# Getting leaves greener



## camner (Apr 1, 2014)

I've just started working on some landscape photos in LR for the first time, and as I'm still in learning mode, I'm comparing my processing of raw files with the jpg OOC (I'm shooting RAW+JPG).  I am NOT trying to duplicate the jpg look...in fact in most ways I can improve on what the camera does to render the jpg.

In the case of the images below, you can see that the raw file on the left (with no adjustments at all), when imported with "Adobe Standard" has rendered the leaves on the tree with more yellow, whereas the SOOC jpg on the right has rendered the leaves a more natural and attractive green (imho).









I've fooled around to try to get the leaves to turn greener, and for the life of me I can't figure out what adjustments will do that without adversely impacting the rest of the image (e.g. making the sky an unnatural blue).  The best I've been able to do is to crank up the hue and crank down the saturation, which helps a lot.

I'm also noticing that this tendency to have the raw files render outdoor greens in a more yellow fashion seems to be just what the combination of LR and my camera does.  I suppose I could develop a preset to counteract that effect, but is there another approach to this?  I certainly don't want to have to adjust the greens in every outdoor shot I take!


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## Tony Jay (Apr 1, 2014)

Camner, from what I can see the differences are purely in the applied white balance settings.

Just cool the RAW image slightly using the white balance settings - and voila!

Tony Jay


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## clee01l (Apr 1, 2014)

My solution involves only using the Luminance adjustment.  In the HSL panel, choose Luminance and click on the icon on the top left to make your adjustments using the mouse on the image itself.  In the image mouse to a "green" area and click and drag *down*. this will move the adjustment sliders for the initial color under mouse toward the left.  When you have the right green, release the mouse.  This may affect more that just the green color adjustment tending toward the yellow if the foliage has that color in it.


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## camner (Apr 3, 2014)

Thanks both for your comments. 

@Tony Jay:  I spent some time on this approach (changing the WB).  What I found was that while cooling off the WB did, indeed, turn (most of...) the leaves greener, it had two undesired effects:  (1) the yellowest leaves didn't change much at all (perhaps because there isn't much green there to start with?) and (2) the sky turned a funky shade of blue.

@Cleetus: This worked well, particularly with a green saturation boost as well. Thank you.

A followup question:

1.  I'm not sure I quite understand what the Profile (under Camera Calibration) does.  I know it affects how LR renders the RAW image on screen.  I read the following recently (source = http://www.slrlounge.com/school/usi...n-the-camera-calibration-panel-in-lightroom-4): (see relevant parts highlighted in red)

*Camera Calibration Profile*

The next option we have in the Camera Calibration Panel is the Profile. The Profile comes defaulted at Adobe Standard, but we have a few different Color Profiles for editing in Lightroom. Although the color tones of your image will shift when you select a Profile for your image, it will not actually change the Basic Panel adjustments of your image. Instead, only the Color Profile is adjusted.






We recommend that you leave the Profile at Adobe Standard since this is the most universal Color Profile when you print your images. When you change the Profile in the Camera Calibration Panel, these adjustments will look different and you may not get the best coloring out of those prints. Unless you completely understand how Color Profiling works, leave the Profile at Adobe Standard.​---------------
This seems to suggest that assigning a profile here in Camera Calibration isn't the same as applying a preset, and also suggests that which profile is assigned in Camera Calibration will impact how an image will be printed in terms of the color rendering.  I understand that when printing, a color profile is embedded in the image and is (hopefully) picked up by the printer so that the image is rendered as faithfully as possible.

My initial thought was "Use the profile that gets me closest to what I think I saw (or wanted to see) and then adjust from there" rather than "Stick with Adobe Standard and adjust from there," but the info above seems to suggest that this could be a perilous way to proceed for images I may want to print.

What am I missing here?


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## sizzlingbadger (Apr 3, 2014)

Your initial thoughts are correct. These profiles are designed to mimic the in-camera jpg files which they do with varying degrees of success.


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## Bryan Conner (Apr 3, 2014)

The Adobe profiles were created at Adobe by taking an actual camera and profiling that particular camera's sensor.  There are small variances within a production run of cameras/sensors, so your particular camera may not produce the *exact *colors that the camera Adobe used produced.  Therefore, a custom dng profile *can *be an improvement for your camera over the Adobe profiles.  I noticed an improvement in the greens of foliage in both of my Canon cameras after creating a dual illuminate profile using a ColorChecker Passport card and software.


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## ernie (Apr 5, 2014)

I use the camera profiles as my starting point to get the image to where I want to end up. If you have a calibrated monitor and use proper paper/ink ICC profiles, I can't see how what starting point you started off with could affect how an image prints.
As for your original question, If you use the HSL to decrease yellow (luminence usually but sometimes a touch of saturation too) the greens will appear greener.


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## camner (Apr 5, 2014)

Thanks all for the tips. I'll give all these ideas a whirl.


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