Creating a Workflow
Every photographer eventually creates her or his own workflow, dependent upon the final use of the images. The workflow presented here works well for the way I use Lightroom and, as they say, “your mileage may vary…”
Feel free to use this suggested workflow and modify it as you see fit.
Keywords:
During import, I make sure that my metadata template is applied (copyright and contact info) and any global keywords that I wish to apply. Global keywords are those that would apply to every single image that is being imported. For instance, a set of images taken in the Florida keys might have the following keywords: Florida, Florida Keys, keys, island, travel
When I am selecting an image to work on in the Develop Module, I look to see if there are additional keywords I might wish to apply. In this instance, I applied these additional keywords: architecture, condo, Duck Key, Hawks Cay, palm trees, picket fence, and resort
Notice that Lightroom has created Keyword Suggestions from my previous images, a Keyword Set of images applied to this image, and a Keyword List of all the keywords I have used thus far.
My next step is to add any rating or label to the selected image, so I can easily identify the images I have already edited and retouched. I also create a Virtual Copy of the image so that I save a version of the original, unedited image and to have it available for a side-by-side comparison, should I wish to do so during editing, manipulation, and retouching.
Hovering the mouse or tablet pen over the image shows that the Virtual Copy is "2 of 2" and also that the same rating applied to the original has been applied to the copy. I am now ready to start manipulating the image and open it in the Develop Module.
My first step in editing and retouching the image is to evaluate the White Balance on the image. If I need accurate color reproduction, I go to the Basic panel on the right hand side of the Develop Module and use the White Balance Selector (it looks like an eyedropper) to click on an item in the photo that I know (or want) to be pure white. I may create a reference photo that is only used for white balance and photograph a white card or a MacBeth Color Chart and click on the white space on the card to set the white balance. If I had not photographed a white balance reference, I can set any item in the photo to be pure white by clicking on it with the White Balance Selector.
I can, of course, completely ignore setting a "correct" white balance and use the Temperature and Tint sliders just to the right of the White Balance Selector to create an image that is as warm or cool as I desire.
If I desire, I can also open the Profile browser (it looks like 4 little horizontal boxes directly under the Black & White treatment) and select from dozens of presets. There are four types of color profiles in Lightroom:
- Adobe Raw: These are a set of color profiles provided by Adobe. You can only apply these to Raw files.
- Camera Matching: These profiles are intended to
match the color treatment and tonality provided by your camera’s
built-in color profiles, and again, you can only apply these to Raw files.
- Creative: These
let you apply creative effects to your photos. You can apply them to
JPEG, TIFF and PSD files as well as Raw.
- Third-party: These are profiles created by other
photographers. This area will also include any color profiles that you have created using any of the Develop Presets on the panel on the left hand side of the Develop Module.
In the window below, you can see the Adobe RAW profiles at the top of the panel and a few of the Camera Matching profiles at the bottom of the panel. The Adobe Raw Monochrome setting is shown as the moment. Hovering your mouse over a profile gives you a preview of the effect of that profile while clicking on the profile sets it on the image.
I now apply global adjustments to the image using the Tone Curve to adjust Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows in the image. Moving the sliders left or right brightens or darkens those specific areas of the photo and is much more effective than the simple adjustments of exposure, highlights, and shadows, in the Basic panel.
If desired, I now also adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance values in the HSL/Color panel, located directly below the Tone Curve. Remember, any adjustments to the HSL/Color panel may affect your white balance.
My next step is to scroll down the right hand side set of panels to the Lens Correction panel. At this point, I enlarge the image to 100 percent (Command key and + key on a Mac, Alt Key and + on a Windows machine), move around the image, and look for any chromatic aberrations.
Looking carefully at the upright post in the sample image, I can see that there is a red outline on the side of the post next to the sky and a cyan outline on the side of the post next to the clapboard. Those are chromatic aberrations.
After clicking on Remove Chromatic Aberration, those red and blue outlines, which would have been very visible in a printed piece, are completely gone. Depending on your particular camera, the chromatic aberrations might be any combination of red and cyan or green and magenta.
While I have the image enlarged to 100 percent, I methodically go over the entire image looking for any sensor dust spots or any other items or blemishes I wish to remove from the image by using the Spot Removal Tool. The Spot Removal Tool can be used as either a Clone Tool or a Heal Tool. Select the Spot Removal Tool from the toolstrip, or if you prefer using shortcuts, press the letter Q on your keyboard. Select one of the following:
- Heal, which matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled area to the selected area
- Clone, which duplicates the sampled area of the image to the selected area
In the Spot Removal tool options area, you can drag the Size slider to specify the size of the area that the tool affects. Click and drag the part of the photo you wish to retouch and a white marquee area designates your selection. Another white marquee area with an arrow pointing at the selection designates the sampled area.
If you don't like the area that the tool has automatically selected, do one of the following:
- Automatic Mode: Click the handle of the selected area, press the forward slash key
(/), and a new area is sampled. If you don't like that new area, keep pressing the forward slash key until you find an area that is a better fit.
- Manual Mode: Use the handle of the sampled area to drag and select a new area of your choice.
When you print a photo at full resolution, you may see many imperfections that are not easily visible on a
computer screen. These imperfections may include camera
sensor dust, blemishes on a portrait, or other tiny imperfections. In a large, full resolution print, these imperfections can
be very distracting.
The Visualize Spots feature helps you see and fix these imperfections before you print.
When the
Spot Removal tool is selected, the
Visualize Spots option and slider are available below the image.
When the
Visualize Spots
option is selected, the image is inverted, and you can see imperfections more
clearly. You can vary the contrast levels using the slider, to look for
imperfections in greater or lesser detail. You can then use the
Spot Removal tool to remove distracting elements.
NOTE: Not every item that the Visualize Spots option selects is always something that you want to remove, so choose carefully. For example, a photograph of a wooden building may have nail heads; the Visualize Spots will see these nail heads as blemishes. You may wish to keep them to retain the original condition of the building. Of course, you may wish to eliminate them for a more pristine, idealistic view of the building. The choice is yours to make.
At this point, I go back to the Lens Correction panel (where the Remove Chromatic Aberration tool that was used near the very beginning) and I click on Enable Profile Corrections in order to remove and lens distortions. Very often, wide angle and zoom lenses create what is known as barrel distortion and the photo appears to bulge out in the center. Clicking on the Enable Profile Corrections will remove that distortion. Usually, Lightroom will know which Make, Model, and Profile to choose from the EXIF information which modern digital cameras automatically embed in every image created. In the case of older cameras and lenses, you may need to manually choose the Make, Model, and lens Profile.
If I have an architectural, street scene, or similar type of image, I may wish to correct the vertical lines in the image. For this, I move down to the Transform panel.
In most cases, clicking Auto will adjust the vertical and horizontal lines on your image very well. In this particular image, I needed to add and additional -12 points of adjustment to the Vertical Transform in order to have the image adjusted to my satisfaction. Using the Transform tools manually (Vertical, Horizontal, Rotate, etc.), brings up a grid to help you evaluate your final transform decision.
NOTE: Transform adjustments always end up
creating parts of the image which will need to be cropped off, so
remember to create an image that allows your some "wiggle" room on
either side of your subject that can be cropped off after the transform
is completed.
At this point, I may make further adjustments, retouch and remove additional items in the image, crop the image to a desired print size, etc., but this is my basic Adobe Lightroom workflow. As you work with Lightroom, you will come up with a workflow that makes sense for you, but this tutorial can give you a head start. Have fun!
