Which adjustments to use in Lightroom? (pic)

[lostlandscapes]

I'm still pretty new to Lightroom (and photo-editing in general) and wanted to get some advice on exactly what treatments to use for specific results while developing.

I guess my problem is, it seems like a lot of these possible manipulations (exposure/blacks, recovery, fill light, curves, etc...), which can be used in many many different combinations, can all achieve the same thing in the end. Am i wrong?

but i'm sure that there are some manipulations that are better (and less destructive) than others to get the perfect exposure/lighting. i guess the question is, which ones?

heres a sample pic. my first action would have been to lower the exposure so the rapid in the middle of the photo wasn't clipping. but that makes the overall photo look too dark. so then what? use fill light? adjust the light/dark in curves? or maybe i should leave the exposure where it is and use recovery?

damn i'm confused. hopefully someone can give me some advice. thanks for your time and your help.

[alduin]

One of the great things about Lightroom is that its edits are non-destructive. You can always revert to your original image, so fiddle around for a while and see what's what.

That said, I'm still trying to figure out how all of those darn sliders inter-relate, so I'll be following this thread closely. =)

[PixelMagic]

I'm still pretty new to Lightroom (and photo-editing in general) and wanted to get some advice on exactly what treatments to use for specific results while developing.

The fundamental mistake you're making is in looking for a formulaic approach to editing your images. At the end of the day, it is only your opinion and taste that matters. So the place to start is not in locking yourself into a "technique" or approach, but to first have a vision of what you'd like the final result of your editing to look. Then realize that vision by doing the processing steps to get you there.


I guess my problem is, it seems like a lot of these possible manipulations (exposure/blacks, recovery, fill light, curves, etc...), which can be used in many many different combinations, can all achieve the same thing in the end. Am i wrong?

but i'm sure that there are some manipulations that are better (and less destructive) than others to get the perfect exposure/lighting. i guess the question is, which ones?True to some extent but the sliders affect various parts of the tonality of the image so you should make the effort to understand how they relate. The most important BASIC adjustments are White Balance, Exposure, Recovery, Fill Lights, and Black. In this regard Lightroom is laid out very logically since you perform these steps in exactly the order as they appear in Lightroom.

heres a sample pic. my first action would have been to lower the exposure so the rapid in the middle of the photo wasn't clipping. but that makes the overall photo look too dark. so then what? use fill light? adjust the light/dark in curves? or maybe i should leave the exposure where it is and use recovery?

damn i'm confused. hopefully someone can give me some advice. thanks for your time and your help.Here's a very quick adjustment and a screen cap of my sliders so you can see what I did. Its a bit oversharpened but at least you'll have a idea of the possibilities. After addressing the basic adjustment you can then move on to more creative interpretations.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v282/BigDave30/rapids.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v282/BigDave30/edithistory.gif