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Thread: Working an image

  1. #1
    Photo Guru SMB2's Avatar
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    Default Working an image

    For starters, Al made me do it!
    He suggested I start a thread about how I take an image from the field to the final product. I PP in LR and use NIK plug-ins. I am PS illiterate, so those of you that know the PS equivalent steps as we go along feel free to chime in.
    Most of you know I shoot mainly nature subjects. Often times there is no setting up a shot but rather fast action with hopes that there is something worthwhile on the card when I'm done. So I thought what might be useful would be to work with images I took at the end of the year in Washington on a shoot primarily for Eagles. This was a challenging trip because it rained most of the time; as I call it, a high ISO trip. Most of the shots were taken from a boat, slowly drifting to get as close to the birds as possible. We were shooting hand held long lenses, in my case a 500mm f4 (81/2 lbs). The challenge was to maximize Shutter Speed while keeping the ISO as low as possible to avoid noise in the image. I shoot in manual to get the most control and will, in my camera, sometimes use Auto ISO. Even if the bird is not in flight, because the boat is moving, a SS of 1/1000 is often needed. One thing I learned, thanks to the pro I was with, shooting low light situations is helped by really pushing the Histogram to the right, that is overexposing the image by 1 stop or more. The image on the camera histogram is of the LCD JPEG file. The RAW image that you will work at home has much more information and if you look at the histogram in LR the RAW image will not be overexposed (or only slightly). Why is that important? If you have an underexposed bird and try to lighten it or bring out the shadows, you will accentuate the noise in the image, more than if you take a bright bird and simply reduce the exposure. But we can get into that more later.
    Since it came up in Pat's last post I thought this first part could be on cropping. I used to never crop! But I am way past that now. In fact I will take more of a scene to allow for some cropping. You will have to decide how much is too much. It will depend on the file size from your camera, the sharpness of the image and the lighting. With high ISO from this past trip tight crops only give you more noise.
    This may drive some of you crazy, but I rarely free hand crop. In LR go to the Development Module and click the box just under the histogram on the left, or hit R key.
    Screen Shot 2017-01-05 at 10.17.52 PM.png

    If you click Auto, LR will try to level the image but there are manual ways to do it also. On the right side of the crop tool you will see the lock and the word "Original". That is the aspect ratio of the image you took. The small arrows next to Original will drop down other choices. I generally use just three: Original (4x6), Square (1x1) and a Pano crop (5x16, that I set up). Why? I print and mat my images. If I use random crops I would be cutting too many different sized windows. In fact I stopped cutting my mats and simply order pre cut mats to fit a 16x20 mat and print the size to fit. Keeps it simple.

    In LR as you crop your image you can, if you want to use some guides i: Rule of thirds, Golden spiral etc. (Go to tools->Group Guide Overlay->Choose Overlays to Cycle. You can scroll through these with the O key.)
    Screen Shot 2017-01-05 at 10.32.35 PM.jpg


    I picked an image to start that was underexposed to see if it can be cropped and still "rescued". This was shot at a ISO of 1600. Not to bad for my camera but still will cause some grain. The juvenile Eagle on the snow helped as there was some reflected light coming up on the bird.
    The first is the RAW the second the final image.

    20161219_Eagles Day 1_124950_3227-2.jpg

    20161219_Eagles Day 1_124950_3227.jpg

    That's enough typing for this opening.
    Last edited by SMB2; 01-05-2017 at 11:48 PM.
    Stan

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    Default Re: Working an image

    Stan this is excellent! I hope you find some time to do more of these if you aren't to busy and have patience to write and explain to some novices in the world of PP like myself. My PP work leaves a lot to be desired, that is one thing I really want to work on this year so any guides like this are gold for me! It's like a completely different photo at the end, in a great way.
    -Matt


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    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working an image

    I too am learning some stuff here as I tend to free crop so the Crop Overlay tools will be cool to play with. Question Stan and kindly forgive this novice questions; when working on low light you say to over expose by one stop. Is the meter in the view finder just to the right when metering the scene?
    Pat
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    Photo Guru SMB2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working an image

    OK. Let's start with the RAW image. Don't be fooled, there is a lot of info in that image that can be brought out in processing. It is not cheating! The camera recorded the info in pixels and it is up to PP to bring it out. The trick is to not overdo it and to know which images aren't worth the time.

    I took this image on the first day and was not pushing the exposure that much. You can see from the histogram at the top of the thread page that I certainly could have exposed to the right some more. Also note that the snow is somewhat gray, underexposed. This was taken at F4 so no room with an F4 lense to open up. (But now you see why photographers pay for the big lenses...I could open up to f4 whereas many of the zooms might only give you 5.6 or 6.3...that is a lot of light lost!) So my options were slower SS or raise the ISO. As we were drifting I did both. The slower SS images were soft and went to the trash. So I have to accept the noise in the image because that is what was available, but I could have upped the ISO to get more light (and noise). Also I was watching as the boat was drifting right to left because I wanted the bird with a solid dark BG, no white snow globs coming out of the head etc. You can see if I was more to the left in the above image the bird would have been more to the right and the BG just about perfect. I have that shot, the next one taken in fact, but the bird was soft. So out of a dozen or so images taken while passing this bird, this is the one RAW that I have chosen to work. Secondly the bird is right in the middle of the image, pretty much a no no. But I knew we weren't getting any closer so I had room to crop. If I was on land with a tripod I would have composed better. On the boat I was just trying to get a sharp well exposed image, in the rain!

    The nice thing about LR is that you can work an image in any order you want. Any change can be reversed, tweaked etc. I like to crop first, others crop last. Doesn't really matter. I always make a "virtual copy" (key: command/ comma on Mac) so on the light table I have the original image and the one I am working. Also I can make several versions, like B&W each from their own copy. So one RAW image may generate several PP versions. (This is not taking up huge room on your hard drive because LR only stores the RAW image and the DATA of the versions created.)

    So the Crop: When you hit the R key you will go right to the Develop module and the crop tool. You can reduce the image from any corner which is cool and you can move the window anywhere as well.

    Screen Shot 2017-01-06 at 10.11.56 AM.jpg

    I don't want the bird in the middle. It is looking to the left, so there should be more space on its left. I don't think the gravel in the front adds anything. There is a lot of noise there, it's not colorful and the point of the image is the bird on the snow. This is somewhat of an environmental shot (which I like) so you need to give the animal some space. If you are going to print this, a tighter crop will add even more noise. The eye of the bird does somewhat hit the rule of thirds (I don't hold to that, but it can be a starting point). I was able to get mostly a dark BG for the bird. Also when I crop, I look to see if I can crop out any annoyances like stuff on the sides and BG; in this case the front. Notice I have kept the original aspect ratio. The RAW and cropped image are in the same proportions.

    Screen Shot 2017-01-06 at 10.36.26 AM.jpg

    So those are the thoughts that I went through to start PP this image. Now I can start work on the image itself.
    Last edited by SMB2; 01-06-2017 at 12:07 PM.
    Stan

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    Photo Guru SMB2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working an image

    Stan and kindly forgive this novice questions; when working on low light you say to over expose by one stop. Is the meter in the view finder just to the right when metering the scene?
    Pat with your camera the meter is in the bottom of the finder and you would be going to the "plus" side. I work in 1/3 (as do you) and it might be several clicks to the plus.
    Personally I take a test shot and look at the Histogram. If you look at the very top of this page you can see the original histogram from the RAW shot. You can see this has room on the right. In the camera this may have been all the way to the right but that is from the camera JPEG. This will be different with your white birds on a bright day, but on a dark day you should try it. You may get some "blinkies" on the bird but these come down nicely in post.

    And you are out of the novice class!
    Stan

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    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working an image

    Quote Originally Posted by SMB2 View Post
    Pat with your camera the meter is in the bottom of the finder and you would be going to the "plus" side. I work in 1/3 (as do you) and it might be several clicks to the plus.
    Personally I take a test shot and look at the Histogram. If you look at the very top of this page you can see the original histogram from the RAW shot. You can see this has room on the right. In the camera this may have been all the way to the right but that is from the camera JPEG. This will be different with your white birds on a bright day, but on a dark day you should try it. You may get some "blinkies" on the bird but these come down nicely in post.

    And you are out of the novice class!
    Thanks Stan When you say 1/3 are you referring to the rule of thirds?
    PAt
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    Default Re: Working an image

    No 1/3 stop increments. Each "click of fstop or SS is 1/3 of a full stop.

    Custom Setting Menu b1, b2, b3 should all say 1/3
    Stan

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    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working an image

    Quote Originally Posted by SMB2 View Post
    No 1/3 stop increments. Each "click of fstop or SS is 1/3 of a full stop.

    Custom Setting Menu b1, b2, b3 should all say 1/3
    It is if it is the default setting. I will check.
    Pat
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    Default Re: Working an image

    THE DEVELOP MODULE

    If you hit the D key or click on Develop, the LR screen will go from the Library to the develop module. I will take the cropped image through what I do to edit it.

    Screen Shot 2017-01-06 at 10.36.26 AM.jpg

    All the action is in the right hand column. At the top is the Histogram and as adjustments are made it is a good idea to keep an eye on how this is changing.
    Next down is the Crop tool and the five "Brush "tools. Following this are nine global adjustment stations. Clicking on the title of any one will open the site to show numerous tools that can be used to change the image. LR has been pretty well thought out and using these adjustment headings in order works very nicely and I only rarely find myself skipping around.
    One helpful tip is how to keep the right column from getting overcrowded. As you open each station, Basic-> Tone Curve etc., pretty soon you find yourself scrolling up and down the right column to each setting. A nice way to keep things nice and compact is to set these stations to collapse closed when you open a new one. This way you have only the controls for one heading open at any one time.
    To do this, right click on a blank area in the headings and a drop box will appear. Check "Solo Mode". I think you will find this helpful (esp. if you are on a laptop).

    Screen Shot 2017-01-10 at 5.06.42 PM.jpg
    Stan

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    Default Re: Working an image

    Screen Shot 2017-01-11 at 2.44.32 PM.png

    Opening up the Basic panel there are several options to work with but it is important to remember that everything you adjust here is global, it applies to the whole image.
    1) Tone and Tint are White balance adjustments. I don't always need to work this but when shooting RAW you can leave the camera in Auto WB and adjust here. With this image there is a "blue cast" likely because it was such an overcast day. If you like the cold look, leave it. I think the image would be better if it was a little warmer.
    You can click and hold the EyE Dropper in the upper L corner, drag it to the image to a neutral color. It will readjust the WB. When I do this the Temp moves to the R (more yellow) and the image is warmer. You can also just play with the Temp and Tint sliders. (To go back to the original WB just double click on the words Temp and Tint.
    In fact if you double click any of the title words like Exposure etc the slider adjustment will go back to zero.
    2), 3) Exposure and Contrast I generally leave alone to start.

    4)5) are Highlights and Shadows. These take a little practice and personal taste. The more you open up Shadows, to the R, the more noise you are likely to create. I have seen many guru LR tutorials that espouse maximizing tone information in the image by Taking Highlights all the way to the left and Shadows all the way to the right. This will often work but you will learn over time that this can be overdone especially globally. But for fun I did it with this image. Note the Histogram at the top. The is room on the Right for adding Blacks and on the left for adding Whites. Also note I did warm the image some as the Temp is more yellow. Don't worry that the image looks flat/washed out.

    Screen Shot 2017-01-11 at 2.59.26 PM.jpg

    6)7) Whites and Blacks. If you take the White slider to the right you will see the right side of the Histogram move to the right edge. In theory one can take this all the way to the right side. One neat trick (if you haven't seen it) is to hold the Option/Alt Key and click and hold the White slider button. The image screen will turn black. As you move the slider to the right highlight specks will show up on the screen (blown out areas), move back to center just so the specks are gone. The histogram will be right at the Right edge. In theory, nothing blown out.
    If you now do the same thing with the Black slider holding the Option/Alt Key, the screen will turn white. Move to the left until there are specks on the screen and back off to the center. You have moved the Histogram to the left edge and in theory there are no "blocked " shadows.
    LR gives you several ways to do this same drill (you can just do it by eye using the sliders for instance) so this is a starting point.

    8)9)10) Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation. For starters, I never add saturation globally. I add it later locally, when needed. A touch of Clarity and Vibrance can be added here but don't overdo it. Everyone wants a formula and I don't have one. I generally don't go over +20 for Clarity (if that) or +10 for Vibrance but just keep an eye out.

    Now back to Contrast and Exposure. Contrast first: there are several ways to play with adding contrast. Just move the slider to the right (to taste) or work with the Tone Curve (next down). You can very precisely manipulate dark, light and mid tones as well as Red, Green, and Blue. With nature photography I just don't see the need. If I was better at using the curve I might play with it more. A well adjusted curve is said to have an "S" configuration.
    If you hit the Linear arrow a drop down box will give you a Medium or Strong option. I use Medium a lot and you get a nice gentle S curve, with no fuss. So for me contrast by hand using the slider in the Basic panel or the Linear option in the Tone Curve panel.
    Note, I didn't need to change the global exposure.

    So just with the Basic panel things look better.
    Screen Shot 2017-01-11 at 3.45.11 PM.jpg
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    Last edited by SMB2; 01-11-2017 at 04:50 PM.
    Stan

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    Default Re: Working an image

    So for the rest of the develop module.
    Split Toning, Lens Correction, Transform and Camera Calibration don't generally come into play but are useful and will require a little reading/video research on your part.
    Lens Corrections has two options and I generally check both. Remove Chromatic Aberration doesn't hurt but it is rarely present. Enable Profile Corrections is specific to the lens you are shooting with which LR keeps profiles for. With the subscription LRcc this list of lenses is always updated, as are newer camera profiles.
    Transform is another way to level your image and take out wide angle/fisheye distortions.
    Camera Calibration allows for exposure/color corrections that can be made in your specific camera and are supplied by the manufacturer. When you open it there are two selections you might want to check: Process dropdown box -> "2012 Current" and Profile dropdown box -> Adobe Standard (although for fun you can play around with the others).

    So next up on the image is HSL (Hue Saturation and Luminance)

    Screen Shot 2017-01-12 at 10.32.13 AM.jpg

    If you open HSL and click "All" you will have access to all three color corrections. This a very powerful and selective adjustment tool. You can pick and change any individual color tone.
    In the upper left corner of each HSL segment there is a little dot. If you click and hold this you can drag it to any part/color of the image. Still holding it and scrolling/dragging up or down will allow you to add/subtract Saturation, Hue or Luminance to any specific color. I can't show it with screen shots but in this case I dragged the cursor to the beak and added saturation. You can see LR chose not only yellow but orange, and the slider shows how much was added. You can do this by hand but the cursor trick is pretty cool.
    Stan

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    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working an image

    Keep these coming Stan. There are things about LR I didn't know about so learning a lot.
    Pat
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    Default Re: Working an image

    The Detail slider is next. I think it is key not to over-sharpen images. You see a lot of that on various photo sites.
    With the Detail tab, you can sharpen the image globally and selectively as well as get rid of noise.
    An image can be sharpened using the clarity slider in the Basic tab. It is a more heavy handed way of doing it. The sharpening in the detail tab is a bit more refined although both are simply adding fine contrast.

    Screen Shot 2017-01-13 at 2.13.01 PM.jpg

    If you hold the opt./alt key and move the AMOUNT slider the image will turn monochrome and this can help one see the definition being added to the image. Sometimes it will help in keeping the sharpening from being too overdone. There is no magic amount/number.
    RADIUS refers to the #of pixels affected by the amount slider. The default is one pixel on either side of a line to be sharpened. DETAIL "supercharges" the amount of sharpening. Once again holding the opt./alt. key when moving these sliders will give a ghost image to let you see the affect.
    In practice I am not sure how much these two add. Some suggest reducing the radius to 0.5 if you have fine detail in the image. Most of the time for me it is hard to tell. The Detail slider is the same for me but I will sometimes boost it up. Moving this to the right however will increase noise!
    It is often said that you should do noise reduction first and then sharpen otherwise you will be sharpening noise. This is likely true if you use a plug-in like NIK or Topaz for noise reduction. However in LR it does not matter because the two work together. Another piece of LR magic!
    So I moved the sliders below just as a demo. When you are sharpening, you can mag the image 1:1 or more to see the results. The control for that is in the upper left of the screen above Navigation. (See the above screenshot.)

    Screen Shot 2017-01-13 at 2.16.54 PM.png

    Remember that the above sharpening is GLOBAL, applied to the whole image. But I don't want the background sharpened. So how do you apply it selectively? LR has made applying a "mask" for sharpening quite easy. Again hold the opt/alt key while moving the MASKING slider to the right. The further you go the more selective the highlights are to the subject, meaning the sharpening is being applied to just the areas highlighted. (Screenshots can't show this.) This helps in not applying sharpening to areas you don't want it.
    A second way to selectively sharpen is with a brush and that will come later.

    Noise Reduction LUMINANCE slider does just that but as you apply it you will see softening of the entire image. So I may elect to do that with a brush. But a little NR can be applied here. (Detail and Contrast I tend to leave in default position.) I will at times do some NR in NIK.
    There will be times you will see some color "blotches" in your noise. That's where the COLOR sliders can help, but I don't use them a lot.

    Next will be Effects.
    Last edited by SMB2; 01-13-2017 at 04:33 PM.
    Stan

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    Default Re: Working an image

    Next, to EFFECTS, a quick but very useful tab.
    Screen Shot 2017-01-14 at 11.01.46 AM.png

    Post crop Vignetting is pretty self explanatory. I like a small amount of darkening at the corners of most images, with the possible exception of those that have a lot of sky. It helps accentuate the subject. Like most sliders you can overdo it. There are ways to change the shape and density, but I generally stick to a small tweak to the left.

    At the bottom of this tab is the very powerful DEHAZE slider. CAUTION: if you do not have the subscription LRcc you don't have Dehaze. (I think as Adobe updates LR non subscribers will miss out on new advances.) If you google LR dehaze you can find downloadable presets that will do much the same thing.
    The slider can add haze or more commonly clarify/dehaze an image. You have to play with it to see the results but it is quite a remarkable tool. It can also be selectively applied with a brush. (It was designed to deal with atmospheric haze to "cut through the fog" but people have used it for much more effects.)
    So I have added a vignette and a bit of Dehaze. Up to now I have left the Eagle a little bright to my eye, because I know Dehaze will darken the image some and because I am going to work on the bird with some brushes.

    Screen Shot 2017-01-14 at 11.22.12 AM.jpg

    I think you can tell the bird is a bit darker. The full effect may not be noticeable on screen.
    Stan

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    Default Re: Working an image

    Screen Shot 2017-01-14 at 11.32.38 AM.png

    In the Develop module, under the Histogram lies a rectangle the holds the Brushes. These are the tools that allows you to selectively work on parts of the image.
    The first three tabs are not really brushes. The dotted SQUARE is the crop tool. The Circle with arrow (for some the symbol for the male sex) is the Clone Heal tool and Spot tab is for Red Eye reduction.
    These are followed by three brush tools: Graduated Filter Tool, Radial Filter Tool and Adjustment Brush.

    There are some quick tips for the Clone/Heal tab and I occasionally use the Graduated and Radial tools. But I will spend some time with the last tab, Adjustments.
    Stan

    SIMPLY DISCUS IS AN OXYMORON

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