Enhancing Your Images Using Adobe Lightroom 2.3
With the new tools in Adobe’s Lightroom 2 I can adjust 85% of my images and bring those other 15% up to a level where at lest I know what they are capable of. After all of the cataloging and databasing work is done, I begin to use the Develop module to make enhancements. Sometimes I wait until after adjustments to rate photos, but other times when I am in a hurry, I rate first and then spend the time adjusting or “playing” with just the highest rated images.
Lightroom has listened to photographers and presents the tools more or less in the order you would use them. I use the same basic order in I use in Photoshop. In PS I would normally correct spots, crop unwanted areas that might also effect any auto functions or filters that read the entire image, and fix grain that could get multiplied as you add layers. Then I would apply the following adjustments to the clean image.
Lightroom 2.0 Development Module Workflow
1) Look at the histogram and come up with a plan. I use the clipping tool and read the RGB values as I pass the pointer over the image to confirm what I think I see in the image: lights, darks, colorcast, etc.
2) If there is chromatic aberration or noise I would skip to the bottom of the tool pallet and try to fix this early in the flow
3) If exposure needs tweaked I do this before Treatment (white balance). Correct exposure could change my opinion on white balance. The exposure and Blacks slider is enough with most photos, but a more difficult image would have me working on the tone curve and color sliders instead of white balance and exposure.
Using the new tools to correct exposure in just a small area
4) Correct white balance. I use the dropper and try different places (Lightroom has a white balance preview window now - cool!). I usually hand adjust a little after using the dropper – after all I was there and the computer wasn’t and I know how it looked to me.
5) I usually have to adjust up the blacks to get contrast back in, but I use the Tone Curve for highlights instead of the Brightness and Contrast sliders. You can get more fine control with the curve and you can select exact tones to push and pull using the tool.
Use the tool right on the image and move it up or down to lighten and darken just that range of tones. The Curve graph shows you the range of tones that you are editing.
6) I always experiment with adding Vibrance. Most of the time it is welcome.
7) The Clarity slider seems to be always the last tool I use perhaps because the effects always give me a “wow” feeling that makes me happy enough with the image to quit
8) Here I usually stop and apply the same adjustments to similar photos
9) If I want to go further I use the color sliders to pop certain colors, apply local adjustments and corrections, or go all creative on it.
10) For animal portraits I use the adjustment tools to dodge and burn the eyes for extra intensity.
