Before & After With Lightroom 5

During yesterday’s “Mastering the Lightroom 5 Develop Module” online class, we took a look at the power of RAW editing by working on an image that might not have been too inspiring straight out of the camera:

Sunset in the Badlands; as-shot image before processing.
Sunset in the Badlands; as-shot image before processing.

What I liked about the shot, though, was the light hitting the peaks and the clouds. This image represents a typical set of challenges in outdoor photography. Wide dynamic range between the sky and the foreground, mixed lighting between the sky (daylight) and the hills (shade), and low contrast overall.

We used the full set of tools in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 to adjust the RAW image, and then we applied Skylight Filter and Pro Contrast in Color Efex Pro 4 to make the final image pop. The end result is far more spectacular, and captures the feeling we had when we were actually there shooting this on the Badlands Photo Safari.

Sunset in the Badlands, South Dakota. Final image after processing in Lightroom 5 and Color Efex Pro 4.
Sunset in the Badlands, South Dakota. Final image after processing in Lightroom 5 and Color Efex Pro 4.

3 thoughts on “Before & After With Lightroom 5”

  1. Do you ever release videos of your online classes at a suitable time lag after the event? As with many photographers living in rural UK, the broadband speed is far too slow to make joining one of your online sessions a possibility. Advanced tutorials on Lightroom 5 and Nik software are always welcome.
    David

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.