Standard Operating Procedure

Spot Coloring on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7

Jacob D. Prock

February 2, 2011

Objective:

This SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) is designed to teach anyone how to use a technique called Spot Coloring on any digital photograph using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7. Spot Coloring is the technique of leaving one or two selected colors in a black and white photograph.

Limitations:

This technique of digital Spot Coloring is limited to that of digital photographs and those that have been scanned into the computer. This SOP may or may not be limited to the use of Windows computers for it is unclear whether or not the Macintosh version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7 has identical controls and functions. There is little to no limitation on what you can select in any photograph to Spot Color for the program uses a masking/brush technique to edit digital images.

Requirements/Materials:

- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7 for Windows (32 bit or 64 bit depending on your computer)

- A Digital Image of some kind that you wish to Spot Color

- Time and a little Patience

Procedure:

1) Download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7 onto your Windows computer either from Adobe's website or from a disk. Install software and run program. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7 should soon open.

2) Either download and save an image that you desire to spot color from the internet (be sure to not infringe upon Copyright laws) or from your digital camera. Save the image either in a file in your Picture library on my computer or save it to the desktop. Go to the lower left-hand corner on the Library screen (tab is located in the upper right-hand side when Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7 first opens) of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7 and click Import. Import your desired digital image from the location you recently saved it to.

3) With your digital image imported, select the Develop tab in the upper right-hand corner next to the Library tab you selected earlier. After having selected Develop, look beneath the Histogram in the right-hand side bar. If you desire to crop your image use the cropping tool located beneath the Histogram. Once you have your desired image dimensions click on the Brush tool located directly under the Histogram (it is displayed as a paintbrush turned to the left with a faint circle around the tip).

4) Having selected the Brush tool, move down the side bar to where it reads Brush: and go to Size (all located in the third box under the Histogram). Adjust the brush size to what you desire. Now, go to Saturation in the box above. Click on the "-" bubble next to the word Saturation. Holding the left click button down on your mouse, move the cursor over the entire photograph. Once you have done this, your image should be entirely black and white.

5) With your image now completely desaturated, deselect the Brush tool by clicking on it's image under the Histogram. Now, reselect the Brush tool by clicking on its icon once more. Go back down to Saturation and select the "+" bubble next to the word Saturation. By moving the scale back and forth above under the Effect section, you can select the intensity of your re-saturation (do not select "-" values for these are already lacking color and will do nothing; approximately 23-35 is an ideal range on the scale for soft Spot Coloring). Once you have the intensity desired, move you cursor, holding the left click button down on your mouse, over the area of your image that you wish to spot color. You should soon have a Spot Colored image.

6) Once you've completed editing your digital image, select the Export option under the File tab in the upper left tool bar at the top. Export the image to you desired saving location.

7) Congratulations, you've just finished Spot Coloring a digital image on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7. Either save for a desktop background or print it out.

Assessment:

The now Spot Colored image before you should be evidence of your success. If this SOP was not clear enough, try visiting Adobe's website for more information or by simply clicking the Help tab on the upper toolbar in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.7.