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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Shoot & Edit - Edit (With Lightroom tutorial!)



So, for this week's edit, I thought I'd do a little Lightroom tutorial, since I know Ashley doesn't have that program and I'm a big believer in learning how to do things the long way. Presets and actions are awesome, but it's SO helpful to know how to create the affect yourself....then you can better adjust the action to your own photo too!

So, for this week's Shoot and Edit, I'm gonna talk about this photo:
(SOOC)


I love this SOOC shot. One thing I nearly always do when I edit photos is sharpen the eyes. In Lightroom, the "clarity" slider is kinda like the "Unsharpen Mask" in Photoshop. I'm not crazy about the way unsharpen mask sharpens....I prefer to sharpen with a high pass filter, (which isn't an option in Lightroom) but I really like Lightroom and if I've shot an event (lets say, a wedding) Lightroom really lets me do basic editing easily on massive amounts of photos, quickly so I can focus on doing creative and advanced edits on select images. (For example, I shot a birthday party a couple weeks ago. I was there for 3.5 hours, and left with around 300 images. I take 25-30 images and do full, creative & advanced edits on them. The other images I do basic editing for in Lightroom only...)

So, I needed to find a way to edit the eyes better in Lightroom. Here's what I came up with...

After you do your basic exposure/light balance, etc edits, select the adjustment brush.


Now, I may not be the brightest bulb in the pack, but I didn't even know this tool existed for weeks after I started using Lightroom......
So anyway, select the adjustment brush....now your lightroom panal will look like this:


So, because I numbered things backwards, the first thing you do is select "New" (#3) Now where it says "Effect" (#2) Choose "Clarity"....under the "Effect heading there are subcategories. On the clarity one, push the slider up to 100...and then where it says "brush" (#1) choose A, 100 for feather, flow, and density...choose a size appropriate for your image (you can change the size of the brush as you go along).

Now, click somewhere on the iris of the eye. A dot will appear. If you hover over this dot, red will appear where you have brushed over. This is REALLY handy, and will TOTALLY freak out your husband when we walks into the room and see's a baby with glowing red eyes on your screen..... I digress....

Brush over the iris, pupil, and the lash lines on each eye.....like this:


So now, go back up and select "New" again. This is VERY important. Now select "Exposure" under effect. Slide the exposure sub category slider up to .29 (It's all about subtle...) Select somewhere in the iris, but not on the first dot we used for clarity. Now brush over the iris/pupil area:


You can adjust the exposure subcategory slider to whatever looks good, but just remember that subtle is the name of the game. I usually pick something between .20 and .45.

Now select "New" again, and exposure..... set the exposure subcategory slider to .20, and select somewhere on the white of the eyes. Now brush over all the white..



For this, I always adjust the slider to somewhere between .10 and .30...and always less than what I set the exposure for the iris at.

Select the "Adjustment Brush" tool again to close. Now bump up the overall exposure just a touch, and up the fill lights a little, and there ya have it! Eyes edited in Lightroom!

Here's the before/after side by side


and here's my full edit, done 100% in Lightroom...


Of course, I did go into CS5 and play for a bit though.... here's my CS5 edit



and a b&w edit....I LOVE b&w :)


and real quick, here are my other edited images :)
SOOC


Edit


SOOC


Edit


SOOC


Edit

26 comments:

Unknown said...

Your edits are wonderful! She is so adorable!

Alyssa S. said...

I'm addicted to B&W too. And sepia. So, in your opinion, you prefer Lightroom to PS? I'm kind a "as close to SOOC" gal and I want to get a good editing program but not sure which will be the best for me.

mommy to many said...

what a beautiful baby!! i can't not wait to get my Lightroom and
PS5 programs this weekend! these edits are fun and beautiful! makes me wanna have a baby girl!! (just kidding we have 5 and we are complete!!)

Tara said...

Love these edits...and she is just too cute and precious.

A New Beginning Starts Here said...

lOVING THE EDITS AND THE BABY IS ADORABLE...

Unknown said...

awesome tutorial!

good to WOW WOW WOW! great job!

FYH said...

So sweet...love the edits.
That last b&w with still a little pink...so pretty!

Carol said...

I adore your edits...the last one is especially charming. I am a new LR user and would love you to do more tutorials! I found a similar one on "eye pop" on coffeeshop, I think...and unfortunately, that is about the only thing I know how to do! I used it on my "edit the baby" post. Now that I know you also use LR I'll have to pay more attention to your edits! Thanks for sharing this!

Kathleen said...

LOVE, love, love them!! They were great before - even better now. But still awesome before!

cooperl788 said...

Ooh, the last one in black and white with just a hint of pink on her flower is absolutely stunning, though all your edits are incredible. Thanks for the tutorial on eyes; you did such a great job and they look amazing!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful edits. I love them all. That last one is precious!

laughwithusblog said...

Interesting! I never edit photos. In fact I just gave up my film camera two years ago. There's so much you can do though. Maybe someday I'll give it a try!

Gina Kleinworth said...

I love the very last one in b&w- those rolls are so cute!

koreen (aka: winn) said...

Oh! The last is my fave! Such a great shot! Also, love the tutorial. I like doing things the long way too, but mostly because I don't know how to download and operate presets or actions. ;)

Ashley Sisk said...

Thanks again for this little tutorial - very helpful to those with Lightroom I'm sure. And I love love love the last shot in bw. Gorgeous.

Carla S said...

thank you! I had no idea how to enhance eyes in Lightroom! Your tutorial rocked! And your edit is fabulous, too!

Michelle R said...

Great job on all these..... but OH MY goodness -- I ADORE that b&w on your first shot! perfect!!!!

I want my b&w's to be bright and light like that...

Unknown said...

I am falling in love with your original edits. great job and this little one is to die for

Summer said...

Your edits are wonderful! The very last one is my fav!

Lynda said...

Oh my! That may be one of the cutest babies I've ever seen. Your Lightroom edits are amazing! I don't have the program, but I appreciate the tutorial. I had no idea it was powerful enough to basically mask on effects!

Branson said...

These are so cute! I love the b/w of your original photo!!

jillconyers said...

Fabulous set of photos. Love the color and B&W edits.

Bella Skye said...

Those are great edits! I love the CS5 one :)

Love,

Bella Skye

Unknown said...

XD Oh my goodness!!! Those fat baby rolls are killing me! Love your edits. :D

Becca said...

Wow...so amazing to see the pictures evolve. Beautiful.

Bird's Eye View Photography said...

LOVE that last one. Perfection.