Suggestions needed

Please

Hey,

I'm feeling frustrated when processing images. I use Lightroom 4 and enjoy using it. I often have in mind what 'look' I am going for but can't seem to achieve it. I have a few presets which sometimes work quite well (although obviously I would rather do the processing than use presets) If I can't find a preset which matches the sort of style I want for the picture I end up reverting back to turning it B+W or Sepia - which kind of makes some pictures look better, but is getting a bit boring!

I'm only talking a few pictures a month, and generally only for me.

Think basically what I'm asking for is some suggestions as to how to improve.

For example:

When I took these pictures I had in mind something really 'vibrant' and 'active', the sort of thing you would see in a kiting magazine.

The original

I'm just learning LR too, but I just start in the basics area and start moving the sliders to see what I can get. I find that even just adjusting contrast and the highlights and shadows gives me a lot of options.

One thing I found really helpful was going through a lightroom book. Simply by having the author show me all the things that were possible it gave me lots of good ideas for future images.

I hate to say it, but that image was never going to work given the lighting you had to work with. A cold grey English (or other Temperate part of the world) field is not a Tropical beach. Also your original look a bit on the underexposed side to me. That won't help when you are after bright and vibrant either. Shoot RAW, expose to the right, and pull back in post. A Polarising filter will also help you with getting that saturated sky look that you are after. Polarisers are the one filter that it is absolutely impossible to simulate in software.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #15924654
I hate to say it, but that image was never going to work given the lighting you had to work with. A cold grey English (or other Temperate part of the world) field is not a Tropical beach. Also your original look a bit on the underexposed side to me. That won't help when you are after bright and vibrant either. Shoot RAW, expose to the right, and pull back in post. A Polarising filter will also help you with getting that saturated sky look that you are after. Polarisers are the one filter that it is absolutely impossible to simulate in software.

Alan

Thanks. I do shoot in RAW, but I understand there's only so much that can be done. So it's better to go a bit on the overexposed side?

Thanks to others as well, will look out for a book. I may find that easier to work from

I find that being slightly 'to the right' makes the sky terrible. It's something I need to learn though as unless I move most of my shots are going to be lit like that!

I'm afraid your not going to get any one consolidated answer. The direction I would have gone on that photo probably isn't going to match your vision of it. If for no other reason, than that's not necessarily the picture I would have taken to begin with. . .I'm not saying it's bad, just that we have different styles. I can critique the photo and I can even give you settings I would have started off with for that type of photo, but it's an entire process from pre-visualizing to taking the photo to processing the photo. All three parts need to be in harmony. Photo processing is as much an art as visualizing the photograph, and you have to study it the same way you'd study taking pictures. First, you have to understand the equipment (in this case, the equipment is software). So, get Lightroom books and watch instructional videos. Only after you've done this will you be able to use it effectively to build the final product you're looking for.

A good book for wading into Raw processing (Lightroom and Photoshop ACR specifically) is "The Digital Negative" by Jeff Schewe"

http://www.google.com …g2=hmBMzwUV9YQm​1CPPCyJIrg

With the overcast sky and flat light, it starts out as a difficult subject.Then too, it's such a tiny sample that any success is minimized. I added a little warming with WB. it was underexposed so I bumped that a bit, then played with the highlight, shadow, white and black sliders. Some clarity, slight sharpening and luminance NR. All in LR4. this is what I got.