Mike's Mom's Rose and the Lightroom settings I used

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The original:
5732757514_ca2e550832_z.jpg




Mikes-Moms-Rose-XL.jpg


screenshot20110517at113.jpg

After saturation we've got hue and luminance. Hue values respectively are:
-9
39
-2
-4
0
0
0
-17
And Luminance:
3
0
54
The rest are 0

The only thing of importance to note here is that usage of the tone curve is based solely on personal preference. Messing around with it is the best way to get a feel for what may become your personal style.


screenshot20110517at113.jpg


Another very important tool and sensitive to minor adjustments is the split toning panel. I actually find these sliders of more use when doing black and white conversions. It's the easiest way to create color toning in highlights and shadow areas. You can actually also use the adjustment brush to add highlight and shadow tone colors, but that's more for selective areas rather than the entire image.

screenshot20110517at113.jpg


Lastly, a bit of tweaking with these sliders, and the post crop vignetting to add the nice white border.

I don't really want to go on a full out rant about processing here, so I'll leave it at this unless someone has a question. I only created this thread because of a PM I received and so if you have a specific question Brunhild, I'd be more than happy to try and help. If you need further specific questions answered, I'd also be happy to answer them in private via PM's or just add me to your IM client.

There are some great LR books out there, I'm partial to Martin Evening's book but to be honest, have tinkered more on my own than have gotten info from the book. There are also a ton of LR video tutorials out there, though I'm going to warn you against buying into anything that Scot Kelby is selling... most of what he sells is his brand name, and not so much information otherwise IMO. Kind of a hack...

Victoria Bampton is pretty cool and a very nice girl, easy to talk to. She runs the unofficial LR forums and also has a few books published.

I'd also suggest looking for and downloading as many "presets" as you can find. Presets are a gateway to learning how certain processes create a certain look. For instance, I can take all those settings that you see, and create a preset from them. When you go through presets, you can get a good idea of what kind of look you're hoping to achieve, use it as a guide or baseline, and then work off of that. Some call it cheating, yet it's anything but. In fact, presets can be applied to a group of photos during the import stage. Has its uses.

That's it for now I guess. And.. this wasn't meant to come off as some kind of instructional guide or anything. Such a thing from me would be far more detailed and lengthy! Not ready to write a book as such... I was however pondering putting together a guide, describing the differences between iPhoto/Aperture/LR/PS/PSE. One day... just fer you guys.

Doug

Doug
 
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That looks great Doug!
 
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Thanks for this post! I recently acquired Lightroom but haven't really gotten around to experimenting with it (to be honest, I also feel a bit overwhelmed with all the options). I've already downloaded some presets at your advice and am currently looking into the best book to buy.
 

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Thanks again Doug,
I have just started to get into PP (and I have bought several of Kelby's books). It is helpful to me to see the results along with the adjustments you made.
Appreciate this a lot!
Mike
 

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Very nice Doug. Great artistic work.

I'm a point and shoot guy myself and have a lot to learn, thanks for the tips.
 
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Thanks,

I too learn most programs by messing with them myself, the black and white tweaks and such you threw out there are great. Just curious about all the options in LR since there are so many. Am excited to play with it more and more so just wanted to see a quick snap of what you did.
 
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Doug b
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That looks great Doug!

Thanks man!

Thanks for this post! I recently acquired Lightroom but haven't really gotten around to experimenting with it (to be honest, I also feel a bit overwhelmed with all the options). I've already downloaded some presets at your advice and am currently looking into the best book to buy.

Don't buy a book just yet. I'm going to post a bunch of links to some great resources. If you feel those aren't enough, I really love Martin Evening's style. He gets really into detail about stuff, much more so than Scot Kelby IMO. Too bad you don't live near me, I'd loan you mine. Though to be honest, I haven't really even used the book. Most of the onlline tutorials are more than enough to serve as a guide. I'll post those links in a different post.

Thanks again Doug,
I have just started to get into PP (and I have bought several of Kelby's books). It is helpful to me to see the results along with the adjustments you made.
Appreciate this a lot!
Mike

My pleasure. It's all fun for me, so if there's anything else that comes to mind which requires some explanation, I'd be happy to give it a shot.

Very nice Doug. Great artistic work.

I'm a point and shoot guy myself and have a lot to learn, thanks for the tips.

I wish the day would come already when camera's the size of a point and shoot would have DSLR sized sensors. The day IS coming... I'd gladly give up the bulk of a DSLR for a small form factor camera. The closest thing to those right now, are the Leica D-LUX 5 and the Panasonic LX-5. In fact, they're the same exact camera, just different firmware. The Leica costs $300 more because it's got a red dot on it and it's branded Leica .. oh, and because LR 3 comes with it. So if you don't have it and want it, great deal. Otherwise, the Pani is $400.

Small sensors but extraordinary image production. I don't count the micro 4/3rds cameras simply because the exchangeable lenses defeat the entire purpose of the small form factor. Ridiculous is what I'd call them. You've got these tiny bodies, nice big sensors but... huge lenses! Ain't no way to pocket those stupid things. So you might as well just get an entry level DSLR at that point.
Thanks,

I too learn most programs by messing with them myself, the black and white tweaks and such you threw out there are great. Just curious about all the options in LR since there are so many. Am excited to play with it more and more so just wanted to see a quick snap of what you did.

If you want to do a pure Black and white conversion, I generally tend to think that using the actual black and white button is better than lowering the saturation and vibrancy. You get better transitional rendering that way, makes the tones smoother when adjusting the individual BnW color shades.

I also use a program called Silver Efex Pro for black and white conversions. While LR does a good job with BnW conversions, there are just some things it can't match up to vs SEP. But this is an whole other story, and that will have to wait a bit. But I do think it's worth the money if you have it to spend.

I appreciate everyone's comments, really. Considering the fact that all I really did was tinker!

Doug
 
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Great tips Doug, looking forward to the links.
Question, what is your opinion on Ken Rockwell's tips/advice?
 
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Great tips Doug, looking forward to the links.
Question, what is your opinion on Ken Rockwell's tips/advice?

Heh... KR is somewhat of an enigma to me. I take whatever I read of his (which believe me, isn't much. Hardly anything, really) with a grain of salt, real large grain... There are times I've found, that he can make logical sense and at other times he's a complete buffoon. I think part of the problem is that he's too much of an car salesman, and not really a photographer.

I've never seen anything that he has done photography wise, that didn't look like my wife wasn't also able to shoot. And believe me, that's not really a compliment. ken's the kind of guy who has a lot of money and begs for more from his readers, while telling them that he could get better results from a disposable camera than any one of them (his readers) could from a top of the line DSLR because he's a true photographer.. His whole schtick stems from those points : "I'm better than you.. and can prove it with a disposable camera. So all you need is what you have"

Yet the guy of course has nothing but top of the line stuff ... and wouldn't dare shoot without it unless doing a review.

I have nothing against the guy, but I personally would never trust a review he wrote. He's far too wishy-washy. I do agree with some of his sentiments, however, and have found that if there's a discussion to be had which is based solely on the technical merits of something, it could be worth at least a glimpse.

For instance, his stance on RAW vs. Jpg. He did this really long winded article on why he believes that shooting Jpg would be more than enough for something like 90% of shooters out there, whom aren't pros. He even made an argument for why it's more than enough for pro's too. And he was right for the most part. I've even covered this topic myself, in another post somewhere on this forum.

So it's kind of pick and choose your battles with KR I suppose. Don't take him too seriously, and you may wind up finding a gem hidden in the crust somewhere!

Doug
 
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Heh... KR is somewhat of an enigma to me.

....

For instance, his stance on RAW vs. Jpg. He did this really long winded article on why he believes that shooting Jpg would be more than enough for something like 90% of shooters out there, whom aren't pros. He even made an argument for why it's more than enough for pro's too. And he was right for the most part. I've even covered this topic myself, in another post somewhere on this forum.

You too eh? I've read the RAW/jpeg argument a few times trying to come to terms with it. I guess I work with far too many composite images in general to bother with pre-processed images. I'm sort of happy to read that I'm not alone :)
 

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I've never seen anything that he has done photography wise, that didn't look like my wife wasn't also able to shoot. And believe me, that's not really a compliment.

Excerpted for blackmail at some point in the future...:Mischievous:
 

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