Lightroom Help

James83

James83

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Name
James
Edit My Images
Yes
Recently started using light room and think i am slowly getting to grips with it but my post processing skills arent the best and still learning and developing so i am after a few pointers?

I took this shot last night whilst out playing with the camera.
Original by jamesmeephotography, on Flickr

There wasnt much light about but thought it would give me chance to play in lightroom with making the skyline look more dramatic.
I have had a little play around and manage to do it to some degree with the graident but because of the wind turbine its difficult as it makes that dark too. Is there anyway around this?
This is what ive ended up with so please feel free to give me some pointers or if its really that bad just to delete it and start again :)

_MG_5433 by jamesmeephotography, on Flickr
 
Which version of Lightroom are you using? They have altered the tools a bit in the last few versions so could give you pointers using the latest version, but it might not match what you have :)
 
Oh yeah might of helped if i had pointed that out. I am using 5.5
 
Use the adjustment brush, on the turbine, to get the look you desire.
 
Sweet, in that case I would do something like this:

The original:
windmill-to-edit by Jimmy Lemon, on Flickr

Something along the lines of this in Develop module (will look different when working from the RAW):
windmill-nograd by Jimmy Lemon, on Flickr

And if you want to add more punch (but run the risk of causing the windmill to go dark) you can add a grad with just some additional clarity and constract (saturation added just for s***s and giggles)
windmill-withgrad by Jimmy Lemon, on Flickr

Then just straighen it up:
windmill-straigtened by Jimmy Lemon, on Flickr

Hopefully those screen grabs are big enough for you to see. But basically the Highlights tool is your friend :) The shadows also work a treat but can add a lot of noise if using high ISO images.
Running through the order I tend to start with the exposure slider to try and get a nice mid ground.
Then try and bring down the highlight so they dont look blown (maybe having to adjust the exposure, or even the "whites" slider if you can do it enough with the highlights)
Then try and bring out the shadows with the "shadows" tool.
Then add some saturation to bring the colours back.
Then add some clarity to taste.

You can then choose if a grad or anything is needed to help the image.
Finally straighten everything up (though this can sometime be good to do first in case, like your photo, straightening it crops something else out).

Should prboably add that using those settings might be OTT if you are working from a RAW file :)

Hope that helps in some way :)
 
Last edited:
johnnypanic said:
Use the adjustment brush, on the turbine, to get the look you desire.
Click to expand...

This can work, but I really struggle to get it pixel perfect to the edge of the object and slightly inside and you end up with a black edge to the object and slightly outside and you get a halo :(
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
This can work, but I really struggle to get it pixel perfect to the edge of the object and slightly inside and you end up with a black edge to the object and slightly outside and you get a halo :(
Click to expand...

Making sure auto mask is enabled will be a big help here.
 
mickledore said:
I've not used it either. Any clues as to where to find the option?
Click to expand...
Open the adjustment brush, scroll down tools using slider on right, under brush tab you will see a tick box for "Auto Mask".
Also tick the "Show Selected Mask Overlay", this highlights the brush area in red so you can see what you have selected.
Hope this helps :)
 
mickledore said:
I've not used it either. Any clues as to where to find the option?
Click to expand...

Click on adjustment brush and its down the bottom of the menu below brush size, feather and flow., (In Lightroom 4.4)
 
Thanks, I just found it. I was looking in the graduated filter - I thought that was what was being referred to.
 
Help above is excellent will give it a try shortly. Going down to North Devon in the morning for a week camping so will have my laptop and camera with me so will see what i can do. I may be back asking more questions soon.
 
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