Recovering blown out images in Lightroomwww.sleeklens.com
Fall can be a great time to capture many different looks, because of the constant change in weather and colors. On the day of the photo, I wanted to be able to move around quickly and did not want to lug around a bunch of equipment that would get wet and dirty, so all that I used was my camera and tripod. Only using natural light saved me from having to bring extra gear, but also presented a problem. On this day it was very rainy, misty and foggy which gives me the atmosphere I am looking for, but it often times looks washed out in the raw file. If you have ever shot in fog, you know that it can be hard to capture enough detail in the distance and keep your subject properly exposed. All of the moisture in the air catches the light and often times gives you blown out the part in the image.
In this tutorial I am going to walk you through what you need to know to be able to recover an image in Lightroom, that may be blown out.
Table of Contents
1. Temperature
This is what the RAW file looks like straight from the camera. The only difference I made was turning down the temperature slightly, as I had my original at around 5500. Now you may be wondering, how do you know where to set the temperature and in reality I don’t. All of these adjustments are not in an exact order, there is a lot of jumping back and forth, from section to section and tweaking until you find what you like. I turned down the temperature knowing that I wanted a cooler and more moody feeling to the image. I wanted to bring out the cold and lonely feeling of someone in a world of their own.
Before we go to the next step take a look at the Histogram and notice the lack of detail in the sky portion of my image.
2. Exposure
This is where we are going to make the adjustments to be able to recover some of that sky. I mentioned earlier that shooting in this kind of weather becomes hard to expose properly because the dynamic range can be so vast. When I was shooting, my objective was to set my camera so that I could get as much information in one exposure as possible. There were other ways I could have set the camera (like boosting the ISO) to capture more info, but I kept getting the little island blown out, so I stuck with the settings you see (right under the histogram).
I boosted the shadows/blacks and brought down the highlights/whites. I normally would not do such harsh adjustments, but I needed to in this situation, to achieve my end result. If you compare the histogram of the 1st image with the one below, you will notice that not as much of the right side (white/highlights) of the histogram is clipping.
We can now see that there are some clouds in the sky (slight as they may be) and it is not all white, with no information. This is not enough, though, we have information in the sky, but the image looks bland and the color still does not fit the mood we set out to create originally. The next few steps will be more about editing the color.
3. Color
Steps 3,4 and 5 are a peek into some of the color editing decisions I made to pop the subject out at the same time as showing some of the background information we recovered, using the previous steps. I will be doing a color editing tutorial in the future, but in the meantime check out our tutorial for giving your photos a retro feel. In the previous step we recovered the highlight and shadow details, but in the process, we flattened out the image. To fix those adjustments one way to add contrast and color adjustments to your photos, is to use the Tone Curve.
4. Color
Next, I played around the HSL (Hue/Saturation/Luminance), again just a peek at your own photos will ask for different settings.
5. Split Tone
Then I added more of a cool color to my shadows, using the Split Toning.
6. Final Steps
After getting the color I was going for, I did some light spot removal and added some noise. I do have to mention that for the color work mentioned above, I did use a preset as a starting point and then tweaked it to fit my needs. If you want some presets to speed up your process or to just get you going in a direction, check out the presets available by Sleeklens.
7. Additional Tips
Like many things, when it comes to editing photos in Lightroom/Photoshop there are many ways to get to the final result. If you need to be more precise using tools like the adjustment brush or graduated filter, it will help you get results to specific areas and not have to worry about affecting the whole image.
8. Conclusion
Remember, the best way to set yourself up for success in your post processing is to have an idea of what you want your final image to look like. Shooting to capture all of the information in the raw file will help you later.
Hi! I am originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I currently live in Atlanta, Georgia. If it's one thing I fear (aside from heights) it's that I will be left without water. If you see me, you can bet that liquid is nearby. While I am not downing inhuman amounts of water I create images.
My go to tools for creating are my Nikon camera, Photoshop and Lightroom. My favorite images to capture are portraits and lifestyle. Aside from photography, I do graphic design and video which can be seen on my website. When I'm not creating I like to be outside exploring nature.
Currently working at companies such as CNN, HP and many startups, as well has having work featured on BuzzFeed, SkillShare, Get Inspired Magazine and much more.
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Comments (1)
Ótima dica…
Gostei do objetivo que passou com o resultado final da edição…
Ficou muito bom, parabéns, e obrigado por compartilhar …