Behind The Scenes | Lightroom Edit
While the spotlight is on the band on stage, people behind the scenes allow their music to be enjoyed to its fullest.
During Saturday's performance, the stage lost power twice, reducing the show to a dim whisper. The sound / tech guy above restored things within a minute and got the band rocking again.
Likewise, Lightroom is my behind the scenes partner who helps me adjust my images to reflect what I saw as I depressed the shutter. It is an invaluable tool.
Because I don't always get it right in the camera - as you can see in the image below.
Yeah, under exposed. Auto White Balance didn't quite "get it right". It's especially tricky when shooting at night.
Fortunately, it didn't take much to fix it. Here are my simple edits in Lightroom's Develop Module:
Basically, a significant exposure increase, a highlights decrease (because the exposure increase caused the whites to be too bright) and a shadows increase.
I set a custom White Balance by using the eye dropper and clicking on a spot that should be mid gray / white. I chose the computer screen in the picture and was happy with the result.
In addition to Lightroom 4, I also use an old-old version of PhotoShop Elements (version 6, from 2008) when I want to work with adjustment layers. I find between the two programs, I have all I need. With Adobe moving some of their software offerings to a subscription basis, I am thinking about buying the latest boxed version of PSE so I'll be current. So far, Adobe has stated that their Lightroom product will remain as a standalone purchase.
What editing tools do you use?
Shared with Tuesday Muse at A Rural Journal.
What a huge difference just a bit of tweaking can do. I don't have Lightroom but perhaps at some point.....
I love the shot of the tech guy. The unsung hero ;) I am a PS girl and am nervous about the whole subscription thing...will I be able to keep my latest CS6 I bought without interruption?
Thanks for sharing your behind the scenes processing Shirley - nice work on this photo (I always love to learn new ways of editing and find fixing white balance SO tricky). I use Lightroom almost exclusively though I pull up Gimp for small edits and adding type...
I go back and forth with getting Lightroom - I sampled it years (YEARS) ago and went with Photoshop (CS) instead. I have upgraded my CS a time or two, but now seeing more evidence of Lightroom's benefits I am tempted to give it another try and combine it with the CS.
Excellent job on the photo and great post on your behind the scene processing.
Lightroom all the way!!!
You know I'm a Gimp user -- mostly because purchasing PSE or Lightroom just isn't in the budget for us. I do love how you adjusted the photo -- it's great.
Really beautiful work.