BASIC PHOTO EDITS USING LIGHTROOM with TIFFANY TILLMAN-EMANUEL HANDOUTS. Companion Book. March 2018: Lesson 03 Basic Photo Edits Using Lightroom

Transcription

1 Companion Book March 2018: Lesson 03 BASIC PHOTO EDITS USING LIGHTROOM with TIFFANY TILLMAN-EMANUEL HANDOUTS Page 1 of 7

2 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 The Lightroom Process 4 a. Import Your Photos into the Library 4 b. Organize Your Photos Into Collections 4 c. Develop a Photo 4 d. Export Your Photo 5 Common Photo Solutions to Ordinary Photo Problems 6 a. Too Light or Too Dark 6 b. Dull or Flat Colors (Lacks Contrast) 6 c. Too Orange or Too Blue (Color Cast) 6 d. Fuzzy (Out of Focus) 7 e. Sky is Blown Out 7 f. Snow is Blue (Snow Effect) 7 Page 2 of 7

3 Introduction Most digital scrapbookers aren t professional photographers, which means our photos straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) need some help. Typically, the photos are too dark, too yellow, skewed, or noisy/grainy/out-of-focus. And sometimes the photo is so bad that we delete it altogether! Adobe Lightroom to the rescue! In this lesson, I ll show you how to use this phenomenal software to transform poor photos into photos perfect for the cover of a scrapbook magazine. We ll explore the following techniques: A brief introduction to the Lightroom interface and most used panels. How to quickly move your image through processing. How to fix common photo solutions. Lightroom presets and where to find more. Let s get started! Page 3 of 7

4 The Lightroom Process Lightroom s intuitive system can help you develop your photos using a step-by-step process. Use the process below to get up and running with photo-processing quickly. a. Import Your Photos into the Library i. Ready the Photos. Add the source images to your computer from your photo an old external hard drive or online download. Begin the Process. Open Lightroom and click on the Import button at the bottom left of the Lightroom interface. i Prepare the Photos for Import. Navigate to the source folder/file, review File Handling, Keywords, and Destination. iv. Import. Click Import. b. Organize Your Photos Into Collections i. Create a Collection Set. Click on the + icon located within the Collections drop down. Name the set and click Create. Create a Collection. Right click the new collection set and choose Create Collection. Name the collection, set location and options if necessary and click Create. i Add Photos to the Collection. Click and drag photos to the collection. c. Develop a Photo i. Ready a Photo for Development. Click on a Photo and then click on the Develop tab. Page 4 of 7

5 Edit the Photo. Adjust the photo using the panels on the right side of the interface. Add presets using the preset panel on the left side of the interface. i Return to the Library. Click on the Library tab when photo editing is complete. iv. (Optional) Return to the Photo for Additional Photo. Select the photo again and click on the Develop tab. All photo edits are saved without saving over the original file. d. Export Your Photo i. Send the Photo to Photoshop/Elements. In the Develop or Library module, right click the photo and select Edit In from the fly out menu. Choose the correct photo editor. Export the Photo. In the Library tab, click on the Export button and set the Location and File Naming conventions. Click Export. Page 5 of 7

6 Common Photo Solutions to Ordinary Photo Problems All too often, we re tempted to delete photos that aren t perfect. Don t! Lightroom include a number of features that can help you transform a less than perfect photo into a beautiful photograph. All photo solutions require using the Develop tab and photo-editing panels. a. Too Light or Too Dark i. Fix an Overexposed Image (Too Light). Decrease the Exposure slider in the Basic panel. Fix an Underexposed Image (Too Dark). Increase the Exposure slider in the Basic panel. b. Dull or Flat Colors (Lacks Contrast) i. Fix the Contrast. Adjust the Contrast slider in the Basic panel. Recover the Lost Tones. Adjust the Vibrance slider in the Basic panel. c. Too Orange or Too Blue (Color Cast) i. The Image is Too Orange (or insert any other color). The white balance is incorrect. There are a few different solutions: 1. Click on the Eyedropper in the Basics panel and click an area within the photo that s black or neutral gray. 2. Or, if the image is a RAW format file, change the default White Balance to match the lighting situation (i.e.: Cloudy, Tungsten, Flash, etc.). 3. Once the white balance is corrected, fine-tune using the Temperature and Tint sliders. Page 6 of 7

7 d. Fuzzy (Out of Focus) i. Fix the Amount of Sharpening. Adjust the Amount of Sharpening in the Detail panel. Slightly bump Clarity (no more than +10) in the Basic panel. Reduce Noise. Increase the Luminance slider slightly in the Detail panel. e. Sky is Blown Out i. Recover the Sky. Increase the Aqua and Blue sliders to recover the blue sky using the Saturation sliders in the HSL panel. (Optional) Use the Graduated Filter. f. Snow is Blue (Snow Effect) i. Fix the White Balance. Click on the Eyedropper in the Basics panel and click an area within the photo that s white. Lighten the Photo. Increase the Exposure slider in the Basic panel. Page 7 of 7