Twilight Sky - Before/After

Have you ever seen the sky have brilliant blues, purples, pinks, oranges and reds?  Many times when we try to photograph these beautiful skies, the camera does not capture the colors as vividly as we see them with our own eyes.  In this tutorial using Adobe Lightroom, I’ll show you how you can bring out the amazing colors that you know were there.  Having your camera set to save images in RAW format instead of JPG will help preserve the colors and detail that you will be able to enhance in Lightroom.

One thing to note here is that these settings are what worked for this image and what I thought looked best.  When I took the photograph I had an idea in my mind what I wanted the final result to be.  The key thing to remember here is that you need to experiment with the sliders and settings to find what you like and what works for your image.  With this in mind, lets get started!

Step 1

The first thing to do with this image is to drop the temperature and raise the tint.  This will help make the blue look more blue and the hint of pink look more pink.

Step 2

Increase the exposure to .75 and the contrast to 75.  I want the trees to be a black silhouette against the gradient in the sky.

Step 3

Basic Panel Settings

Adjust the Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.  The image to the right shows the settings I used.  These settings will vary based on your image and the effect your going for.

Step 4

Increase Clarity.  I like to use Clarity on landscape shots.  I think it helps bring out details and increase the contrast a bit.  Be sure not to over do it with the clarity, unless of course that is the look you’re going for.   Increase the saturation.  I typically use vibrance when there are people in the image and saturation for landscape images. 

Step 5

Under ToneCurve I changed the curve to a medium contrast.  I want to make sure the trees are black against the sky.

Step 6

In the HSL panel, I used the target adjustment tool to modify the saturation of the purples.  This enhances the pink and purple colors of the sky.

Step 7

Add sharpening.  The sharpening settings I used are Amount: 86, Radius: 1.4, Detail: 52, and Masking: 64.  Adjust the masking as you need.  If you hold down the Opt. or Alt. key while clicking on the masking slider, you will see a preview of the areas that are being sharpened in white. 

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Hold Opt. or Alt. while adjusting the Masking slider to see the areas that will be sharpened in white.

Step 8

Under Lens Corrections, I chose Remove Chromatic Aberrations to take care of some purple fringing around the trees.

Step 9

Add a Post-Crop Vignette.  I used an amount of 38 and changed the feather to 100.

The image is complete!  To see a before/after of your image, make sure you are in the Develop Module in Lightroom and press the ‘\’ key.  This will toggle between before and after images. 

If you have any questions or would like to learn other techniques in Lightroom, please leave a comment below.  Thanks for watching and reading this tutorial!

Before Image (left) and After Image (right).

Before/After - Dandelion in a Bubble

In this tutorial I’ll show you my post processing workflow for this dandelion in a bubble image.   I used Adobe Lightroom and Perfect Effects 8 for the post processing of this image.  In my opinion Perfect Effects is a great tool to use in combination with Lightroom. 

The image was taken with my Canon 60D using the 18-135 f3.5-5.6 IS lens at 120mm.  Camera settings in manual mode were, 1/250 sec at f8.0, ISO 400.  It was a cloudy overcast morning which created a nice diffuse light.

Step 1

Bring the image into Adobe Lightroom.

Step 2

Step 2 - Basic Panel Settings In Lightroom

Make some global adjustments in Lightroom.  Here I adjusted the exposure, highlights, shadows, whites and blacks.  I did not modify the contrast because I knew I wanted to use the dynamic contrast filter in Perfect Effects.  With these adjustments complete, I brought the image over into Perfect Effects by going to File – Plug-in Extras – Perfect Effects 8.

Step 3

Step 3 - Dynamic Contrast settings in Perfect Effects

Once the image is in Perfect Effects I started adding Filter Layers.  First, I added a Dynamic Contrast - Natural layer.  Under the Filter Options and Detail, I adjusted the settings as follows: Small = 30, Medium = 20, Large = 0.

Step 4

Add a new layer to the Filter Stack.  Choose Color Enhancer – Green Enhancer.  Using the mask tool, place a mask on top of the yellow dandelion so the effect is not applied to the flower.  The green is now a little to much, so reduce the layer opacity to 50%.

Step 5

Add a new layer to the Filter Stack.  Choose Sunshine – Glow.  Reduce the layer opacity to 20%.  Copy the layer mask from the previous ‘Color Enhancer’  layer by using Ctrl + click to drag the mask to the current layer. 

Step 6

Add a new layer to the Filter Stack.  Choose Sharpening – Amazing Detail Finder.      Using the masking bush, mask out the background and foreground of the image.  To see where you are masking, press Ctrl + M.  Since these areas are out of focus to begin with, they do not need to be sharpened. 

Step 7

Add a new layer to the Filter Stack.  Choose Vignette – Big Softy.  Reduce the layer opacity to 65%.

Step 8

Click Apply to apply the filters and bring the image back into Lightroom.

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Final Image

Lightroom 5 - Creating Metadata Presets

Metadata Presets

Setting up a metadata preset in Adobe Lightroom 5 is not only a timesaver, but it allows you to easily apply additional metadata information to any image file.  What is metadata?  Metadata is all of the information associated with your photograph.  For example, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, location, capture date/time and more.  Creating a preset is easy and only takes a few steps. 

In the Library Module, select an image.  Look on the right hand side of the screen for a tab titled ‘Metadata’.  Expand the tab.  Here you see all of the information that is associated with your images.  Take a look through all of the fields and fill out the ones that you would like to apply to your images.  Generally, the metadata information that I add includes my name, address, email, website and copyright information.  Once you have your information filled out you are ready to save it as a preset. 

Go to the top of the Edit Metadata Presets dialog box you’ll see the word ‘Preset’.  Click the pulldown menu and select ‘save current settings as new preset…’.  Name the preset and click ok. 

Now your metadata preset is all set up and ready to be used.  You can apply the preset on your images as you import them into Lightroom or to images that are already in your Lightroom library.

Thanks for watching!

Lightroom 5 - Creating Import Presets

Looking to speed up your Lightroom workflow?  Creating import presets is going to help you do that.  Import presets allow you to make all of the choices about how to import your images and where to store them and then save those settings as a preset.  Each time you import photos simply select your preset and all of your settings are applied automatically!  It’s a great time saver and prevents you from having to make all of the same choices and selections each time you import photos.   If you have any questions about setting up import presets in Adobe Lightroom, leave me a comment. 

Thanks for watching!

Getting Started in Lightroom - Importing Photos

I'm a big fan and advocate of Adobe Lightroom.  Lightroom is a fantastic program that I use for importing, organizing, and developing all of my photographs.  It took some learning to get up to speed on the program and how to use it, but now I could never go back to using simple folders or other methods of organizing my photographs.  Below is a quick tutorial of how to import photos into Lightroom 5.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or email me.

Getting Started in Lightroom 5

Adobe Lightroom 5 Logo

Getting started in Adobe Lightroom can be a little intimidating.  When I first got started using Adobe Lightroom I remember thinking 'how am I going to figure all this out?'  I literally spent days researching, learning and sorting through all the information I could find to help me understand the program and how to use it.  Little by little I learned the program, how to use it, how to set it up and how to take advantage of the tools that are available to me.  By sharing my experience and knowledge of Adobe Lightroom, my hope is to help others just as I have been helped along the way.  

In my experience, there are no great 'secrets' to all of this stuff - its really just techniques, settings, styles, creativity, interpretations etc. that you may not have thought of or may not have learned yet.  I love to learn and I learn something new every day.  All the information that I plan to provide is the way I use Lightroom and what works for me.  I'm not saying this is the only way to do things, it's just what I found to work for me.  So, lets get started!

Adobe Lightroom 5 - File Locations

First Things First

I'm assuming that you have already installed Lightroom on your computer and are ready to go.  I use a Mac, so my setup will be based on the Mac system.  There are a few things you should know as you get started using Adobe Lightroom (Lightroom).  

• Lightroom is a program that allows you to import, organize, manage, develop/process and export images.  It is a database for all of your images.
• The more information you input about your images through metadata, ratings, keywords, etc. the better you will be able to search for specific images later on.
• The Lightroom catalog houses all of the information related to your images - file locations, organizational structural, develop settings, ratings, keywords, etc.   
• Image files are separate from the Lightroom catalog and can be stored in a different location than the Lightroom catalog file.  
• Lightroom provides non-destructive editing of photos. 

With these few things in mind, we can get started on setting up Lightroom.  First, you want to think about where you would like to store your Lightroom catalog and where you would like to store your images.  

The Lightroom Catalog (.lrcat)

What I do and would recommend is to place the Lightroom catalog file (.lrcat file extension) on your local hard drive.  This will allow your computer to have the fastest access to the catalog.  Each time you load your catalog in Lightroom, all of the information contained in the catalog must be called up.  The quicker the computer can access the catalog file, the quicker Lightroom will be up and running.  I store my Lightroom catalog on my hard drive under Pictures>Lightroom>Focus Photography & Design>Learning Catalog_LR5.lrcat.  You can name your catalog anything you would like.  In this case, this will be the catalog I use for various tutorials, learning and teaching to help keep the program moving efficiently. 

Image File Location

Next, think about where you want to store your image files.  If you will not have a lot of images or if you have a large internal hard drive, it might make sense to save the images on your internal hard drive.  I use an external hard drive to store my images.  I use a Drobo that contains 4 bays of hard drives.  The Drobo has been a great system for me that offers tons of storage and I would recommend them if you need a large external hard drive system.  

On my external hard drive I created a folder called 'Lightroom'.  Inside the 'Lightroom' folder, I created another folder called 'Photos Go Here'.  This will be the main location for all of the images.  It is important to keep all of your images inside one main (or parent) folder.  This method of storing your files will be helpful later on should you decide to move all of your image files within Lightroom.  

From this point forward, it is best to create your organizational system/file structure directly in Lightroom.  As you import your images into Lightroom, the Lightroom catalog creates a link to your images within the catalog.  The image files are not stored physically inside the catalog file, rather the catalog remembers where they are by saving a linked to them.  You never want to move the image files around in Finder or Windows Explorer because the link to the image in the Lightroom catalog will be 'broken'.  You will then need to 'relink' the file (you will see a little question mark in the top corner of the image preview letting you know that Lightroom can't find the file).  The best way to move and/or organize your images is directly in Lightroom.  By moving items in Lightroom, the Lightroom catalog will automatically update the links for the new image file location.

Inside your 'Photos Go Here' folder (or whatever the name you choose), you can then create any kind of organizational structure you'd like.  Below are the top level folders that I have created to organize my images:

I currently have my images broken down by year, then 7 primary categories.  Inside those 7 primary categories I have additional folders with specific events, places, etc.  I have a separate directory for iPad and iPhone images as well as a separate directory for all business/work related photography.  Inside the work folder, I further break it down into clients, projects, etc.  

This is the system that works for me, but it might not be the best for you.  Think about what you need and what you think will work for you.  I do find my organizational structure evolving over time, however with the setup I have, it is easy to move images and folders directly within Lightroom.  Keep in mind, the more images you have, the longer it will take to move them all around if you decide to change your organizational structure.  

I hope these basics help when getting started in Lightroom.  If you have any questions about the file locations and setting up a directory I'd be happy to help you further.  Please leave me a comment below.