.
Should I be adjusting the Red in the HSL?

Am I making the right adjustment to get to the gray color when a color lights up other then white?
In other words (example only) :
if I change the whites/highlights is that the correct change or should it be "exposure" based on a color other then white that shows in the triangle.
Or should the adjustment be in the HSL, the problem I see is that the "Reds" do not seem to be the issue, generally part of the image is either Over or under exposed.

I hope I explained my question properly, please ask any follow up questions if I failed to make the case for the question,
Thanks ,

Greg

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

This is a very good tutorial on Lightroom. Doesn't matter that it's version 4. Scrool down, it's free. See the section on optimize. You want to work in the basic tab.
http://en.elephorm.com/tuto-lightroom-4-complete-training.html

greg14

How do you get it to play.
All I get is to buy it.


http://en.elephorm.com/tuto-lightroom-4-complete-training.html
Regards,

Greg

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I used to adjust the exposure and other sliders so that the triangles would go away. Might make for a good histogram but not necessarily a good photo. For example, you may have a small very dark shadow, small bit of very bright sky or a specular highlight. By the time you tame these, you might wind up with the wrong contrast or muddied mid-tones. My advice is to adjust the sliders to give a pleasing picture and deal with the extremes in other ways.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

I agree that you have to use common sense, but clipping is clipping, and in areas where there is clipping you are going to lose detail or have printing problems, so it is important to know where the clipping is occurring. See the Lynda tutorial to learn how to turn on clipping indications by clicking on the triangles. This will show you the areas in the image where the clipping is happening and the color of the triangle will indicate in which channel(s) it is happening.

Personally I clip nothing, except if, for instance, I am using a cine lens whose image circle is smaller than the sensor. In that case I let the blacks outside the image circle clip.

Otherwise I use shadow and highlights adjustments, or individually adjust the saturation and luminance values of specific colors. After that it is easy to use curves and/or midtone contrast adjustments to get back the look you want

blackest Loc: Ireland

These were quite good I didn't know option u for under exposed option o for over exposed or the hover over the triangles to bring up an overlay.

The was mention of the triangle color indicating the channel(s) being clipped. However no suggestion of how to deal with that.

If you adjust all three channels then you can eliminate the blocking or clipping in the troublesome channel but then you limit the range of the other 2 channels. Maybe that is the best you can do.

If you use the color balance blue yellow green magenta sliders you can push or pull the individual channels but that will affect the whole image tone especially in the well exposed details.

There are also tone curves for red blue and green channels and i guess it is possible to tweek these curves so you only make changes at the extreme ends. Which i think would leave the midtones still balanced. Again this is global so liable to have unintended consequences.

It may be an option to use local adjustments masking out the good area's and just adjusting levels in the clipped or blocked area's. I don't know if that could work well or just make a mess of the image.

So are any of these approaches viable or is just limiting the over all range the best we can do?
It is worth considering that not every part of an image requires detail especially away from the subject of interest.

Anyway if anybody has answers or successful strategies...

One more thing he says doing his best columbo impression is there anyway to create a mask from a clipping display? That potentially could be quite useful.