Hello everyone,
Yes, Spring is here and for most of you, especially in the East Coast/USA, are very happy about that. I know that I am. It’s been really tough this winter for me, if you have read my past 2 posts, you would know that I have had Pneumonia. Even though I’m not totally recovered, I am happy to say that I do feel so much better than I did.
I decided since my guest author Lisa Shorland wrote about Spring, I would take Spring into my studio. Today I will show you how I processed the following daffodil shot using Adobe Lightroom.
If you notice, I did put my first video on the blog that pertains to this work (it’s on the lower right panel). I am a Verizon customer, so I do plan on purchasing the iPhone soon – this video was done on my Blackberry, sorry it’s not very good but I went for it anyway. When I purchased my Canon 5D camera it was before they came out with the HD video, argggg. Technology! Lol.
So let’s get started.
You can see from the first example that I had many beautiful daffodils to choose from. A word of advice, make sure they are not damaged. When you photograph Macro you will see every detail and taking more time to clean up a flower on the computer is not part of what I want to do.
To view figures click on them & to get back to the blog use your arrow < key on your browser.
Figure 1
I use Adobe Lightroom to make basic changes to the photograph. Make sure your photograph is not under or over exposed. If you shoot tethered you will see on your computer how the shots are going. Make your exposure corrections while you photograph. You can read up on my Tethering link here.
Figure 2
I next adjusted my histogram to have an evenly distributed exposure. Click on the histogram pallet and move your mouse right to left. You’ll see what I’m talking about.
Figure 3
In Figure 4 you can see I played with the white balance and increased the vibrancy and saturation a bit (I work more with Saturation using the HSL). Just be careful not to blow out your exposure.
Figure 4
In figure 5 you can see one of my favorite tools, the HSL. This is where you can really make some nice changes if you want to. I’m a fine art photographer, so this is my paintbrush.
Figure 5
Next, I profiled the lens that I used. Lightroom has many lens profiles already installed in the software. Check this out!! And Thank You Lightroom! 
Figure 6
In Figure 7 you will see that I decided to change the photograph again. I do this a lot. I leave what I’m working on to give me more time to think about what I’m going for. In this shot I had my lighting focused on the middle of one flower and wanted the background to lose some of its punch.
Figure 7
Here is the before and after photograph in Lightroom.
Figure 8
Now I take the file and send it to Photoshop to make final edits.
Figure 9
Today I showed you how I processed this Spring daffodil photograph in Lightroom. My next article will be about the detailed changes that I make in many of my photographs using Adobe Photoshop. See you all in a couple of weeks
Completed photograph:
Cheers & happy Spring to you all!!
Janice
Photographers, Diamond Bar, CA
