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Photography - Tips/Tutorials: Anatomy of a Shot - using Lightroom Filters

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      CommentAuthorjason (Admin)
    • CommentTimeJun 4th 2009 edited
     
    Have you ever watched a behind the scenes video on a movie set? One thing that always fascinates me is the difference between the actual scene (captured on a the video camera vs. the final cut of the film with all its effects, processing, filters etc)

    In the days of film, the camera and film type, chemical treatment, lens, aperture, and lighting were all used to create a much different look and feel from the actual scene. These days, shooting digitally makes it even easier to post process a movie much like we post process our photos adding an even more stylized look and feel.

    I know there are purists that prefer the image to remain as the eye sees it, but for those looking to add some punch to an otherwise ordinary shot, here is a walk through of one of my recent images from the last few months and how I created it.

    I typically use Adobe Lightroom for 98% of my photo processing although you could probably get similar results in any photo editing software. All processing in Lightroom is done through value sliders for different aspects of the image (colors, exposure, white balance etc) and it is possible to take any combination of those sliders and make a preset. There are tons of great presets available on the web. It is very easy to preview them in Lightroom which allows you to get ideas and try out different processing with very little effort.

    Here is the original image


    The great thing about post processing is that an image like this gets a second chance. In the past, I may have tossed this one as being under exposed and not too exciting but with a bit of work, it really shines. I thought the off kilter somewhat extreme composition would lend itself to some extreme settings. I was originally trying to get a sort of Bleach Bypass effect. I wanted a dreamy haze look with desaturated, blown out highlights.

    Step 1 - Filter *COLOR POP*


    Lightroom Filter: *Color Pop*
    Apologies to the Author of this filter but I can't find original link - maybe here?
    http://www.presetsheaven.com/tag/color-pop/

    This added exposure, recovery and some bright curves

    Step 2 - Filter Abby Angelic


    Lightroom Filter: Abby Angelic
    Abby has some great filters in this collection
    download: http://proactivebusybody.com/my-lightroom-presets/

    This provided
    More exposure
    Split toning to give it a greenish hue
    Vibrance & Saturation
    Color tweaking

    Step 2.5
    I warmed it up a bit by upping the White Balance setting of 7500 towards yellow

    Step 3 - Filter NYKF


    Lightroom Filter: NYKF
    (apologies to the Author of this filter as I can't find a link at the moment - will keep searching and if anyone has it or knows where to get it, please comment!)

    This filter cranks the exposure way up
    Adds some vignetting in the corners
    Cranks up contrast
    Flattens the curves
    Flattens color settings (from Angelic filter before)

    This provides the bulk of my original goal of the blown out dreamy look

    Step 4 - Slight Crop


    This is a subtle step
    I cropped it a little tighter (bottom and right) to change the composition a bit

    The final result


    As a last step, I upped the black clipping +3 which adds a bit more contrast.

    For comments and a larger version - it is on my blog here
    http://jason.aminus3.com/image/2009-02-17.html

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