Choosing the Right Profile in Lightroom and ACR

Table of Contents

Profiles …

When you want to adjust your colors in Lightroom or ACR, most will typically go straight for the HSL panel….which will get you satisfactory results “most” of the time. 

Eventually, you’ll come across an outlier image that just doesn’t seem to play nice with the HSL panel. 

For example, you want to shift the reds more towards orange, but the sliders aren’t picking up on the exact pixels you wish to change. 

Or perhaps your HSL adjustments are too broad…and you’re shifting other hues close to red that you want to remain untouched. 

Either way, your color processing is off the mark…and it becomes frustrating. 

What if you could decide which pixels are considered to be a specific hue…giving you more power to include (or exclude) specific areas from your color adjustments? 

In comes profiles….which let you go “beneath the surface” and determine how the colors in your raw file area interpreted and displayed on your computer.

Now many think profiles are simply a new alternative to presets, where you can download and install these color “recipes” for your images. 

That’s technically correct, but it’s barely scratching the surface to what profiles can do for your photography…

If you’re ready to dive into the world of profiles, then this “substance over style” video will open up many doors for you in your color processing…and give you long-term results in your photography.

This lesson is a sample of what you’ll find in the creativeRAW Lifetime Membership Program. Click here for more details.