What if you were told to “avoid Lightroom’s Contrast slider” because there’s a much better technique that delivers superior results and is easy enough to accomplish for users of all skill levels? You don’t have to trust us on this because the claim comes from one of our favorite professional wildlife and landscape photographers.
Instructor Mark Dumbleton is a South African pro who posts weekly lessons on outdoor photography and he kicks off today’s tutorial with this emphatic promise: “I’ll demonstrate how to implement better-looking, more controlled tonal contrast using superior tools in Lightroom to create photographs with a more professional result.”
It takes Dumbleton less than eight minutes to explain his preferred approach, and one bonus to this method is that it also enables you to increase color contrast. As the video progresses he provides few other tricks to make subjects really stand out from their surroundings. You needn’t go on safari to take advantage of this advice, because what you’ll learn will definitely improve your images wherever you shoot in the field and regardless of the type of subjects you confront.
The episode begins with a brief explanation of why the conventional Contrast slider falls short. Then Dumbleton reveals “the much better and more controlled way” that employs Lightroom’s Tone Curve to accomplish the job with precision. He summarizes the benefits like this: “The Tone curve is incredibly powerful at adjusting contrast in different areas.”
By manipulating a point (or points) on the Curve it’s easy to adjust the brightness values of different tones in an image. You’ll see how doing that enables you to quickly and selectively fine-tune contrast until you get the specific look you desire.
Dumbleton walks you through the step-by-step process, beginning with how his chooses the most appropriate profile for the image at hand. He suggests using Adobe Standard as a starting point, and he then explains why another profile may be preferable for certain types of images.
As you’ll see, Dumbleton typically likes to soften the shadows while raising contrast in the highlights. We’ll let the expert demonstrate the finer points of this very effective approach, rather than summarizing it here. Suffice to say, his results are impressive to say the least.
After watching how it’s done, take a look at Dumbleton’s popular YouTube channel where there are many more pro techniques to be found.
We also recommend watching the tutorial we posted earlier which reveals five timesaving Lightroom keyboard shortcuts for streamlining your image-editing workflow that another pro says are her favorites.
Every so often we come across a really nice scene, compose it properly, and nail both focus and exposure. Yet we’re left with a feeling that by adding “a little bit extra” we can transform the image into something super special.
That’s exactly what you’ll learn how to accomplish today in this quick-and-easy Photoshop tutorial from the Lou imag’in YouTube channel—a popular resource for learning the basic of post processing. In just seven minutes you’ll see how create a magical golden glow in the highlights of a photo that appears realistic and enchanting.
The Instructor named Lou is an adept travel photographer and image-editing expert, and she’s also a very popular educator. In just seven minutes you’ll learn her straightforward technique for making it appear as though the sun is enhancing key portions of a shots to accentuate details in various areas within the frame.
The process begins by adding a new layer and changing the Blend mode to Overlay. Then Lou grabs her brush and chooses a Flow setting of 7%. The next step s selecting a warm color that mimics sunlight—in this case an orange tone that’s not overly saturated.
Now you’re ready to carefully paint this color into the scene, and Lou explains the process like this: “I’m going to brush everywhere that I see the light is shining a little bit so I can emphasize the effect.” She notes that you can subtly brush over adjacent areas that aren’t being kissed by the light if you want to slightly broaden the glow.
Optimum results require a light touch. Thus, if you feel the 7% setting is a bit too much you can always dial it back depending upon the image at hand. You’ll also want to keep your brush strokes small so that you don’t inadvertently wipe away important details within the glowing areas you create.
You’ll notice how Lou works on small areas one at a time while using the Hand tool to gradually move around the frame. It helps to think of the technique like this: “We are emphasizing—not changing—the light.” That’s because everything you brush should already have a bit of shine, and your goal is simply to heighten that look.
Lou imparts a few more tricks for getting the job done to perfection. You’ll understand the concept by comparing her before/after images. There’s nothing bombastic about the transformation she creates, but the subtle difference adds significant impact to her final image without hitting you over the head.
There’s much more to learn on Lou’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit.
We also suggest checking out an earlier tutorial we posted with another image-editing expert who demonstrates how to take advantage what he calls the “three best ways to use Photoshop’s updated Gradient features.”
