Comments on: Video – Before & After Family Photo

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:10:27 +0000

The “before & after” videos are very helpful. I watch them again and again. I would love to see one (or six) for processing super high contrast situations – like people in snow. When I process those photos, it seems like there are some serious trade-offs to be made. I’d love to see your approach.

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:50:57 +0000

Matt,

Thank you so much for this video demonstration. Your techniques are very helpful and informative.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:31:34 +0000

Nice run through, I liked the custom vignette trick.

If you edit in photoshop, is it possible to carry over your lightroom action history to your new file? For example if I crop a picture in Lightroom then use edit in photoshop the new image created is permanently cropped and you can’t re-crop to the larger size.

I love lightroom because I can always go back and tweak something a long way down the line. Using edit in photoshop seems to make a point where you can’t go back. Of course you still have the original you can go back to. Am I missing something or making a mountain out of a mole hill?

By: mattk

mattk — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:01:30 +0000

Tim – Interesting points. I find the Brightness slider to give a lot more realistic fill then exposure. I also found reducing the Exposure to darken the edges gives more of a “burned in” effect then the Brightness. More like the actual vignetting settings which is what I personally like.

Ed – Yep, but nobody knows what dodging and burning is anymore. Its a Photoshop world now and while the art of dodge and burn hasn’t change, the terms are definitely gone.

Sylvain – I try to do a lot in LR. I’m just not a huge fan of that Brush for detailed work and I can’t break my habit of going to Photoshop for it. I just feel like I get so much more control (when I need it). If I don’t have detailed work to do, then heck yeah! Keep it all in LR!

Thanks,
Matt

By: Sylvain

Sylvain — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:01:01 +0000

Great vignetting technique. But why not doing all the cloning and sharpening in Lightroom. As I am telling my students, why leaving Lightroom and creating another file when Lightroom can do it all non destructively. I am telling to my student that if Lightroom cannot do the job it is ok to use the big Lightroom plugin called Photoshop. ( Ok it is a joke ).

Thank’s for you always interesting tips.

By: ed

ed — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:22:55 +0000

Matt,

Nice tutorial.

This would have been considered “dodging & burning” if you were doing these corrections in a traditional darkroom.

By: timofej

timofej — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:16:03 +0000

I use the same technique for brighten up faces and vignetting but use the opposite tools – exposure for the faces and brightness for the vignetting.

I think that the brightness tool distorts the colors which is fine with vignetting since it’s more like “lens correction” vignetting in the LR. But you don’t want the color distortion on peoples faces.

Using exposure adjustment for vignetting causes dull gray cast on the photo more like “post cropping” vignetting in the LR.

What do you think Mats?

By: Michelle sidles

Michelle sidles — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:50:09 +0000

This is one of the most helpful videos I ever watched for LR. Thanks!

By: Darrin

Darrin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:17:37 +0000

Matt, Thanks for the great tips to make a photo pop!

By: Alan Shaw

Alan Shaw — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:14:02 +0000

Thanks Matt, a lot of good tips in that video. Love the personal spotlight!