Photo sharing: Lightroom before/after

havoc315 · Oct 29, 2013

Every now and then I'm tempted to switch to shooting jpeg, and them I'm reminded of the benefits of shooting raw.

I was shooting early morning, the sky had a golden glow that I kept losing. I did one of my shots severely underexposed, and at first glance, it still didn't seem to really work:

before70.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

5 minutes in lightroom:

fallsunrise-70.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

MAJPLO · Oct 29, 2013

havoc315 said:
Every now and then I'm tempted to switch to shooting jpeg, and them I'm reminded of the benefits of shooting raw.

I was shooting early morning, the sky had a golden glow that I kept losing. I did one of my shots severely underexposed, and at first glance, it still didn't seem to really work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/havoc315/10554460353/
before70.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

5 minutes in lightroom:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/havoc315/10501014676/
fallsunrise-70.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

Whoa! Thanks for sharing. I haven't tried any pp on anything yet so I'm loving the before and after examples. Thanks!

Bstanley · Oct 30, 2013

First - Really excellent picture!

Lightroom is a wonder, couldn't do without.

One note about what might have happened to the missing golden glow - I noticed that your EXIF data indicates that it was shot with AUTO White Balance. The image doesn't have a really obvious 'white' object in it so I'm guessing the camera adjusted it's White Balance point until it 'found' one and effectively removed the golden glow. Setting White Balance to 'Cloudy' or setting it manually can prevent the camera from over stepping it's bounds.

havoc315 · Oct 30, 2013

Bstanley said:
First - Really excellent picture!

Lightroom is a wonder, couldn't do without.

One note about what might have happened to the missing golden glow - I noticed that your EXIF data indicates that it was shot with AUTO White Balance. The image doesn't have a really obvious 'white' object in it so I'm guessing the camera adjusted it's White Balance point until it 'found' one and effectively removed the golden glow. Setting White Balance to 'Cloudy' or setting it manually can prevent the camera from over stepping it's bounds.

Thank you for the advice. Interesting thought, though when I tried the cloudy-white balance in Lightroom, it didn't help.
I tend to prefer keeping my camera on Auto WB when shooting RAW, to give me the maximum flexibility to change it in lightroom later.
Too often, I've fiddled with the WB... then forgot that I had taken it off auto, and I mess up some shots.

havoc315 · Oct 31, 2013

Anyone else with examples?

This is an older one, and it was shot in jpeg... Lightroom still managed to add a lot to it:

20120905_1279-2.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

20120905_1279.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

Bstanley · Oct 31, 2013

Too often, I've fiddled with the WB... then forgot that I had taken it off auto, and I mess up some shots.

I tend to prefer keeping my camera on Auto WB when shooting RAW

Me too. There is no doubt that RAW is handy because I'm forgetful

I get all professional and do a custom white balance for some outdoor shot and then go inside or something and the next ten shots look like I had an orange filter on the lens! LOL

havoc315 · Oct 31, 2013

Bstanley said:
Me too. There is no doubt that RAW is handy because I'm forgetful

I get all professional and do a custom white balance for some outdoor shot and then go inside or something and the next ten shots look like I had an orange filter on the lens! LOL

Exactly!!
White balance alone is a big reason I shoot RAW instead of jpeg.

I mostly shoot jpeg with my RX100, it's my "quick and easy" camera, and it's photo stacking features for jpegs can be very nice. But so often I forget to switch certain settings back.... I had it set for in-camera HDR, and forgot to immediately switch it back. Other times I've had dynamic range set too high.

So much easier to just deal with A or S mode... and worry about most of the WB/Dynamic range issues in post-processing when looking at a big high definition screen.

Cafeen · Oct 31, 2013

havoc315 said:
Anyone else with examples?

I've been busy since I returned on Sunday night (well, technically Monday morning), but over the next few days I should be able to pull out some interesting examples. Mostly of stuff that I had initially rejected and then pulled into some semblance of halfway decent.

All of my recent shots are in the "before" state right now though, just finished importing, pulling HDR sets out, and pruning obviously flubbed exposure/focus/etc stuff.

havoc315 · Oct 31, 2013

Cafeen said:
All of my recent shots are in the "before" state right now though, just finished importing, pulling HDR sets out, and pruning obviously flubbed exposure/focus/etc stuff.

My first shots posted, I thought were "obviously flubbed"....
Obviously flubbed -- especially under exposed -- can sometimes be turned into the best shots, as the highlights are so well preserved.

Just saying to look twice at those "obviously flubbed" shots, especially if there is something worth saving in the composition and subject.

wiigirl · Oct 31, 2013

havoc315 said:
Thank you for the advice. Interesting thought, though when I tried the cloudy-white balance in Lightroom, it didn't help.
I tend to prefer keeping my camera on Auto WB when shooting RAW, to give me the maximum flexibility to change it in lightroom later.
Too often, I've fiddled with the WB... then forgot that I had taken it off auto, and I mess up some shots.

LittleMissMagic · Oct 31, 2013

Lightroom has saved my photos on multiple occasions.

Arif - Before by vshingl, on Flickr

With this shot, I knew I was going to have to choose between overexposing the sky or underexposing the subject. I decided to underexpose the subject (shooting RAW... I still overexposed the sky a little... I'm not sure if I had to do that), hoping that I could brighten the shadows in Lightroom.

After a matter of minutes in Lightroom:

Arif - After by vshingl, on Flickr

I'm not 100% satisfied (maybe I'm being picky, but I think there is a little bit of a glowing edge around the subject separating him from the background... something I could spend a little longer on in Photoshop if I wished), but it sure is an improvement from my flubbed original!

LittleMissMagic · Nov 6, 2013

Here's a similar Lightroom save. I try not to get everything right in camera and not rely heavily on post-processing, but I will admit that I exposed this shot with the idea that I could make it better in Lightroom.

Sears Tower-Before by vshingl, on Flickr

I exposed for the background with the hope that I could brighten myself up in Lightroom, using shadows. Whenever I bring up shadows, I bring down the black so that the colors don't look completely washed out. There's a little noise in the black that I could touch up in Photoshop if I wished. I did a little bit of noise reduction in Lightroom, and I'm not sure that I should have.

Sears Tower-After by vshingl, on Flickr

Also, it appears my lens was a bit dirty. Oops!

SrisonS · Nov 7, 2013

I really wanted to bring out the nice golden tones from the Sunrise here; as well as make the sky blues pop some. After my adjustments, it was also a nice surprise to see how nicely the chairs were lit.

IMG_0771 by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr

The Sun At Your Feet by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr

ericstac · Nov 8, 2013

what do yall adjust with lightroom to create these changes?

havoc315 · Nov 8, 2013

ericstac said:
what do yall adjust with lightroom to create these changes?

Highlights, shadows, blacks, whites, contrast. Overall vibrance, or may get into saturation and luminance of individual colors. May use a graduated filter to limit adjustments just to the sky.

Pixel Dust · Nov 8, 2013

I wanted to keep the details in the sky and clouds, so that's what I exposed for. Since this was shot at ISO 100, I knew I could recover some of the shadow areas. Also, because it was under exposed, it didn't clip any of the highlights in the clouds.

I'm still floored how well this turned out and how it matched what I wanted when I initially captured the photo.

I used a gradient to balance this out. Not only for the exposure, but also for the white balance. The bottom half in the dark is completely in the shade and was a much cooler color temp than the clouds lit by the warm sun light. It also needed saturation because of the severe under exposure. And as LittleMissMagic said, bring down the blacks a bit so it doesn't look so washed out.

SrisonS · Nov 8, 2013

ericstac said:
what do yall adjust with lightroom to create these changes?

SrisonS said:
I really wanted to bring out the nice golden tones from the Sunrise here; as well as make the sky blues pop some. After my adjustments, it was also a nice surprise to see how nicely the chairs were lit.

IMG_0771 by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr

The Sun At Your Feet by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr

Here are the main settings I used. I also used the Graduated Filter for the sky.

454 by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr

ericstac · Nov 8, 2013

Awesome stuff! Thanks!

SrisonS · Nov 11, 2013

I was mainly going for speed, so I could get at least somewhat of a sharpness. That resulted in the pic coming out pretty dark. Luckily, with the power of RAW, I was able to turn it around. I eventually tried to give this a cinematic type look; so finding different ways to knock down the contrast is what I did.

heywha by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr

IMG_3162 by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr

"Heeey, Wai' Up. I Nee' beeaaDSS!!!" by Scott Smith (SRisonS), on Flickr