Post Processing - 3/4 - The Mansurovs

Default Lightroom 3 Import Settings

Sep

2010

September 16, 2010

One of the first features that I noticed when I moved from Lightroom 2 to Lightroom 3, was the changed import dialog box. I got very used to the old ways of file imports in Lightroom 2 and while the new import screen seems to be prettier and easier to understand, some things do not work the same way anymore. If you have already seen my “How to Organize Pictures in Lightroom” guide, you will notice this import dialog change. Before writing an updated article on organizing pictures for Lightroom 3, I decided to share the settings I use in my environment and try to explain some of the import features.

To bring up the import screen, you can either click on File->Import Photos, or press CTRL+SHIFT+I on your keyboard. Once the import screen comes up, it will look like the following:

How to Properly Sharpen Images in Lightroom

Aug

2010

August 3, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 59 Comments

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom comes with powerful tools to sharpen images during post-processing. Located in the Develop module of Lightroom, the “Detail” box contains both Sharpening and Noise Reduction tools that allow Photographers to enhance their digital workflows by fine-tuning images and getting them ready to be published and printed in a quick and efficient way. Since I have already covered the noise reduction part in my Noise Reduction Tutorial, in this article, I will show you how to properly use the Sharpening tool instead.

1) Problems with Sharpening Images

Sharp images look aesthetically more pleasing than soft or blurry images. Because of this, most photographers try to sharpen their images in post-processing applications, which can result in all kinds of problems such as:

Over-sharpening – when too much sharpening is used, it results in harsh, visible lines on edges and around objects. Over-sharpened images often look too “textured”.
Too much noise – using excessive amounts of sharpening can add a lot more noise to an image. The worst result is when an image is already shot at high ISO levels and sharpening is applied on top of the digital grain, resulting in even more noise.
Zigzag lines – straight thin lines can get converted over to zigzags and circular shapes can get cubic transitions when excessive sharpening with a large radius is applied.

Here is an example of an over-sharpened image:

Over-sharpened Image

Photo Noise Reduction Tutorial

Jul

2010

July 11, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 45 Comments

This photo noise reduction tutorial is for beginner photographers, who want to reduce or get rid of noise in their digital images and don’t know how to do it. I will first explain what noise is and how you can reduce it in camera and then I will show how you can reduce it in post-processing, using Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and commercial plugins for Photoshop.

1) What is noise in digital images?

If you have a digital camera, whether you have an advanced top of the line DSLR or a simple point and shoot, you will at some point get images with small dots all over the image. Those small dots might not be very noticeable when you look at the image on the back of the camera, but when you zoom in and view the image at 100% on your PC, they all of a sudden become quite visible. Take a look at the following image:

Lightroom 3 Lens Correction

Jul

2010

July 2, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 30 Comments

Do you know that Lightroom 3 can now easily fix geometric distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting issues in your images without having to open Photoshop? In this article, I will show you how to fix lens issues in your photographs, in addition to adding a lens profile to Lightroom 3 if your lens is not supported by Lightroom’s Camera RAW.

1) What is Lens Correction in Lightroom 3?

Lens Correction, also known as “Distortion Correction”, is a brand new feature that was introduced in Lightroom 3 to allow photographers to fix such lens problems as distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting “non-destructively”, without leaving Lightroom. This is a great addition to Lightroom, since all of the above had to be manually performed in Photoshop using a Lens Correction filter, which was a rather tedious task (especially for a large number of images). The beauty of the lens correction feature in Lightroom 3, is that just like any other setting, lens correction settings can be copied from one image to another, or applied to hundreds of images at once without having to open each image individually. Take a look at the following image that was taken with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G lens:

Move your mouse over and out of the image to see what it looks like before and after Lens Correction is applied to the image. The curves around the edges are straightened and the building looks more natural. This is not an extreme case with distortion, but you get the idea. The corner darkness (vignetting) is also taken care of.

Lightroom 3 Process Version

Jun

2010

June 13, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 19 Comments

1) What is Lightroom Process Version?

After you convert all of your Lightroom 2 catalogs to Lightroom 3, you will notice that images from the converted catalogs will have a warning sign when you view them in Develop module (under the image). In addition, you will also see a new drop-down under “Camera Calibration” that was not there in Lightroom 2 called “Process”, which contains “2003″ and “2010 (Current). Here is how it looks:

Upgrading Lightroom 2 to Lightroom 3

Jun

2010

June 12, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 36 Comments

This is a quick guide on how to upgrade Lightroom 2 to Lightroom 3. One of the good news for Lightroom 2 (LR2) users, is that unlike the beta version, the full version of Lightroom 3 (LR3) allows upgrading the LR2 catalog to LR3 catalog without having to re-import all images into a clean catalog. Also, Adobe allows keeping both versions of Lightroom on the same machine, which means that you can install LR3 and continue to use your old LR2 with the old catalog. Until performance issues are all addressed in LR3, I would keep both versions on the machine in case of failures or problems.

1) Download and install Lightroom 3

If you are hesitating about downloading the online version of Lightroom 3 versus buying a boxed version from a store, don’t – they are both exactly the same. Adobe lets you download the full version of Lightroom and use it for 30 full days until you input the serial number from a retail boxed version. This is a great way to try it out and see if you want to keep it or not. If you do, then simply purchase the retail version of Lightroom 3 later and when the package arrives, use the serial number to unlock the 30 day limitation – you don’t even need to insert the CD.

Lightroom 3 has been released!

Jun

2010

June 7, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 18 Comments

It is not official yet, but Adobe has secretly released the final version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for both Windows and MacOS platforms. You can download the final version trial right here.

Upgrade from Lightroom 2 is just $99, while the retail version is currently selling for $299. You can also purchase it directly through the above link and get it now (via download method), without having to wait to get a packaged version in a store, which is great for those of you who cannot wait :)

I’m downloading it now and I am really excited about upgrading to Lightroom 3. I love Lightroom and I have been using it for my photography ever since Lightroom 2 was released. I have some beginner articles for Lightroom here, although it is not much (planning to write more in the future). By the way, for those who currently have Lightroom 2 – the LR3 beta did not allow to upgrade the existing LR2 database, which was a bummer. This issue is now fixed in the final release and LR3 gives the option to upgrade the database as soon as you start it for the first time!

Filed Under: Digital Photography, Lightroom, Post Processing Tagged With: Lightroom 3, Post Processing

How to Make the Sky Blue in Lightroom

Mar

2010

March 29, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 15 Comments

One of the biggest frustrations in photography is the fact that our cameras are not able to fully capture the light and the dark tones that we can normally see with our eyes, which is known as “dynamic range”. How many times have you seen situations when the sky is blue and beautiful, but it comes out very pale or gray in your photographs? There are other cases, when the sky is not blue at all, but you still want it to be blue in your picture. Gladly, the problem can be easily fixed in Lightroom, as long as the rest of the picture is fine.

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can transform the sky from light-blue/gray:

Original Image

To darker blue:

Snow and Blue Sky

1) Graduated Filter Tool

In the past, if you wanted to fix the sky in a photograph, you had to open it in Photoshop, then work with it through layers and masks. With the introduction of Lightroom 2, Adobe provided plenty of great functions within Lightroom without having to use Photoshop. These new functions truly save a lot of time, because you can copy-paste the same settings from one picture to another, especially when working with panoramas.

Landscape Photography Post-Processing Tutorial in Lightroom

Mar

2010

March 4, 2010

By Nasim Mansurov 48 Comments

In this tutorial, I will show you how to transform boring landscape pictures to vibrant and beautiful images in Lightroom in quick and easy steps. I will show you the real benefits of using the RAW image format and just some of the possibilities it gives you to non-destructively enhance your photographs without ever leaving Lightroom. I personally use this technique for post-processing my landscape photography all the time and I hope you find it useful.

Read on if you want to be able to take an image like this (original, as came out of the camera):

Original

and transform it to an image like this:

Final

How to Whiten Teeth in Photoshop

Jan

2010

January 29, 2010

By Lola Mansurov 12 Comments

Who wouldn’t want pearly white teeth gleaming through a beautiful smile! This is a quick and one of the most effective ways of whitening teeth in Photoshop. I’ve tried many different ways before, but once I adopted this particular method, I never went back to my old ways again.

Here is how I do it:

Open the image in Photoshop. If you are in Lightroom, simply right-click the image and click “Edit In”->”Edit in Adobe Photoshop”.
Zoom in enough to make it easy to work with teeth by pressing CTRL +.
We are going to be using the ‘Magnetic Lasso’ tool to achieve this task. It is located in the upper left corner, under the ‘Crop’ button.

Default Lightroom 3 Import Settings