Photo processing with lightroom software. Basic photo processing in Lightroom

I love Adobe Lightroom. But that doesn't mean that I want to spend a lot of time using it. I’m better off shooting or giving Lightroom lessons, so I need to quickly process my photos in Lightroom.

How to process photos faster in Lightroom

1. Use Caps Lock to AutoChange

When you need to work quickly in a module Library(Library) my favorite trick is to press CapsLock on keyboard.

With Caps Lock on, you can use keyboard shortcuts to add metadata to an image and automatically advance to the next.

P to mark the picture as selected
U to uncheck the image or skip the current one.
Numbers 1-5 used for the corresponding star rating
1-6 used for color label

I cannot recommend Autoshift(Auto Advance) as a quick and easy trick, but very effective. With it, you can quickly move around the picture, while keeping your fingers on the quick buttons, which are indicated above.

If you do not want to use Caps Lock, you can activate the mode through the menu Photo> Auto Change(Photo> Auto Advance).

2. Edit with smart preview

Smart preview(Smart Preview) is like magic. Lightroom can create smaller versions of your images inside the catalog so you can continue editing if you turn off.

This is very useful for laptop owners with huge photo collections on an external hard drive. When it's time to leave your hard drive at home and hit the road, you can continue editing with Smart preview.

Another key feature for Smart Previews: you can edit with them and enjoy increased performance. Here's how it works: Smart preview files are smaller than RAW files. You can work with them faster than the originals, even when you have access to full resolution. We can force Lightroom to use Smart Previews instead of the originals during editing.

To work with Smart Preview, go to the window Parameters(Preferences) Lightroom and select the tab Performance(Performance). Check the box Use Smart Previews instead of Originals for Editing(Use Smart Previews instead of Originals for image editing) to activate the feature.

3. The off backlight will help focus on the picture

Sometimes I need to focus on the photo I'm working with and not the Lightroom interface. This is where the regime comes in. Lights Out.

To activate this mode, press L while in the window Libraries(Library). The area around the photo is darkened and it looks bright and clear. Press the key again and the space will turn completely black. Pressing L again returns to the original view.

The disabled backlight works great both when viewing a single photo and when working with a grid. Key feature - the interface is dimmed so you can focus on the photo.

4. Add your logo to Lightroom

Let's add some personality with new function Lightroom - Personal inscription(Identity Plate). You can use it to add your own logo or image to the upper left corner of Adobe Lightroom.

Go to the menu Lightroom> Customize your personal caption(Lightroom> Identity Plate Setup). From the dropdown menu select Personal(Personalized).

There are two options for a personal signature:

Check mark Text personal inscription(Use a styled text identity plate) will allow you to use system fonts to write your name or brand.

Check mark Graphic personal lettering(Use a graphical identity plate) allows you to use a transparent PNG file as a logo.

Personal signature - perfect option if you want to use Lightroom to showcase your shots to clients. This slice of personality gives Lightroom the look of a branded studio program.

5. Beware of Clipping!

Clipping refers to the loss of detail in light or shadow. Basically, when you overdo it in post-processing, highlights will be overexposed or shadows will lose important details.

This can happen during shooting, if the image is not properly exposed, but it also occurs during the processing stage.

This problem can be avoided by pressing the key J on the keyboard while in the module Treatment(Develop). Or click on the small triangles in the upper corners Histograms(Histogram) by enabling the function.

Red areas show overexposed areas, and blue areas show loss of detail in shadows. Drag the sliders back to their range if you want to avoid mis-exposure.

6. Drag and drop presets

I love Lightroom presets. These are one-click settings used for styling or correcting images. If your Lightroom catalog is the same as mine, you've probably accumulated too many presets over time and it might be a good idea to clean them up.

Preset panel items can be dragged to rearrange and organize them into folders.

Need a new folder? Just right click on the presets panel and select new folder(New Folder). Give it a name and get another group where you can organize the necessary presets.

7. Improve productivity

If Lightroom is slow, I have three fixes:

In the tab Options> Performance(Preferences> Performance) uncheck Use GPU(Use Graphics Processor).
In the tab Options> File Handling(Preferences> File Handling) increase the size in the box Cache settingsRAW files(Camera Raw Cache). For myself, I installed 30 GB.
Run periodically File> Optimize Directory(File> Optimize Catalog).

8. Crop creatively

You probably know that you can enter trim mode by pressing the key R in module Treatment(Develop).

However, you might not be aware of the variety of grids that can be positioned over the top of the image while cropping.

This screenshot demonstrates various crop grids. Try them out for more creative framing.

In trimming mode, press the O scrolling through the different options. They can offer great ideas how unusual it is to crop your pictures. Try to place key parts of the photo at the intersection of the lines to catch the eye.

9. Loosen the effect of presets

We already talked about organizing presets, but here great advice how to change their usage.

There are presets that I love, but I want to use less. Instead of the full power of the effect, it would be nice to be able to blend it as a layer in Photoshop and reduce the opacity.

This is what The Fader plugin was designed for. Download it and then go to the menu File> Plugin Manager(File> Plug-In Manager) to install.

After installation go to the menu File> Connect Additional Devices>TheFader(File> Plug-in Extras> The Fader) by starting to use the new plug-in. In the drop-down list, you can select a preset and apply it. Shorten the slider Opacity(Opacity) by adjusting the strength of the effect.

10. Automatically hide panels

I do most of my editing work on a tiny laptop screen, so free space is a constant issue. It's hard to give enough space to a snapshot with all the control panels that Lightroom has.

Right-click on the photo feed, and on the left and right panels, selecting Auto hide and show(Auto Hide & Show). This will hide the panels, leaving more room for your shots. When the panel is needed, just point to the desired corner and it will appear.

Do you travel a lot and your camera's memory card becomes full too quickly? Do you want to choose the best pictures and delete unnecessary ones without spending many hours on it? The quality of the footage is not always one hundred percent satisfied, and there is no time or desire to learn how to use the Photoshop program?

Many photography gurus believe that Photoshop is not the only panacea, and there are several much more convenient and modern functionalities in the world. And if you answered yes to all of the above questions, try testing Lightroom.

Let's take a step by step how you can quickly process your vacation photos in Lightroom.

Import and selection of photos into Lightroom

Importing photos into Lightroom is easy and convenient - just insert a memory card into your computer. Moreover, the opening of each frame takes place in its own interface, and therefore work in Lightroom with a large amount of footage becomes convenient and understandable. Further algorithm:

Removing bad photos at the very first stage, it makes efficient use of disk space and time. On the bottom panel with checkboxes, you need to select the two left ones, and on the keyboard use the X key.

The remaining photos in Lightroom can be easily renamed in accordance with the selected template. Frame numbers should be entered in three-digit form so that their list is displayed correctly. To get a dialog box for renaming, use the F2 key.

The selected and saved frames can already be partially processed at this stage. For example, add clarity, enhance minor shades, or use noise reduction. Having determined the optimal parameters for your camera yourself, it is enough to create then a User Preset and, applying it to the first selected frame, select the entire set and press the Sync key.

We build a composition on a photo in Lightroom

Recommended by shooting experts, it is not always possible to catch offhand during a photo hunt. Animals or children most often do not wait for the photographer to point the lens at them, and landscapes tend to fall to one side in the viewfinder, and unwanted citizens climb into the frame with strange gestures and facial expressions. Cutting off all unnecessary helps the framing function in Lightroom, called by the R button.

On the cropping panel there is a button in the form of a lock, by closing which you will allow the system to maintain the original aspect ratio of the frame, and by opening it you will be able to cut it arbitrarily at will:

The obstructed horizon should be straightened in any case, if it was not intended to create special dynamics in the frame.
Excess cars and parts of people and animals caught in the viewfinder against the will of the author usually distract the viewer from the main idea of the picture, and therefore they will have to be cut off as much as possible and mercilessly.
Using the rule of the "golden ratio", photographers strive for the main subject to be located in the frame at one of the intersection points of two vertical and two horizontal lines dividing the image into nine fields. It is advisable to leave empty space in the direction of movement or gaze of the model in the photo.

Basic parameters of Lightroom for photo processing

The main parameters that can be used in the Lightroom program for processing photos:

Temp allows you to change the color temperature of the picture or the so-called "white balance".
Tint- the change in hue also affects the "white balance".
Exposure Is a tool with which it is possible to make the frame darker or lighter. Suitable only for initial correction if the picture is underexposed or overexposed.
Contrast- a function to increase or decrease the contrast of the frame.
Highlights allows you to darken or, conversely, lighten all areas of the resulting image at once that look light.
Shadows on the contrary, it brings out the shadowed areas.
Whites brightens the image to extreme values, followed by full exposure.
Blacks Is the limiting value of shadows. The last two points require accuracy and a sense of proportion.
Clarity is responsible for the clarity of the image and makes it possible to give the frame a special volume and texture.
Vibrance subtly saturates the picture with color, avoiding busting.
Saturation less intellectual function and, unlike the previous one, requires the artist to have a sense of proportion.

Unlimited possibilities

And the smart program Lightroom of the latest version allows you to correct or, on the contrary, create the effect of vignetting, defeat distortion when shooting with wide-angle lenses, apply a gradient filter to adjust the amount of light in certain areas of the image, remove dust spots on the matrix, clone areas of the image and select those parts of the frame. to which you want to draw Special attention viewer. There are special effects in the program, and it makes it possible to independently create the necessary filters, save them and apply them at will to subsequent frames.

Exporting photos from Lightroom and uploading to hosting is also convenient and automated. The program sets the required size of the images and affixes the selected watermarks.

That's it - everything is simple and no photoshop!

I use several versions of Lightroom simultaneously installed on my computer running Window OS. Different versions have slightly different functionality, or different methods of implementing the same functions. Depending on the situation, I choose the version I need. Here are screenshots based on pretty old version Lightroom 3.7. I have all versions of Lightroom without Russification, since this is not important to me.

For a long time working with the program, I have developed my own algorithm for working in Lightroom, which I use almost always. My 5 simple tips will only help those who shoot in RAW format and develop photos in batches.

For the thoughtful development of each RAW photo separately, I recommend using the original (i.e. native) software. For example, for the Nikon system, this is.

0 (zero point). Importing RAW files.

The essence of the action: prepare a workspace for further file manipulation.

This is the zero, additional point from which work with Lightroom always begins. To start processing photos, you must first import them into the program. I use fast and primitive loading: I just drag and drop all the files into the Lightroom window and press the ‘Import’ button. I always import from a directory on my hard drive. If the import is carried out from a USB flash drive, the import process will be delayed, since the program will most likely first copy all the source files to its special directory.

Import has its own peculiarities. When photographs are imported into Lightroom, you can sometimes notice how the preview picture (preview) changes its color, saturation, exposure. This is due to the fact that each RAW file contains not only the original information about the image, but also many other additional data. One such data is thumbnails of photos for quick viewing. Roughly speaking, the RAW file has a built-in thumbnail in the format, which serves for quick viewing of the captured photo on the camera display. This JPEG thumbnail is based on the settings set by the camera. When importing photos into Lightroom, the program shows JPEG thumbnails ripped out of the RAW file. After trying to view the photo closer, Lightroom builds (renders) a new image directly from the original raw data using its own presets. Lightroom and JPEG thumbnail presets do not match, which is why the original picture changes before our eyes.

Unfortunately, it is very, very difficult to get from Lightroom an exact repetition of all camera settings. In fact, it is impossible to repeat all the camera settings. Only native software can display a RAW image on a computer in full accordance with what can be seen on the camera's display. But in order to minimize the differences between how the picture looks on the camera display and in the program window, I recommend turn off everything in the camera additional functions that enhance the image. For the Nikon system, this primarily concerns the Active function.

All upgrades must be done with Lightroom... It makes sense to use on-camera functions to improve the image only when shooting in format, or if RAW files will be processed using native software.

After import, you can add tags, labels, correctly catalog a series of images, set up sorting of photos in the feed.

Also, you can import immediately using a specific preset, into which you can write the settings shown below.

1. I set the camera profile.

The essence of the action: basic setting for the most correct / beautiful rendering of the original RAW file.

The setting is located at Develop -> Camera Calibration -> Profile -> select the desired profile

In order for the image formed in Lightroom to be as similar as possible to the one displayed on the display of the camera, Lightroom needs to indicate the correct profile of the camera. In short, the Camera Profile is a picture control mode that is set on the camera (neutral, saturated, monochrome, etc.).

This is the key point. The correct profile of the camera allows you to significantly improve the visual perception of the picture. Find good profile for a specific camera - very, very difficult.

Usually Lightroom has a set of basic profiles: neutral, rich, portrait, etc. These profiles very poorly correspond to similar profiles that are set on the camera.

You can do the search for a profile for your specific camera yourself. Usually third-party developers are involved in creating profiles. I am sure that for a large number cameras to find a good profile will not work. In this case, you will need to choose the profile that you like the most.

An existing profile can be modified, namely, adjust the color shift in the shadows, offset and saturation of each of the three main channels. After that, you can create a custom preset by writing only changes related to Camera Calibration into it (when creating a preset, you should only select the ‘Calibration’ checkbox).

2. I set the lens profile.

The essence of the action: get rid of the disadvantages of the lens.

The function is set as follows Develop -> Lens Corrections -> Profile -> Enable Profile Corrections

Everything is simple here. By choosing a lens profile, you can completely get rid of some of the disadvantages of the lens. In general this setting allows you to completely cure and... Also, the lens is treated here. Lightroom has an extensive database of lenses with which you can "cure" any of them.

If the lens you are using is not in the list, then you can correct these parameters manually, and then write the result into a preset that can be applied to all photos.

After this setting, the distortions introduced by the lens should be leveled.

Later on, the lens profile will be applied to each photo.

3. I optimize and expand the capabilities of the camera and lens.

The essence of the action: make the most beautiful / desired image through basic manipulations with exposure and color.

Everything is very simple here. Usually I choose one key photo from a series or even from a whole shot and adjust it according to the main parameters:

Increase DD - restoration of highlights and shadows (Highlight recovery, Fill light, Dark)
Vibrance adjustment
Saturation increase
Clarity enhancement
Sharpening
Noise reduction

The main thing here is not to overdo it... I try to make the photo "neutral-positive" so that all further manipulations are already based on the original "normal" image.

Important: the level of this or that setting strongly depends on the camera used and the frames taken directly. For example, I clearly know and understand how strongly this or that slider in Lightroom affects the RAW files of my cameras, and it takes a long time to get used to a new camera and the processing of its RAW files.

In the future, these settings will be applied to each photo.

4. Synchronize all images with one key photo.

The essence of the action: bring all images under one base view.

After all the previous manipulations, I sync all the photos with the changed settings. This is done very simply. In the ‘Develop’ section, all the photos in the feed are selected (CTRL + A) and the ‘Sync’ button is pressed. In the sync menu, I click the ‘Check All’ button and then uncheck ‘White Balance’ (), ‘Crop’, ‘Spot Removal’. The captured parameters do not have to be synchronized, as each photo has its own individual, cropping and spot correction / restoration.

Synchronization is part of batch processing. Upon completion, all photos are adjusted to similar settings.

After this manipulation in the Lightroom tape, all the photos are more or less brought back to normal. The previous four paragraphs allow you to "bring the image to zero" - to save it from the disadvantages of the lens, camera and squeeze the capabilities of the RAW file to the limit. After carrying out these four manipulations, you can already start real fine processing and prepare the image for the final stage, which the client will see.

5. I crop all photos.

The essence of the action: fix cropping flaws - align horizon, crop photo with correct location details in the frame, cut out key parts of the photo.

Unfortunately, cropping one photo and applying cropping to all photos in the feed will not work. After syncing basic settings I crop all photos... During the cropping operation, I also selectively remove bad shots from the Lightroom tape.

Important: I highly recommend cropping photos with fixed aspect ratios. The aspect ratio of a classic frame is 3: 2. After cropping, all photos have the same aspect ratio and do not differ in any way during playback. If this is not done, then after cropping, you may get square photographs, strongly elongated stripes. This does not fit the general style of the photo feed. In addition, at the time of printing with a 100% probability, parts of the frame will be cropped or filled with white space. Typically printed on standard sizes, which also correspond to the proportions of 3: 2. For almost every shoot, I print photos, or edit a photobook, it is very important for me to respect the proportions after cropping. To maintain the framing aspect ratio in Lightroom, just click on the padlock icon.

After cropping and removing unsuccessful frames, I get a "licked" set of photos in my tape, with which you can carry out further manipulations.

Important: I call all of these actions ‘ Get to Zero ', since these simple manipulations allow you to look at an image devoid of basic imperfections, raw, neutral, like a blank sheet, looking at which you can already carry out further fine processing.

I believe that these manipulations can improve the quality of the original image by 30%. The remaining 60% is the finalization of the image using Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop, not Lightroom).

In my practice, it often happens that after completing just these five points, you can already get a version of the image that can satisfy both me and my clients. Most often, processing is limited to just these five points, if you do not need to retouch photos (elimination of skin imperfections, work with plastic, artistic color correction, etc.).

For me, the most difficult thing in processing is after bringing all the photos from the series / shooting into a digestible form - to choose the best ones for their subtle revision.

6. Exporting all photos (bonus point)

The essence of the action: get a finished result that can be viewed by any user / client on any device.

In this case, export is the process of exporting photos from RAW format to a format that is suitable for further processing, or viewing. If I plan to do nothing else, then I export in pop format. If I plan to further refine the photos in Adobe Photoshop, then I will use the ‘TIFF’ or ‘DNG’ format. Recently, laziness has attacked me, I do not use TIFF and export all photos immediately to.

Eventually my workflow for processing photos is divided into two stages: processing in Lightroom and processing in Photoshop. Lightroom - for basic settings, recovery of "spoiled" pictures, batch processing of a tape of photos. Photoshop - for the final "finishing" photos, retouching, manipulations with layers, masks and more.

Philosophy

I am convinced that a photographer should have a clear plan of action, a clear concept, a well-thought-out methodology with step-by-step actions photo processing. The developed technological process greatly speeds up and simplifies the processing and delivery of the finished material to the client.

Bottom line. My basic processing built like this: import -> set camera profile -> set lens profile -> expand camera / lens capabilities -> sync selected settings -> crop -> export... Again - this is the basic process, the basis from which my processing begins.

Thank you for the attention. Arkady Shapoval.

There is a Service Triangle, which you have probably already met, and it looks like this: there are three options (cheap, fast, good quality), but you can only choose two. I first saw this sign in a car workshop a few years ago, but this applies to almost any professional activity in the production of goods or the provision of services, and this is especially applicable to photography.

As a photographer, you don't have an unlimited amount of time, but you and your client expect to get good results, and that is not always cheap and fast. Fortunately, Lightroom makes it possible to do basic portrait processing in just a few minutes, which you can later apply to other photographs, making your work even faster.

Before I get to the point in this article, I want to make it clear that the following steps are a process that is right for me, but your unique solution may differ from it. It's important to find and design an optimal workflow that's easy to copy and repeat so that you don't spend all of your time doing the same editing steps over and over.

Whichever editing software you're working with - be it Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One, or even free tools like Photos or Picasa - it makes sense to craft your own editing method that suits your style. I know that the overall look I want to achieve can be very different from what you prefer. It took some time to figure out how to achieve my particular style, but now my processing takes much less time, because I put together a certain series of actions to process my photos:

White balance
Sharpness
Vignetting

These steps are quick and usually account for 90% of all processing, and often result in a finished result without additional editing. Let's go through these steps one by one:

This original is good enough, but still needs some manipulation before I give it to a client.

Step 1: white balance

One of the advantages of shooting in RAW is the ability to calibrate the White Balance of your shot, while shooting in JPG does not leave much freedom, not only regarding White Balance, but most photo parameters. Of course, back side shooting in RAW is that adjusting White Balance can be time-consuming, but a lot of this can be eliminated by using the Eyedropper tool in Lightroom (the target tool) instead of moving the sliders manually.

To quickly adjust White Balance, click on the Eyedropper button, then find an area in your image that has kept the color natural - I think a slightly gray is better than pure white. This tool may not pick the perfect colors all over the place, but you will quickly get close to your goal, after which you can adjust the Temperature and Hue to your liking.

Another tip to speed up the setting is to click directly on the Temperature and Hue numbers and use the up / down arrows to set the desired value, or hold and do the same to change the values more.

Step 2:Tone

Having finished with the White Balance setting, go to other initial settings using the Main Panel in the Adjustments module. To achieve my particular style, I usually start with the following values. To quickly change each parameter, highlight a value and enter a new one, then press to instantly move to the next.

Exposure 0, Contrast 0. I do not change these values until I make the following settings, which you see below. They are global and affect the entire image, and that's not what I want to do right now. If the image is still too light or dark after the rest of the basic adjustments, I will increase or decrease the exposure accordingly, but I rarely need to adjust the contrast, and in the next steps you will see why.

Light -25. This works even in overexposed areas of the portrait, so any overly bright spots will be softened.

Shadows +20... This is a way to lighten the dark areas of a portrait and bring out a little more color and detail.

White +20, Black -25. I use these sliders instead of adjusting the contrast because it gives me more granular control over general view and the feeling of my portrait. I basically make the Whites and Blacks cleaner, which gives the portrait a rich look. Some people neglect this step and make adjustments in the Tone Curve, but this is a matter of personal preference, although in my opinion, adjusting the White / Black is much faster.

Clarity -5. Most people increase the Clarity, which essentially affects the contrast of the edges mainly in the midtones, but I like the more subdued look, so I usually start by lowering the Clarity a few positions.

Juiciness 0 (zero). This slider mainly affects colors outside the normal range of the human eye, so it can be useful for shooting at outdoors if you want to brighten natural colors. I leave this value at zero and then adjust as needed.

Saturation +5. I usually like to add a little color, so I start with small increase values, and then move up or down as needed.

I always start with these adjustments, and then tweak them individually. The whole process takes only a minute and almost always results in a result that looks significantly better than the imported image.

This image is already brighter than the original, although the settings were simpler.

Step 3: Sharpness

After the color and tint adjustments are made, I almost always add some sharpness to the image. In portraits, it is important that the eyes are in focus and sharpness, so the next step after Basic Adjustments is to use the Detail panel to get the sharpness you want.

Click on the target symbol in the upper left corner, and then click on your subject's eyes to increase the view, then adjust the sharpness. I usually start at 50 and then use Extra options like Radius and Detail if needed, but this basic setting is quick and usually gives me the effect I want.

I also apply a mask for sharpness so that the changes do not affect the rest of the areas. This way the eyes remain sharp and the facial skin does not acquire unwanted texture. If you hold ALT while clicking on the Masking slider, you will see something like this (see below). Sharpness will be applied on white areas, but not on black areas. Use this to decide how large the mask will be applied to your portrait.

Step 4: Vignetting

This step is a bit controversial - some people love vignetting, while others find it completely inappropriate in modern photography, but as I said at the beginning, it's all about the style and workflow that works for you. I usually add subtle vignetting to my portraits, but if it's not yours then just skip this step. It is not part of the 5 minute workflow, but it fits nicely into mine, which is why I added it here. I use a slight highlight on the main area and dark vignetting, trying to make the effect very subtle.

That's it - it's done

Following these four steps will not always lead you to a finished portrait, but as the title of this article suggests, you can get a well-edited portrait in less than five minutes with these simple steps. Then you can apply additional tools like brushes, blemish removal or red-eye correction, but these steps will do most of the most important work.

After - slight changes, but you can see the difference

Save your settings as a preset

And the final way to speed up the processing even more is to create a preset that is based on your workflow and then apply it to the rest of the imported photos.

If you use this option, then make allowances for the possibility of error and be more restrained in your edits to create a preset. You probably don't want to apply drastic changes to every photo, but if you find yourself doing the same steps over and over, then maybe it's time to create a preset.

You can apply it as desired after import by right-clicking on any image in the Adjustments module, or by selecting your preset in the Adjustments section (or by finding it in the Preset Options panel on the left side of Lightroom).

Updated: 03.03.2019

Oleg Lazhechnikov

17 833

I got to the last article related to photography, hurray! On the topic of processing, there are many holivars on the network: both, regarding what it should / should not do, and regarding how exactly to do it. My view on this topic is based on what result I personally want to get and at what cost. To clarify: first of all, I shoot for the blog and for my family archive, that is, I do not directly earn my living with photographs. Plus, I can't spend too much time on them, otherwise I won't have time to work, after all, I have to process a lot of photos. I have 2-3 articles per week on my site, each with about 20-40 photos. On the other hand, I also cannot release completely unprocessed ones, they are faded (because RAW), there are often too bright or too dark areas, and so on, and I myself do not like such photos. That is, one could, probably, upload any, but this is not my option.

How I process photos in Lightroom

Thus, I am a supporter of shallow processing due to the lack of motivation to spend a lot of time on it, and I do not see much of a difference for myself yet. Of course, occasionally I can conjure a little longer, but this "masterpiece" still has nowhere to put it. Now all the processing takes place in Lightroom, and I have already forgotten other programs when I used it. So, if you are with Photoshop, and you prefer to process photos quite strongly, then in the post you are unlikely to find something worthwhile for yourself :)

As I said, all of the processing is done in Lightroom, and it's pretty simple. In fact, I only crop and flatten the horizon, draw out shadows and darken highlights, add color and sharpness.

Photo import and presets

I insert the flash drive from the camera into the card reader and import the photo with transfer to an external hard drive. I will write about storing photos below. When importing, I use the pre-created presets: and. Now I use only the latter (I have a Sony A6500), it has more settings for my camera and for how I shoot. There are also a couple for the phone and a second camera.

But the presets are very similar, they differ a little only in the settings of shadows, highlights and exposure and I constantly adjust them, since my opinion changes, then once again I try to adjust the settings for most photos in order to process them less. Some of the repeating settings: Clarity +25, Vibrance +25, Sharpening +60, Noise Reduction Luminance +65, Enable Lens Correction. The latter is quite important, as it adjusts the photo (mainly geometrical distortions are removed) to your lens. But this is in case Lightroom knows your camera. For example, for Canon G7xm2 I then have to manually select something similar to it.

Regarding presets, I want to say right away that there is no right or wrong here. Well, if we talk about amateurs, the pros are different, although they may also have a special author's style. Therefore, you can create a preset for yourself with any settings you like, and it will be right. After all, the main thing is that it suits you, you process them, simply because "I see it that way." Here, of course, you can argue, I do not insist :) It's never too late to read about professional processing, about how gurus suggest using this or that setting, and change your presets.

I do not rename the files, I leave them as they are.

Photo thinning

The next step after import and before processing is decimation. I usually delete: photos that are blurry, duplicates (when about 20 photos of the same object were taken), all photos with a marriage (too dark, too light, etc.), just photos that I don't like. Sometimes I can and leave with marriage, if there is nothing like this, and the photo is very necessary.

But in general, after a couple of years of photography, I began to spend much less time on thinning and thin out less carefully, at first I left almost 50% somewhere. It is easier to change hard drives to larger ones and buy new ones than to sit for several days and thin out. Moreover, my archive is not growing so fast. Plus, besides, more than once there was such a moment that suddenly a remote photograph was needed, albeit a defective one.

Thinning also occurs in Lightroom, I mark the photo as Rejected with the X key, then I delete all marked ones at once.

Cropping and aligning the horizon

At first, I did framing very often, then apparently I took aim and I build a normal composition already at the stage of photographing. In the article I said that I use the rule of thirds, so when cropping, I use it in the same way. Not fanatical.

White balance

Since I always take pictures with automatic white balance, I correct it in the eye program using the Temp and Tint levers. Basically I use the first, the second less often. Sometimes you can use Auto to get Lightroom's opinion. By the way, it is difficult to correct colors on ordinary monitors, because they are not calibrated, and the matrices themselves have poor color rendition. That is, you will do as you see fit, but other users will see everything in a completely different way.

I currently have a Macbook Pro 15 ″ with a Retina display. I consider it, of course, not a reference, but very good in terms of color rendition. Also, 15 inches of dual resolution is enough for me to process photos.

Stretching shadows and darkening highlights

Since many photographs have some dynamic range issues, processing can reduce them. To do this, I lighten the shadows with the Shadows lever (move to the plus), then darken the too bright Highlights (move to minus). I adjust the resulting result for Exposure (plus or minus, depending on the situation) and often also adjust White and Blacks. Yes, and I almost forgot, I add Contrast, because when the shadows are lightened, it is lost, and from time to time I add Clarity (up to 50), increasing the micro contrast. Although usually the contrast and micro-contrast are immediately set by the preset when importing to the fixed values I need (+10 and +25, respectively).

I personally like micro-contrast photos more than contrast or sharpened photos. Therefore, sometimes I even take away Shadows a lot, and then increase Clarity even more. How watchable it is for you, you decide for yourself. Well, I often do contrast not at the expense of Contrast, but at the expense of White and Blacks, so it turns out to adjust it more precisely, because they are regulated from “two sides”.

Adding color

Earlier I used 2 presets: Blue Sky 0.5 (), or Skin toning lighter (). The first preset was spied on by Sergey Doli (it was called Matts Blue Sky 1), but I slightly altered it, reduced the parameter changes by half. The second one I don't remember where I downloaded it. So, now Blue Sky 0.5 is already "hard-wired" into the preset upon import, so I have reduced my processing steps a little more.

Blue Sky is needed to increase the blue of the sky, but for this it should not be too much overexposed (otherwise it will be useless), and to increase the saturation of yellow and orange flowers... It is important to mention that sometimes you need to set Luminance back to zero for the blue color, otherwise the blue comes out unnatural.

Skin toning changes the balance of light, making the skin tone more like the real one. But the truth and everything around also changes the balance, not just the skin. So, let's say, for lovers of warm shades and lampiness.

Sharpening and noise reduction

Since all photos go either to the blog or to Instagram, that is, the photos will be viewed only from the screen, and not in the maximum resolution, but about 1000 px in width, the sharpness can be painlessly raised in the program. Sharpness is also set by the preset during import (+60). Depending on the photo, I can lower the Sharpening values to avoid excessive sharpness or noise. Actually, I also neutralize noise when importing, and then I rarely touch the Luminance lever (+65). Basically, you have to reduce Sharpening and Luminance for jpegs received from a soap dish or a smartphone.

And again, I will mention the Clarity tool here. In fact, it also sharpens the photo.

Using additional tools

More often than not, I use a gradient filter to lighten / darken a part of a photo, or change the contrast or white balance of a specific part of a photo. Sometimes it is better to use a brush instead, which is more convenient when you need to change a complex area, for example, a face on which, on the contrary, you need to remove Clarity (otherwise it will be too structural). V latest versions In Lightroom, these tools are much more customizable, you can change whatever you want for the selected area.

Less often I use a stamp to remove some kind of garbage from a photo.

Export

After I have processed the image, I set the flag (Set Flag -> Flagged) with the P key.This will allow after I finish with all the images, display only them using the filter (Filter by flag -> Flagged only), view once again only for processed images and export them all in bulk. For each article, I usually process about 20-40 photos.

For export, I have already created a special preset. The folder for export is selected in it, the size of the exported jpeg (2048 × 2048), its quality (75%), sharpness during export (High), saving metadata, watermark (configurable and saved as a preset too). For Instagram I make 100% quality, I don't add watermark.

Final result

In fact, in the example above, there was some attempt to expand the dynamic range (if you expand it strongly, then there will already be a pseudo HDR). Naturally, it is not always necessary to carry out just such manipulations with photographs, but usually they are very similar: adjusting the blue / yellow balance, lightening shadows, darkening bright areas, increasing contrast. Simply, when there is not such a big difference between the dark and light areas, then the levers will not need to be moved to extreme positions, but only a little bit and this is done, of course by eye.

Why Lightroom

It's simple, it just happened. I tried it and I liked this program. It is great for correcting photos, not for deep editing them. Here everything is exactly for this and is done, there are all the tools. Plus, I also have the whole library of photos in it, and you can quickly find everything you need: there are a bunch of different filters, you can set tags for photos (I really don't use this at all).

There are plenty of analogs, but I don't want to try anything yet, everything suits me.

About resize in Wordrpess

I can't help but mention one thing that can be important for bloggers of the WordPress platform. I upload photos to the blog that are 2048px wide, but in the post they are displayed at 800 px ( full size on click, the photo is shown in the lightbox). If you upload full-size photos on your blog, and the engine resizes them to the size you need, then this is not an idea, if quality is important to you, of course. The fact is that the built-in resize will spoil the sharpness quite a lot, the photo turns out to be blurry. However, few visitors will notice this, unless you have a portfolio of a photographer offering your services. Well, there may not be enough space on the hosting, since a full-size JPG can easily take up 10 megabytes.

Alternatively, use the Sharpen Resized Images plugin, it will add sharpness when resizing, but it does it quite roughly too.

How do I store photos

All photos, videos and other files are stored on the Seagate 4TB external portable hard drive, because they do not fit on the laptop drive. This disc is always with me. The photo archive is now about 1.5 TB (2017), which is actually not very much if you are a photographer or blogger and shoot a lot. The file structure is shown in the screenshot below. As a rule, there is a separate folder for each trip, inside which there are 2-3 more folders for each of the cameras. But if the trip is long and in different cities, then for each city its own folder is also created.

The folders have the following structure: Year / Month_Number_Name of the Event / Shooting device. The directory structure in Lightroom is exactly the same. And what is convenient, you can put a photo in any of the folders on the disk, and then synchronize this folder in Lightroom, and the photo will appear in the program. For me, such a structure is quite convenient for storage, and does not take additional time for cataloging, I did it once and that's it. Now there is simply a trend to lump everything together, and only then the program itself distributes the photos according to different criteria. I like this option less.

I keep the photo in the originals, that is, in RAW, so that I can make what I need from the photo at any time. And in Lightroom, in my settings, it is worth saving all information about the photo to XMP files. Indeed, during RAW processing, nothing happens to the file itself, all information about the actions taken is stored in the catalog file. So XMP is a duplicate of information for each photo, it weighs quite a bit, so the total volume is not particularly increased. Due to XMP files, transferring photos to other computers is simplified and this is a kind of protection against the fact that something happens to the catalog file, there have already been precedents, it was necessary to delete it.

Where to backup photos

In addition to how to store photos, it is important where else to backup them. First you need to remember Golden Rule, what backups should be 2... As I said, all my photos are stored on an external hard drive, that is, this is the main base, and 2 more backups (copies) need to be made to it. Your main base can be on a hard laptop, it's more convenient.

I make the first backup to another external hard drive. About once every 3 months (and before each trip) I make a complete copy from one external (main) to the second (backup). So that it does not take time, I set to copy at night, and in the morning everything is ready. I do not take the second hard drive on trips, that is, the risk of ruining it is minimal.

I make the second backup to the cloud from the main hard, specifying the folder with the base as a folder for the cloud. For now, I use the Mail.RU cloud service, since in 2014 they had a promotion and they gave 1TB for life. But this place was no longer enough for me, plus I do not like the download speed, and the fact that the storage is not very reliable, there was already a case when they deleted some of the files for me. Therefore, I want to switch to which is currently considered the most functional and safest. There is a good paid tariff with no space restrictions. In principle, I already use it, store important files, but for the time being a free plan.

And one more important, as it seems to me, point. Since on all trips I take only one external hard drive, where the main database is stored, that is, the risk of ditching it. This is not scary, since a copy is stored at home, but you can lose photos from current trips if you constantly transfer them from a flash drive to your main drive. So, if possible, I leave all the files on the flash drive, and do not delete them immediately after transferring them to the hard drive. Yes, for this you need a larger volume of flash drives (or several pieces) so that they are enough for the whole trip, but there is a guarantee. Also, if the trip includes good internet at the hotel, the files are also sent to the cloud.

P.S. That's all I can tell you about photo processing and storage. Not a lot, but what is there :)

Life hack 1 - how to buy good insurance

It is unrealistically difficult to choose insurance now, so I am making a rating to help all travelers. To do this, I constantly monitor forums, study insurance contracts and use insurance myself.

Lifehack 2 - how to find a hotel 20% cheaper

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