Looking for Light Pt. II: The Lightroom Process

Today in part 2 of Looking for Light we’re going to talk about the Lightroom Process that created the final photo.

Lets get started.

This is the photo right out to the camera.  Looking at it, I can see two needs that jump out at me. The white balance needs to be adjusted and it needs to be cropped.  The photo is very green, which makes her look sickly.  Also, the composition is not working for me.

To Adobe Lightroom we go.  I imported the photo and started working in the DEVELOP section.

So first, adjust the white balance.

Next we crop the photo.

And we get this.

Normally, this would be enough, but something was missing.  I wasn’t done yet.  I tried adding many different color combinations in the shadows/highlights but nothing looked right.  So I defaulted to what always looks awesome.  Black and White.

Making a photo black and white is easy.

Color saturation refers to how vivid and intense a color is.  When a color’s saturation level is reduced to -100 in Lightroom, it becomes a shade of gray.

Once I got here, I did what I always do and started adjusting exposure, contrast, and the highlight/shadow levels.

And that is how I arrived at the final photo.

Stick around for part 3 where we go over the Looking for Light Exercise!

If you liked what you read, want more content like this, or have a question, let me know in the comments section!

Thanks,
Jerald