LightRoom Tutorial Water Lillies
Some folks seem to like my Water Lilly pics. Thanx! But to be perfectly honest, I worked them over in LightRoom. What I saw at the pond was not what you see here. I doctored them up with digital makeup. But I am not proud, I want you to learn how I did it and I think it will surprise you that it doesn’t take much work to get these great results.
To take you through the editing process, I created a tutorial video and walk you through it. Just make sure you select the highest resolution when it plays as this will help you see the changes in detail. To watch in high definition, click the Play Icon, click on the little gear in the lower right of the video, and select “1080 HD”. Then click the brackets in the lowest right to play in full screen mode….. oooooo aaaahhhhh.
Plan Your Edits
In the video, I take you through the LightRoom editing process, but in general, you must plan your edits first to get the best results. The editing steps I use are pretty much always the same:
- Plan your edits. In the case of these water lilies, I wanted a dark, somber picture with glowing blossoms.
- Recompose through cropping. I will let you in on a little secret: I tend to shoot my photos a little wider than I want to allow for cropping later.
- Recompose using the Rule of Thirds. Click here for my blog piece on this wonderful compositional rule that pros use over and over and over…. (yes, it is used everywhere!).
- Edit the picture globally. Make changes to the picture overall and ignore your subject.
- Edit your subject specifically. I use the LightRoom brush to “paint” changes over the subject.
- Add special effects or sharpening as your last step. I rarely use sharpening anymore as it can be done with other tools such as LightRoom’s contrast and clarity controls. Too much sharpening can create odd, crunchy effects as pictures are shrunken and re-rendered when displayed. You don’t have control over others computers and you don’t know what processing is going on when your pictures are viewed.
For more of my Water Lilly Pics, click below:
The Equipment:
- LightRoom 5.6
- A lousy photo needing rescue
