DR Manipulation

[Black Pearl]

A typical way for me to shoot is to take a scene with a huge range of exposure values and err towards keeping some detail in the highlights - the window on this was always going to blow but I wasn't bothered. 

As you can see the straight out of camera raw file is dark but there is detail in the walls, the window isn't too glaring and I know from experience it'll be there for the dark areas within the raw data:

First job in Lightroom is to push the shadow and black sliders until I get a more rounded looking image. I also warmed it a little (a good trick to lighten some shots) and I added some Clarity which helps separate similar tones. At this stage I also cropped it to 16:9 for no other reason than its my preferred ratio at the moment.

Next up was to export it to Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
I scrolled through the presets until I fund one I liked as a starting point then went about twiddling the sliders until I was happy. This is a personal thing but I wanted to further enhance the darker areas and add more enhancement to the structure. I also added a small frame for no other reason than I like them on mono shots.

Last thing was to pop it back into Lightroom for its final export - I will sometimes twiddle a little more as LR offers slightly different wearing sliders that sometimes give it that final polish.

Modern digital sensors can be pushed really quite dramatically while still retaining sharpness and low noise.
This sort of approach with a darker than normal file and shadow enhancement is quite typical of the way I shoot and process - give it a go next time you use your camera and see how you get on.

BP

 

[MaryC]

Do you edit your photos in photoshop?

[Black Pearl]

1 minute ago, MaryC said:

Do you edit your photos in photoshop?

I’d say 80% of my editing is done within Lightroom with some work done with the Nik filters and an occasional finish in Photoshop. The thing to note is Lr and the raw editor (ARC) in Ps are basically the same thing. The difference is when you’re finished with the raw data and in Ps start working with layers and the more advanced tools. Something I just don’t enjoy doing but I would never dismiss. 

[MaryC]

Thanks for your answer!

[MaryC]

On 13/05/2019 at 22:27, MaryC said:

Do you edit your photos in photoshop like this?

Because I have some problems, so could I ask?