Going Beyond the Basic Edits

This chapter is from the book

Lightroom Mobile Book, The: How to extend the power of what you do in Lightroom to your mobile devices

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This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book 

Lightroom Mobile Book, The: How to extend the power of what you do in Lightroom to your mobile devices

Learn More Buy

Creating Spotlight Effects Using the Radial Filter

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This filter creates an oval, and you can choose to affect the area inside it or just affect everything outside of it (which is how I use it, so I can create a spotlight effect for portraits or product shots). Here’s how it works: Tap on an image to open it in Loupe view, then tap on the Local Adjust icon at the bottom of the screen. (Note: Currently only available for iOS.) Tap on the icon on the left side of the adjustment tiles, then tap on Radial Selection. Now, tap where you want the center of your oval to appear and drag outward to create an oval shape. At this point, I tap on the Inverse icon (the fourth icon from the left) in the top-left corner to switch the selection, so any changes I make affect what’s outside the oval, instead of what’s inside (but, of course, which area you want to affect is up to you). To reposition the oval, just tap-and-drag the center pin (a red tint will appear showing which areas will be affected). To rotate the oval, tap-and-drag in a circular direction on the oval’s white line. To control the softness (feathering) of the oval’s edge, tap-and-drag the large, round pin at the top of the oval—drag it around the oval (the Feather amount will appear at the top of the screen—the higher the number, the softer the transition between the center of the oval and the area outside the oval). To resize the oval, tap-and-drag any of the small pins. Once your oval is in place, you can use the Edit adjustment tiles along the bottom of the screen to make your adjustments. To create a spotlight effect inside the oval, I darken the outside by dragging the Exposure slider to the left a bit. That’s all there is to it. To make a duplicate copy of your Radial Selection, tap-and-hold on the center pin and choose Duplicate Selection from the pop-up menu. To delete it, tap on the trash icon near the top-left corner of the screen. To create another Radial Selection, click on the + (plus sign) icon, also in the top left.