This is an article by guest author Diego Estrada in which he offers you five very simple tips to reveal your photos in Lightroom and get better results. Today, digital development has become a process that virtually all photographers perform to give something more beauty to a photograph. However, there are people who oppose this process because some aspects such as color, lighting, contrast, etc. are often altered. But this is not today's topic;). Revealing a photograph in software such as Lightroom or Phosothop may seem like a complicated task. However, you only need a little creativity and master some essential aspects to make your photography look perfect. That's why I bring you the 5 basic tips to get a good development in Lightroom .
1. SHOOT IN RAW FORMAT
I am sure that on more than one occasion you have heard about the famous RAW format . Without going into more detail, the RAW format is found in almost all (if not all) semi-professional and professional SLR cameras. It allows, among many other things, to store a greater amount of information in shadows and lights so that, later in the development process, we can make some adjustments that do not damage or destroy our original photograph. If you are going to use this format you must have some aspects in mind:-
- It is a fairly heavy format and you probably need enough memories with a large capacity to store all your photos .
- The format is impossible to see with a standard photo viewing program and, above all, when revealing. So you need to use editing programs that support this format, among which I recommend Lightoom and Photoshop in its cc2018 version.
2. DO NOT COPY
The Internet is a huge range of knowledge and photography issues are no exception. I know that on several occasions you have encountered some photography or development tutorial that has fascinated you a lot and you have decided to apply it to your photography. After minutes and hours of tutorials you get frustrated because your picture did not look the same. And, most likely, you end up blaming the team (camera, computer, software, etc.). The reality is that these tutorials are based on the edition of a photograph totally different from yours. In addition, it is the vision and creativity of the person who does it. With this I do not say that it is against the tutorials on the Internet, on the contrary, they are a powerful tool of knowledge that is available to everyone. But my best advice for this situation, is that you learn to use the basic settings of development and photography and, simply, experiment until you find the result that seems best for your photo. You are likely to encounter hundreds of people who criticize your work, that is not bad. Accept the criticisms and use them to improve, but if you like what you do, don't let anyone limit your creative process, play, experiment and have fun!3. USE THE HISTOGRAM
Acquiring a professional team that guarantees 100% color fidelity is quite expensive and many of us do not cover the budget for the acquisition of such equipment. Fortunately there is a solution to this problem and it is the famous histogram. Broadly speaking, the histogram is a graphic representation of the distribution of the different shades in a photograph. This tool can help you improve exposure and correct colors. Learning to read it is not complicated, but a good observation is required to know how to interpret it. I leave you some basic notions: to the left of the whole you will have the representation of the totally black areas of a photograph; in the middle, the grays; and on the right, pure whites. In the following examples you can see an overexposed photo (above) and another underexposed (below), each with its corresponding histogram so you can see how they would look.4. LENS CORRECTIONS
I would dare to say that on many occasions it has happened to you that when taking a picture, notes that look a little distorted and / or have some unpleasant flashes that can spoil what may be your best shot. Do not worry! If you have shot in RAW format , Lightroom has an option called Lens Corrections by default . All you have to do is go to the lens correction option and activate the options " Remove chromatic aberration" and " Activate profile correction" . Automatically, Lightroom will detect with which lens you have taken your picture and will correct those distortions and / or rare flashes that may appear in your image. So you can see it clearer I leave a comparison. The same image with and without lens distortion. It will not always be so obvious, but you see it better.5. THE BASIC DEVELOPMENT SETTINGS
Once the previous steps have been completed, now the good is coming! After importing your photographs into Lightroom the first option you will have to open is the Basic one , in it you will find the following settings:- White balance
- Hue
- Exposition
- Contrast
- High lights
- Shades
- Whites
- Blacks
- Clarity
- Intensity
- Saturation
- High lights
- Shades
- Whites
- Blacks
- Intensity
