Lightroom and Why I Use It

If you take hundreds and thousands of photos, Lightroom is the #1 program to keep them organized and cataloged. Lightroom is also the first step in the editing process for me before I do anything else. Below is an example of a before and after photo completely processed in Lightroom not using any filters at all.

Before	After

My Process

I wont be discussing the cataloging process, but instead I'm going to dive right into what I do to make my photos pop. In this situation I picked a photo that had potential. Thats always going to be your first step. Not every photo I take is a keeper. I throw out more photos than I keep, but sometimes I look at a photograph and imagine what it could look like if I could manipulate some of the elements within the photo.

Before

Highlights, Shadows & Clarity	Saturation, Contrast & Exposure
	Once I decide which photo I'll be working on, I crank down the highlights to -100, bring up shadows to +100 and bring up the Clarity to +100. I only do this when i'm working on landscape photos, this setting doesn't look good when there are faces involved.
The next thing I'm going to examine is the Saturation of the colors, so I bring up the sliders to taste, I don't usually touch the vibrancy but not every situation is the same, it's just a matter of experimenting. in this case, it didn't need any adjustment in that field. I brought up the contrast +39 to really give separation from the shadows and highlights and opened up the exposure just a ting.

I really wanted the train tracks and water to pop, so I made some saturation adjustments just to the reds, blues and magentas

Sharpening your Image

One thing to keep in mind when using the sharpening tool in Lightroom, if your image is out of focus, this will not work effectively. Over sharpening an image can make it look harsh or to "textured". Over sharpening can also add more noise to an image.
Depending on the size of the image I'm working with, I will bring up the amount of sharpening from 50-70 percent. The magic in the sharpening tool is when you bring up the Masking slider. If you hold the Option/Alt Key while bringing up the slider, you will see exactly how and where your image is being sharpened. The higher the Masking slider, the finer the detail in the sharpening.

Adding a Little Drama

The focus was on the train tracks connecting the land, so I added a little Vignetting (-30) to make a little dramatic. Bringing the slider the opposite way would make the edges white.

Wrapping It Up

Sometimes I get to this stage and I'm happy with it and call it a day. This time though, it felt like it needed a little something. I saved the image with the adjustments that I made, so it could not be undone, imported it back into Lightroom and tweaked it just a bit.

This time around I brought the Highlights down -41, upped the Shadows to +48 and the Clarity to +60. It's not often that I feel the need to bring it back into Lightroom, but it's all about experimenting with an idea already in mind, and I knew this really needed some work.

I wanted to give this image a crisp look, so adding a little more sharpening at the end gave it exactly the finalized look it needed.

Highlights, Shadows & Clarity	Sharpening

Final Thoughts

One final thought before I go, photography is an art form and very subjective. What may look good to one person, may not be appealing to the next.
My advice I can give to up and coming photographers is trust your eyes and your gut. At the end of the day, consider who is the photo for?

After