Learning to Develop My Photos

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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West Yorks
One of the things i'm struggling to get to terms with on my DSLR - is learning to process my photos in lightroom.

I've seen what the best photographers do, and just how different the photos look fresh off the camera to how they look once finished.

Thats not to say that photos are fake, because of course developing your photos so as to make the best of whats there is just as much of a talent, and an artform, as taking the photo itself. Gone are the days when developing your photos was done in a darkroom with some chemicals.

So then, can anybody suggest some good basic steps as to where to start with processing my RAW in lightroom ?
 
This is a really difficult question to answer really, I can honestly say have a play about, click every single button then click it again...I thought I knew a fair bit about it but I still discover new things about it all the time!
 
MrLOL said:
Gone are the days when developing your photos was done in a darkroom with some chemicals.
Click to expand...

Only if you want them to be. There's nothing to stop you shooting film, developing it and scanning/making prints of it. I can't stand spending hours on a computer for each photo, just doesn't do anything for me. Getting your hands dirty on the other hand... :D
 
Firstly forget processing. Set out to achieve what you want from your image before you take it. If its just an average capture then do your best to get an even exposure. When it comes to Lightroom remember a RAW is completely ditched of sharpness, contrast, saturation..
So where to begin.. Look at exposure. make micro adjustments to get your balance or off balance if you want that.
Remove or add contrast again by micro adjustment.
Boost saturation slightly or again if you wanna go vintage take it back more.

Then Lightroom has some really good filter options that can be applied with a brush or by a graduation.

To be honest thats as far as I would take Lightroom as I am way more comfortable in photoshop.

There are some great presets loaded into Lightroom for already famous and well documented styles that you can instantly apply. Probably best to try a few of them out and then make adjustments from them to make a new style.

You'll look for shortcuts to an amazing self claimed style but it won't happen. Just experiment to your hearts content.. The style should really come from your image its self based on its composition and light.. Then once you've got something from that which is you, processing on top of that is a cinch
 
It is an interesting process to get your head around. Like Johnny any photos I process (be it personal or work) are done with Photoshop in mind. I use Capture 1 for developing but the idea is the same for whatever you use. Open the shadows, recover the highlights, and push the exposure as far as you can without revealing too much noise or sending anything over the highlight limit (where possible at least. In C1 I have my shadow warning set to 10 and highlight to 245).

Once you've basically extracted as much detail from the file as possible without blowing the highlights I may colour balance it (though if its been shot in the studio it will have been grey carded so likely neutral anyway, and location shots go through so many colour changes half the time as long as there's no obvious cast and they're all similar enough most is left to Photoshop).

Then any chromatic aberations or moire that can be fixed, though you don't need these to perform miracles as again its often easier to fix in PS.

Sometimes I may remove a bit of noise at the developing stage. Sometimes ill develop multiple versions of the same RAW to blend the best bits in PS before starting the usual retouch. Depends on the image.

If you're sticking in LR from start to finish then I guess you may as well just do what you think looks good. If its going no further than LR just play about till your happy with what you're seeing on screen (though id always reccommend opening the shadows and recovering the highlights as a starting point).
 
Adrianr said:
It is an interesting process to get your head around. Like Johnny any photos I process (be it personal or work) are done with Photoshop in mind. I use Capture 1 for developing but the idea is the same for whatever you use. Open the shadows, recover the highlights, and push the exposure as far as you can without revealing too much noise or sending anything over the highlight limit (where possible at least. In C1 I have my shadow warning set to 10 and highlight to 245).

Once you've basically extracted as much detail from the file as possible without blowing the highlights I may colour balance it (though if its been shot in the studio it will have been grey carded so likely neutral anyway, and location shots go through so many colour changes half the time as long as there's no obvious cast and they're all similar enough most is left to Photoshop).
Click to expand...

this is the basic steps i'm struggling with. I'm never actually sure what any of the settings i'm adjusting do !
 
Phate said:
This is a really difficult question to answer really, I can honestly say have a play about, click every single button then click it again...I thought I knew a fair bit about it but I still discover new things about it all the time!
Click to expand...

this tbh!

Just open up a few random photos in lightroom and move sliders around until it looks nice. You don't have to know off by heart what each slider one does but after using the same ones multiple times and seeing the effect it has on the picture you should be able to understand how it effects an image.

No one can really tell you how to process an image as everyone has their own preferences and style.
 
I find lightroom is very well set out; just run through an image playing with the settings from top to bottom until you're happy. It's a reasonable enough order to be doing it all and it gets you to be familiar what does what. Ignore the tools at the top except the crop one for now; you can worry about those later.
 
On Facebook there's an adobe page. They're always posting tutorials for Lightroom, some of which are good. I think that's linked to the youtube thing mentioned above though.

Personally I try to keep it as simple as possible. If you get your composition right then half your work is done. I like the simple look of a sharp photo, a bit of contrast and black tinkering. Sometimes playing around with the shadows, highlights, etc helps an image along I find. I also like using vignetting, especially in very bright shots as to me it seems a bit more moody :)
 
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