Penarth Pier in South Wales during
a heavy shower. Urban locations,
and piers in particular,
can appear utterly transformed
when photographed in rain
POST-PROCESSING
USING LIGHTROOM OR ACR
YOU DON’T need me to remind you that most photographs are better shot
in raw, as this allows for greater fl exibility in post-processing. When shooting
in challenging weather conditions, keeping control of contrast or ensuring
all the information remains within the 0-255 spectrum can be diffi cult,
so using the camera’s dedicated raw convertor or Adobe Lightroom is
one way of overcoming this. You will need to pay for Lightroom, but you
can download the raw convertor for free at www.adobe.com
2
The sky in the image appears pale,
while the foreground shadows are
too dark. I reduced the highlights by
dragging the Highlight slider to the left. I
then cautiously pushed the Shadow slider
to the right, which immediately increased
shadow detail. It’s easy to get carried
away, so keep an eye on the histogram.
4
Possibly the most appreciated tool
in Lightroom or ACR is the Clarity
slider, which increases the contrast
in the mid-tones. By pushing the Clarity
slider to the right, the mid-tones are
expanded, revealing the boardwalk’s
texture.
Trees in snow. When
photographing in snow, take
some time to look for striking,
graphical effects
1
This is a typical image captured in
the rain. There’s a reasonable level
of contrast, but it’s in the wrong
places. The sky is too light, while the
foreground lacks some sparkle. This can
be remedied using just a handful of tools
in Lightroom or the Raw Convertor
3
5
The sky was still too light; by using the
Graduated Selection tool, I made a
smooth incremental selection and was
able to subtly darken it by pulling the
Exposure slider slightly to the left. The great
advantage of using Lightroom or ACR is that if
you don’t like what you see, you can return to
an earlier step by clicking Previous.
25
The finished image. Often
qualities we saw when we took the
photograph are not apparent
when we view it in the LCD or computer
screen. By carefully adjusting selected
tonal values in ACR, much of the initial
drama that motivated you to take the
photograph is revealed.
subscribe 0330 333 1113 I www.platography.co.my I 8 October