Posted by Mark Windom on October 17, 2009 at 7:49 PM
I often use reverse ND grads when shooting sunsets at the coast. Is there a way to simulate the effects of a reverse grad with LR's gradient filter?
Posted by Jim Bullard on October 17, 2009 at 9:14 PM
No. Unfortunately the LR grad filter starts at the edge of the image even if you start to drag it from inside the image. The darker (or lighter if you are using + exposure) side will jump to the edge away from the direction of the drag. You could pile a + grad on top of a - grad but it isn't very satisfactory IMO. You might want to contact Adobe and suggest a reverse grad filter for the next version.
BTW you can use the fact that it does jump to the edge to control the length of the grad portion of the effect. If you want a more abrupt grad start the drag closer to the point where you want the grad to taper off.
Jim Bullard
Posted by Mark Windom on October 17, 2009 at 9:18 PM
Thanks, Jim. You've confirmed what I've been seeing.
Posted by Gene Lugo on October 18, 2009 at 7:32 AM
Remembered reading something about this for photoshop here - http://lagemaat.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-grad-nd-tool.html
Posted by David Taylor on October 18, 2009 at 12:35 PM
It would be a good idea for Adobe to add this to Lightroom's feature set. If you have PS though, it is very easy to do this in CS3/4. Even better would be to take two shots back to back (change the shutter speed on the second shot) and blend them using the grad tool in PS. Full control that way & the highest quality.
Posted by Jim Bullard on October 18, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Gene, The link you listed is about applying a + grad to the bottom (drag up) and a - grad to the top (drag down). I've done those and they work quite nicely for darkening sky and lightening foreground. What Mark wants is a graduated band of darkening in the middle and the LR grad filter always starts at an edge no matter where you start the drag.
As I noted, I have tried doing a minus grad overlaid with a shorter plus grad to restrict the minus effect to the center and it worked (sort of) but it wasn't very satisfactory IMO. You can do a much better job of it in Photoshop.
Discussion
5 repliesBTW you can use the fact that it does jump to the edge to control the length of the grad portion of the effect. If you want a more abrupt grad start the drag closer to the point where you want the grad to taper off.
Jim Bullard
As I noted, I have tried doing a minus grad overlaid with a shorter plus grad to restrict the minus effect to the center and it worked (sort of) but it wasn't very satisfactory IMO. You can do a much better job of it in Photoshop.
Jim Bullard