Remove color reflections in Lightroom Classic ACR with new Point Color

Colin Smith

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Fix Color in a photo with Point Color in Lightroom and Camera RAW

A new tool in Lightroom and camera Raw is Point Color. This tool enables you to select and change colors in photos based on Hue, Saturation and Lightness, as opposed to old tools which only let you select by hue. Point Color can also be used on Masks.

We will remove this color reflection from the photo of cameras.

Before and after of a vintage Kodak Brownie camera with purple color reflections removed in Lightroom

How Point Color Works

First lets take a quick look at how Point Color does its magic.

Go to the Develop Module in Lightroom (Or Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop)

Go to Color Mixer and you’ll see Point Color.

Click the eyedropper tool

Point Color eyedropper circled in the Lightroom Color Mixer panel

Click on the color you want to work with in the photograph

Sampling the green hedge next to a woman in a purple dress with the eyedropper, circled

You will se the color is selected.

You can drag to the left or right to change the Hue (the color itself)

Drag up or down to change the Saturation. (Amount of Color)

Drag on the gradient to the right to change the Luminance (Light or Dark)

Of course you can always use the sliders which are named as such.

Point Color swatch and color field with the sample markers outlined

Try moving the sliders or the point in the color swatch, you can alter the corresponding colors on the image.

Here you can see the green changing.

Women in bright paper costumes with green areas outlined in red

Click the visualize Range box, or hold down Alt/Option as you move a slider to see the area that’s being changed. On the effected area will appear in color.

Visualize range showing only the green and yellow areas in color

As we move the slider, notice the bar under the swatch shows the original color to the left and the new color on the right half of the bar.

Hedge and green costume shifted toward yellow with Point Color

We can refine which areas will be included by opening the arrow at Range to see the options.

Moving the range slider to the left decuces the reach of colors to be included, while sliding to the right increases the spread.

Use the Hue, Saturation and Luminance range sliders to further refine the selection. This is demonstrated on the video above

Hue, Saturation and Luminance Range sliders with Visualize Range checked

Notice, we can refine the selection so just the greens in the hedge are selected.

Visualize range refined so only the hedge greens are selected

Change the Hue Shift to add a nice green to the hedge and no affect anything else. As I noted at the start, this will also work on masks if you need to refine it more.

Hedge turned a rich green with the Hue Shift while the costumes are unchanged

Fixing the Color Contamination in reflections

OK, let’s look at this picture I snapped at an exhibit. You can see all kinds of colored reflections on the metal from surrounding colored lights. Let’s fix this.

Vintage camera and flash with purple reflections circled in red

Choose the eyedropper to select the purple color.

Refine the selection under range

Visualize range showing the purple reflections selected on the camera

Drag the saturation all the way to the left to remove the color.

Purple reflections removed by dragging Saturation to the left

There are still some salmon colored reflections.

Remaining salmon colored reflections on the camera with a second sample

Click with the eyedropper to add a second color.

Reduce the saturation to remove that color too.

Salmon reflections desaturated with a second Point Color sample

Notice the red letters are still there on the camera.

Vintage Kodak Brownie camera and flash with the color reflections removed

Watch the video to see this more in depth.

I hope this was useful!

If you want to learn Lightroom Classic check out my course on Lightroom 2023 here, or the brand new course on Lightroom Masks

Thanks

Colin


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3 comments

  1. OverNight Graphics

    It was very helpful to learn this valuable technique. It will be a very essential skill in a graphic designer’s arsenal.

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