How do you "lightroom out" your photos

[fflmaster]

I see people talking about how they changed the picture straight out of the camera to be "lightroomed out".

The pictures look much better and was wondering if someone knew how to do this?

Can this be done with photoshop? or do you need another program?

 

[DoDaLeCa]

I see people talking about how they changed the picture straight out of the camera to be "lightroomed out".

The pictures look much better and was wondering if someone knew how to do this?

Can this be done with photoshop? or do you need another program?

All the basic adjustments (exposure, color cast, saturation, contrast, cropping, straightening, sharpening, noise reduction, lens distortion correction, etc.) plus some spot healing can be done in Lightroom to a single picture (or groups of pictures). It works best if you start with a raw photo as a jpeg has already lost some tonality and other information about the picture due to the compression scheme used.

There are endless resources for using Lightroom; videos tutorials such as Adobe TV, books such as those from Adobe, Kelby and Evening plus the Missing FAQ series, and numerous websites.

If you're trying to do something fancier (HDR blending, panorama blending, layers and masks to create composite pictures, etc.) then you will need a program like Photoshop (or less powerful Photoshop Elements) which is more of a graphics program.

 

[toomanycars]

I chose some photographs from 2011 that I have had set aside as okay but not great. I allowed myself five minutes no more per photograph in Lightroom 5. None of these photos will win a contest but you can clearly see there's a lot you can do the photograph. See if you can stop the people I removed in the first photo.

As the camera photographed;

After Lightroom:

Or you can spend more time and just religth the whole photo.

As the camera photographed;

After Lightroom:

As the camera photographed;

After Lightroom :

 

[wiigirl]

I love Adobe Lightroom. If you need to know how to do something, just look on Youtube....tons and tons of tutorials!

 

[SrisonS]

You can definitely do quite a bit in Lightroom. Like it was mentioned before; you'll see the best result when working with RAW files. But you can still make improvements to jpegs.

Because of LR's ability, I'm less inclined to delete some pictures that initially have a blah look to them. Sometimes you might have to get creative, but you'd be amazed at what that program can do. And you can download a free trial from the Adobe site. It's fully functional too. So give it a shot!!!

 

[Pixel Dust]

As others have said, it's best to work with the RAW files. You can try and play around with my 'before' shot in Lightroom, but you won't get close to the 'after' result without the RAW file.

I intentionally under exposed this shot so that the sky was not blown out. It's difficult to recover blown highlights. So, I tend to under expose (shoot to the left) outdoors. This shot I used the gradient correction to balance out the exposure and white balance difference from the sky and shadows.

Before. JPG straight out of the camera.

Lightroom processed from RAW file.

Can this be done with photoshop? or do you need another program?

You can use Photoshop. It will get the same results. Both Lightroom and Photoshop are Adobe products.

Lightroom is for photo editing. Like exposure, white balance, curves, saturation, cropping etc. It also has a nice workflow for editing a lot of photos at once. Most people won't need anything more than this.

Photoshop can do all of what Lightroom can do, and so much more. It is geared towards photo manipulation and graphic design. If you are trying to add/remove people in the shot, this is the program you want. It's also much more expensive.

 

[traylorc]

You can definitely do quite a bit in Lightroom. Like it was mentioned before; you'll see the best result when working with RAW files. But you can still make improvements to jpegs.

Because of LR's ability, I'm less inclined to delete some pictures that initially have a blah look to them. Sometimes you might have to get creative, but you'd be amazed at what that program can do. And you can download a free trial from the Adobe site. It's fully functional too. So give it a shot!!!

I wholeheartedly agree with Scott...I have lost count the number of times Lightroom has transformed an "ok" looking shot to one of my personal favorites.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I see people talking about how they changed the picture straight out of the camera to be "lightroomed out".

The pictures look much better and was wondering if someone knew how to do this?

Can this be done with photoshop? or do you need another program?

Perhaps I'm misreading and if so disgregard - otherwise FYI - Lightroom is an Adobe software for organizing and it also has processing controls built in. You would also be able to do this in other software - including Photoshop - but Lightroom is a popular one.

Others have shown the possibilities and given a few hints on "developing" photos in Lightroom.

 

[SrisonS]

Here's a link to a Before and After thread on the Canon boards. People also post screenshots of the actual settings.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=684360&page=388

 

[Ariel484]

I got Lightroom at the beginning of the year and really like it. I also have Photoshop Elements but I find that Lightroom is much, much easier to use. I think that's what makes it so popular - PLUS we were able to get an education discount since my husband is a teacher.

I definitely still consider myself a novice when using the program, but the white balance adjustment is, so far, the biggest help for me when it comes to adjusting my photos. I agree that you should try the beta test before purchasing.

 

[Patrick in Oregon]

Here's a link to a Before and After thread on the Canon boards. People also post screenshots of the actual settings.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=684360&page=388

Whelp. This website settles it. I need to stop being lazy and learn how to post process.

 

[havoc315]

Whelp. This website settles it. I need to stop being lazy and learn how to post process.

The good news is that basic exposure and white balance adjustments in Lightroom are really really easy.