1 Correct answer
Raw/DNG files wouldn't be expected to work because they're raw; in other words the raw data has not been rendered to final RGB colors so Adobe Color wouldn't be sure what color rendering it should assume to build a palette out of. You may have applied some color edits to that raw file, but the data only lives in the Lightroom cloud database, not actually in the file itself. It might be possible if they built the Adobe raw rendering engine into Adobe Color and also set up a way of transferring ed
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What you’ve said helps clear things up a little. It sounds like you want some simple steps, and might have thought that Adobe Color could help. But first, we should get one thing out of the way: It is not common for Adobe Color to be used in photo editing. It‘s used as a color palette tool for graphic design, in apps such as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and (when used for design, not photography) Photoshop. For example, a designer would use Adobe Color to work out a standard color palette to apply across an advertising campaign for a brand, or for the production design of a TV show or movie.
But you’re asking more about basic photo editing, and for that, we should review how Lightroom is intended to be used for that. We shoot similar subjects like travel photography, so my example below uses an image I shot on a trip. First, a before/after: I edited it to bring out more details in the highlights and shadows, and to shift the colors to the warm side of the color wheel.
The most basic way to get there in Lightroom is to follow these three overall steps:
1. Choose a profile. A raw profile sets the starting point for the more specific settings that you apply. I am finding that the new, intelligent Adaptive Color profile fixes a lot of contrast problems right away, like a really smart Auto button. I like it because it usually reduces the number of steps I have to do later. If it goes too far, reduce the Amount slider. Or choose another profile like Adobe Color or Adobe Landscape if those look better to you.
(The colors in the demo are a little rough-looking because they’re GIF animations.)
2. Adjust options in the Light panel. My example covers such a wide tonal range that I want to lower Highlights and raise Shadows a bit more. (Note: In step 1, if you chose a profile that does not have Adaptive in the name, here you can try clicking the Auto button at the top and see if you like what it does.)
3. Adjust options in the Color panel. The White Balance settings (Temp and Tint) shift colors along the warm/cool (yellow/blue) axis and green/magenta axis of the color wheel, respectively. You see me first try the White Balance presets because they are common lighting conditions.
That’s a good way to start.
The other color panels you see, such as Color Mixer, Point Color, and Color Grading, are advanced tools for making more specialized adjustments that can be based on color theory. For example, if you wanted to generally shift image colors around the color wheel, you could use the Color Grading panel, which works in a way that’s familiar to professional colorists who color-grade major TV/cinema productions.
It’s often used to independently shift the major tonal ranges (highlights, midtones, and shadows), to achieve effects like the example described in the tool tip in the screen shot below: Warming up highlights and cooling down shadows is a color contrast technique used at least as far back as Renaissance painting.
BTW, I got the idea to use Adobe Color from a video tutorial by an expert who demonstrated its use on a street scene photo.
By @Richard2138
Ah, OK. I have seen tutorials like that too. Yes, it’s a perfectly legitimate way to work. Although again, it’s a sort of advanced method for those who think in terms of cinema-style LUT-based color grading, and also want to repeat that color “look” across other photos.
For most other photographers including myself, if we can get the colors we want using Lightroom tools alone (which we can in most cases), we’ll simply transfer that to other photos using the copy/paste or sync features in Lightroom. Or we can create one or more presets that record our favorite color settings, and apply them to any other photos we like.
But this might not apply to you since you talked about editing just the photo in front of you, and not necessarily needing to edit groups of photos consistently.
Those are all good questions, specific to how Adobe designed their raw processing. Someone could legitimately have the same questions even if they had been a Photoshop expert for 30 years, because this Adobe raw processing pipeline with profiles is relatively new (but powerful).
What I'm not getting is how does my choice, Adaptive or otherwise, impact subsequent editing
By @Richard2138
An Adobe raw profile sets the baseline for what the Light, Color, etc. panel options will be able to do. For example, you’ve already seen how changing the raw profile can change which colors are emphasized and de-emphasized, with the profiles having Neutral in the name being the most objective. What you want to notice there is that as you change profiles, the values of the color settings don’t change. That’s because of how a profile sets a baseline for editing. For example, if you intend for an image to have a lot more saturation than normal, it might be good to apply a profile like Adobe Vivid because then the starting saturation level will be higher than for Adobe Color or Adobe Neutral. That also means Adobe Vivid will let you you push out saturation further than with other profiles. On the other hand, if you are doing portraits of people, it makes sense to start with the Adobe Portrait profile because it’s color-graded for skin tone colors. (Applying Adobe Landscape or Adobe Vivid to a portrait could make skin colors harder to control before they look wrong.)
Although it’s OK at any time to change which profile you apply, keep in mind that it could cause you to revisit your color edits because the baseline color rendering was changed. So it’s best to apply an appropriate profile as the first step, but don’t feel locked into that decision.
…can I use more than one adaptive profile on an image, like one for sky and one for foreground?
By @Richard2138
Unfortunately no. People have asked for that, but for now a profile controls the base rendering of the entire image…especially the Adaptive profiles. Masks can only change the values of options in the Light panel on down, that’s partly why the Profile section is separate and above all of those panels.
Something else I point out to people is the differences between these three things:
Adobe raw profiles set the baseline for the raw image rendering.
Lightroom presets can nclude a profile plus adjustments in the editing panels.
ICC color profiles are a completely different thing and are not part of Lightroom editing until you export, where they are an option.
Further reading:
Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw (applies to Lightroom) - describes what each raw profile category is for
The Adobe Adaptive profile - explains how the new AI-driven, image-specific Adaptive Color and Adaptive B&W profiles are much different than the other raw profiles
Do the rules of the Adobe Community permit you to answer questions about Lr, but unrelated to my initial question? There's a process in Lr that has me talking to myself, and you might be the one to provide a clear answer.
By @Richard2138
Follow-up questions related to the original question are OK, but for unrelated new questions, the community guidelines recommend starting a new thread. It just makes it easier for people who come looking for an answer to the same original question (to not get sidetracked by digressions).
Also I might have a good answer for some questions, there are many other expert users here who know a lot more than I do about various areas of the software.
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