By Jack Neubart
Photographer, photo-technical writer, musician/composer, software developer, birder.
Photographer, photo-technical writer, musician/composer, software developer, birder.
Just set up a cot with a large pizza in front of my computer and I’ll delight in the knowledge that all my basic image-editing needs - and then some - are taken care of right here, in Adobe Lightroom Classic.
Okay. Perhaps I should take a step or two back before locking the front door and devoting myself to life as a hermit. (Although the idea of eating pizza round-the-clock does have some appeal.) A few questions first need to be answered…
Wherefore Art Thou, Lightroom?
Many of us entered the world of image editing via Photoshop, so why venture into a parallel universe? What do we need Lightroom for? Why should we use it? More to the point, what is it exactly?
Sadly, many of us are intimidated by Lightroom. We simply eschew it and go straight to Photoshop. Why? Either we don’t understand Lightroom, or don’t understand it fully, or we don’t appreciate what it can do for us. Well, if you count yourself in that number, I’m here to set the record straight and show you what can be done in Lightroom – and often without even venturing further. But first, allow me to explain what took so long for me to get here…
Okay. Perhaps I should take a step or two back before locking the front door and devoting myself to life as a hermit. (Although the idea of eating pizza round-the-clock does have some appeal.) A few questions first need to be answered…
Wherefore Art Thou, Lightroom?
Many of us entered the world of image editing via Photoshop, so why venture into a parallel universe? What do we need Lightroom for? Why should we use it? More to the point, what is it exactly?
Sadly, many of us are intimidated by Lightroom. We simply eschew it and go straight to Photoshop. Why? Either we don’t understand Lightroom, or don’t understand it fully, or we don’t appreciate what it can do for us. Well, if you count yourself in that number, I’m here to set the record straight and show you what can be done in Lightroom – and often without even venturing further. But first, allow me to explain what took so long for me to get here…
Fire extinguisher & window. This scene reminded me of a diptych, with two adjoining panels, each telling one part of the story to form a cohesive whole. I was struck by the simplicity of the red fire extinguisher, which made it stand out against the drab street scene below, as seen through the window. I chose to soften the window view even further by using the Lens Blur tool (still in its formative stages), while also desaturating that section of the image. (Someone else might have preferred to retain the color and focus attention on the supporting role the fall foliage might have played.) I generated a Subject mask for the extinguisher to make it stand out more, while copying and inverting that mask for the wall to desaturate and remove color there. Compare with the original image, which had lots of potential, but lacked character. iPhone 7 DNG (RAW) capture/Chromatica software camera. ©Jack Neubart. All rights reserved.
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