Negative Clarity – A Powerful New Tool in ACR

Photoshop CS3 introduced a new and powerful tool, Clarity, in their Raw converter, ACR (Adobe Camera Raw). This feature improves contrast in the midtones giving many images a welcome snap without sharpening. ACR 5 in CS4, as well as Lightroom 2, improved this tool in ways that may not be apparent by allowing the user to now make negative Clarity adjustments thus decreasing midtone contrast. This feature, especially when combined with another new and incredibly useful tool, the Adjustment Brush, allows for at least two new non-destructive editing applications of Raw files.

The first application of negative clarity is for portrait work. When the Clarity slider is moved to the left, i.e., a negative setting, pores, blemishes, acme and wrinkles begin to vanish and are replaced by a smooth complexion. This is similar to what you might expect when applying a Gaussian blur in Photoshop except in this case you are targeting only midtones, i.e., skin tones.

For portrait work there are a few ways to do this. The easiest is to simply move the clarity slider to the left to make a universal adjustment. Another, more targeted way is to use the new Adjustment Brush only on the skin area (see image of my mother). Hit 'K' to open the adjustment brush, move the Clarity slider to about –50 and brush over the skin. Then adjust the clarity slider left or right until you get the desired look. You can then click on ‘New’ and use a positive setting and brush over the hair, eyes, lips to add some snap to those areas if needed.

What I personally do most of the time is create a soft glow around the subject by using a Preset. I have created three Presets that vary the negative clarity setting. My presets include three adjustments; 1) As a Nikon shooter I use the ‘Camera Portrait’ camera profile for best skin tones 2) Go to the Tone Curves/Parametric Curves and set Highlights at +15 and Shadows at –25 (this helps with the overall glow of the highlights and darkening of the shadow areas to let the subject stand out.) 3) Set Clarity to –15, -30 and –50 to create three different presets each with different negative clarity strengths. I then simply try each preset until I find the one that works best being careful not to go too far. If after applying a preset I still need more softness in the skin I hit ‘K’ to open the adjustment tool and apply the brush with a negative clarity in the skin as needed. This method can quickly give you a glamour glow with smooth skin – see picture of young girl with acme skin created by simply using the above preset.

The second application of new negative Clarity setting and Adjustment Brush is to help isolate your subject by softening the background. As above, hit ‘K’ to pull up the adjustment brush and move the clarity slider all the way to the left, -100 for starters. Then brush over the background area surrounding your subject to soften detail. If the area is too soft then you can simply move the slider to the right until you get the look you want. This is similar to applying a Gaussian blur or using a larger aperture to blur background, except it is non-destructive. This method is also great for softening any light source that is in the picture. Brush over the light bulbs or even better, over lit candles to help create a dreamy mood.

Since CS3 the Clarity slider has been a quick and easy way to add some midtone snap to our images. Now, the latest and greatest version goes both ways and adds even more power to our non-destructive tool kit. Give it s try.