Lightroom Dodging and Burning Tutorial

This is a simple tutorial on how you can utilize Lightroom tools to Dodge and Burn selective areas of a photograph to your liking without using Photoshop. During the process I will also go through some simple steps to show how you can enhance an image directly in Lightroom. I chose a sample portrait to show the process, because I often rely on Lightroom to do most of my post-processing work.

So, what is dodge and burn and where did these terms come from? Here is what Wikipedia says about it:

Dodging and burning are terms used in photography for a technique used during the printing process to manipulate the exposure of a selected area(s) on a photographic print, deviating from the rest of the image’s exposure. In a darkroom print from a film negative, dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, while burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker.

The same technique can be used in digital photography to achieve similar results, although in Lightroom you can take the process even further by opening up shadows delicately and manipulating the exposure of certain parts of a photograph without ruining any details or colors. It goes without saying that working with RAW images gives a lot more opportunities to recover lots of details, as explained by Nasim in his RAW vs JPEG article.

Here is the before and after comparison of what I have done to demonstrate the Dodge and Burn capability of Lightroom:

before and after

[Read more...]

Sharing Lightroom Catalog with Multiple Computers

Lightroom Icon

If you have more than one computer at your home to work on your photos with Lightroom, you might be wondering if there is a way to share your Lightroom catalog, so that you can work on the same images with the same catalog on multiple computers at once. Unfortunately, the database system that Lightroom runs on (SQLite) limits the catalog to be used on a single computer, on a locally attached drive. Hence, simultaneously accessing a single catalog with multiple machines is not supported and will not work. On top of that, Adobe strictly forbids placing catalogs on network volumes, because it can result in all kinds of Lightroom database corruption issues (placing photographs on a network share is supported). In short, Lightroom is a “single-user” application with no support for multi-user access. While some people have been requesting a “multi-user” edition of Lightroom, Adobe currently has no plans to make such Lightroom version due to potential complexities of such software. True multi-user applications require a server and client infrastructure, which can be too complex for most photographers to set up and use.

[Read more...]

Lightroom 4.1 RC2 and Camera RAW 6.7

Lightroom Icon

Adobe has released an update to Lightroom 4 and Camera RAW that fixes some bugs and adds support for some new cameras and lenses. Lightroom has been updated to 4.1 Release Candidate 2, while Camera RAW 6.7 is now final and stable.

It is always a good idea to update to the latest versions of both Lightroom and Camera RAW, so that you work with the latest and greatest software with the fewer bugs, RAW support for more cameras and more lens profiles so that you could fix optical issues such as distortion and chromatic aberration with a single click using the Lightroom “Lens Corrections” module. Every once in a while a beta release might contain bugs, but if it is anything serious, Adobe will typically pull it out quickly and replace it with a better version.

Here is the list of cameras and lenses that are added with the Lightroom 4.1 RC2 release:

  1. Canon EOS 5D Mark III
  2. Canon EOS 60Da
  3. Fuji FinePix F770EXR
  4. Fuji FinePix F775EXR
  5. Nikon D3200
  6. Olympus OM-D EM-5
  7. Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF5
  8. Pentax K-01
  9. RICOH LENS A16 24-85mm F3.5-5.5
  10. Samsung NX20
  11. Samsung NX210
  12. Samsung NX1000
  13. Sony Alpha NEX-VG20
  14. Sony SLT-A57

Note that the Nikon D3200 is now officially supported.
See this page for a full list of bug fixes.

[Read more...]

Mastering Lightroom: How To Use the Tone Curve Panel

In this short tutorial I will show you how to use one of the easiest and most powerful tools found in Lightroom – the Tone Curve. In my previous tutorial about black & white conversions, I briefly showed you how to use the HSL Panel’s Luminance section to control the lightness of separate colors of the image. Using the Tone Curve Panel is very similar as it also allows you to control the lightness and darkness of various parts of a given photograph, however, rather than altering separate colors, the Tone Curve tool controls certain ranges of actual tones in the image.

What Is It?

Tone Curve Explained

The Tone Curve represents all the tones of your image. The bottom axis of the Tone Curve is the Tone axis: the line starts with Shadows at the left-most end and ends with Highlights in the right-most end. In the middle you have Midtones, which are then further split into darker Midtones, called Darks in Lightroom, and brighter Midtones, called Lights. In other words, going left to right, the curve starts with Shadows, Darks, Lights and ends with Highlights. You can also see the corresponding range shown to you by Lightroom once you hover over a specific slider under the Tone Curve, in the Region section of the Panel. The Y axis represents lightness of a given tones. The tones get darker as you move lower and brighter as you move up the axis.

[Read more...]

Mastering Lightroom: Branding and Customization

Lightroom is an amazing program with a myriad of great features to improve the look of your photographs. In addition to all the image editing and cataloging tools, Lightroom also has some cool built-in features to make it a little more personal. In this short tutorial, I will show you how to brand and customize your favorite RAW converter. A little :)

1) Identity Plate

You can brand your copy of Lightroom for your photography business by inserting your logo to the top left corner of the software through the “Identity Plate” setup. You can get to the “Identity Plate Setup” by clicking on Edit -> Identity Plate Editor. Make sure to check the “Enable Identity Plate” checkbox, otherwise you will see the default Lightroom logo at the top left of the window. In the editor, you can either use a stylized text Identity Plate, or a graphical Identity Plate.

How Does It Look - Text Stylized text Identity Plate allows you to input any text you want to show at the left side of your Modules Panel. Use the drop-down menus to set the font, style, size and color of any text (or a part of it). Using text makes it very easy and quick to change the Identity Plate at any time.

How Does it Look - Graphical Using Graphical Identity Plate allows for more flexibility – you can turn any image into an Identity Plate. Using PNG instead of JPEG format offers transparency, which, again, helps you make your logo blend in better with the graphical interface of Lightroom. One thing you need to be aware of is the height of the image you want to use – keep it at about 50-60 px, otherwise Lightroom will not fit it in the narrow Modules Panel.

[Read more...]

Mastering Lightroom: How To Use the Basic Panel

Lightroom has many features that can easily confuse those who are new to it. While the program offers plenty of different editing opportunities, in order to achieve the best results and user experience, it is important to understand the very basics of Lightroom. In the series of upcoming short articles, I will try to explain each of the most important Panels in Lightroom, so that in the end, you will find it to be a simple, quick and easy to use software for your post-processing needs. Lets start with the Basic Panel.

Where to Find It

Lightroom Panel List

The Basic Panel can be found in the Develop Module right bellow the Histogram display at the top-right side of the screen. Expanding the panel will reveal a number of basic controls offered by Lightroom. These controls show you the most obvious benefits of shooting in RAW, such as White Balance and Exposure Compensation adjustments. Lightroom was developed with a left to right, top to bottom editing workflow in mind. While in some cases you will find yourself going back and forth between the settings, we will try to stick with that order at this time.

Tip – if you left-click the top of any Panel while holding down the Alt key (for Windows users) or the Option key (for Mac OS users), Lightroom will go into Solo Panel mode and only keep one Panel open at a given time (for example, if you had Tone Curve Panel open and then click on Detail Panel, the Tone Curve Panel will then close). This allows for a more tidy experience, especially if you often find yourself scrolling through the right-side Panel List. Clicking it again the same way will return Lightroom to previous state. If you want to open another panel without closing the previous one in Solo mode, Shift-click it. Ctrl(Command)-click a panel to open/close all.

The Settings

1) Treatment

The very first setting you can change in the Basic Panel is the Treatment of the image. You have two settings – “Color”, which is set by default and keeps your image in color, and “Black & White”, which, as I have mentioned in my B&W Portrait tutorial, is a great way to start working on a B&W look of your image if that is your intent.

2) White Balance

Sometimes the Auto WB setting on your camera may pick the wrong value, or you might choose a wrong one yourself. These settings are there to make sure that the color captured in your image is correct no matter how the camera was set when you took the picture, so if the image is too blue or too orange, you can easily correct it.

[Read more...]

How to Convert Portraits to B&W with Lightroom 4

In this tutorial I will show you how to convert a portrait (shot in RAW format) to a black & white image using Lightroom 4. By the end of the tutorial, and with some practice, I hope to teach you how to have full control over the look of your B&W images. While I chose this particular look for this particular portrait, Lightroom offers many kinds of different ways to convert your images to black & white, and so it’s impossible to put all the looks into one tutorial. Certain conversions fit certain images better than others, and it also depends on taste and goal of the author. In the future, I hope to make more tutorials for both black & white and color photography with different conversion methods and looks.

B&W Result: HSL desaturation

Before we start, I would also like to note that, despite the fact that our final image will be in black and white, it is important to understand how everything works in color during the conversion process. While sometimes a simple contrast slider and curves tool can lead to a good-enough conversion, usually it is better to spend some more time tweaking different color ranges and working with white balance to affect color, and thus the tone of the image in order to achieve the best result.

With that in mind, here is the image I will be working on:

B&W Conversion Using Lightroom 4

[Read more...]

Lightroom 4 Review

Adobe has finally released the latest and greatest Lightroom 4, which packs plenty of new features. What are those new features and how does Lightroom 4 stack up against the older version? If you are wondering whether it is worth upgrading or not, then this Ligthroom 4 vs Lightroom 3 Review is for you. I will go over the new features of Lightroom 4, their practical use and the potential advantages of using those tools for your personal work or business.

Lightroom 4 vs Lightroom 3

[Read more...]

Lightroom 4 Announcement

Lightroom 4

Adobe has just officially released its Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 photo management software. This was a rather quick release/update, since the beta version of Lightroom 4 had only been available for a few months. With the announcement of Lightroom 4 come very important and exciting news – Adobe decided to permanently lower the price of the Lightroom product line by half, from $299 to $149! That’s right, if you have never owned Lightroom before, now you can buy it brand spanking new for $149. The upgrade price also got halved. If you already own LR3, then you pay $79 for an upgrade. Now the recent price decrease of Lightroom 3 to $69 makes sense – if you add the $79 upgrade fee, it totals $148, which is what Adobe wants to charge for Lightroom 4.

So, what features are new to Lightroom 4 and should you consider upgrading from Lightroom 3? Let’s take a look at the new features and changes:

  1. Updated Lightroom storage engine, which makes Lightroom 4 faster
  2. New Image Process Version 2012 that unlocks new LR4 features (see below)
  3. Better highlight and shadow recovery
  4. New White Balance capabilities, including a White Balance brush that allows changing white balance selectively on images with mixed lighting sources
  5. New editing brushes for noise reduction and moiré removal
  6. Better GPS integration with maps
  7. Extended video support, including limited video editing capabilities, playback and video export
  8. Built-in soft proofing capability (previewing images for print)
  9. Capability to create Photo Books/Albums
  10. More online sharing options and integration
  11. Ability to email photographs directly from Lightroom
  12. Ability to import and convert LR3 databases
  13. One click Chromatic Aberration removal
  14. Ability to burn CD/DVD disks in Lightroom
  15. Support for Nikon D4, D800, D800E and Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G

[Read more...]

Today Only: Get Lightroom for $69!

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

I have seen great specials from Adobe on Lightroom before (Christmas sale was $149) but this post-Valentine’s Day special blows anything I have seen away! Just today, you can get Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for just $69.95 from B&H. An incredible deal, considering the regular retail price tag of $269.95. Can’t complain about the price anymore!

While B&H does not have Lightroom in stock right now (sold out), you can still place an order and get your copy as soon as they have it back in stock, which they will very soon.