ADOBE LIGHTROOM IMAGE ENHANCNG When it comes to enhancing photos, one cannot rely on the images straight out of the camera. No matter how expensive or how sensitive the sensor, images need to be enhanced. When I was at The Toronto Star, enhancing images was something I did a lot of. In photojournalism, one cannot clone, paste, or remove anything from a photo. The photo content must stand as an accurate record of a moment in time. If there are power lines running through part of the image, then those wires must remain because they were there! The rule of thumb for journalistic images (this does not necessarily apply to artistic use images) is that, if it could be done in a traditional darkroom in the days of film, then it is ok digitally. The software most people use for anything to do with images is Adobe Photoshop. However, Photoshop is a destructive programme. This means that once a change to the photo has been made, and saved, the file from which the changes were made is permanently altered - or destroyed. That is unless a copy was made. The software I choose to use, and have advocated for, for a long time is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. This software is perfect for enhancing because its creative functions are minimal. Typically one uses sliders to lighten, darken, sharpen and adjust noise levels in an image. There are only minimal creative functions. The greatest thing about Lightroom is that it is not a destructive programme. There is no save function, only an export function. This means you always retain the original file beit a RAW file of a JPG file. This is the perfect time to start shooting RAW if you have not done so already. Be warned, RAW files are very large since there is no image information discarded upon opening and closing an image as there is with a JPG file. Lightroom handles RAW beautifully, after you export your enhanced image, the RAW is preserved for you to archive and enhance again at a later date. I have recently gone back to several RAW files shot many years ago and with the help of Lightroom, breathed new life into those images. Here is a sample. In the image with the two photos, the RAW file, out of the camera is on the left. The enhanced version is on the right. As you can see, i was shooting into the light which made the mans face turn almost black. This is where shooting RAW image is vital. Even though it looks impossible to recover, there is still a great deal of visual information in the face. I also include an enlarged version so you can see the degree to which the enhancement brought out the face. The enhancing of this image was highlights, shadows and some selective dodging (lightening) and burning (darkening) - just like in the darkroom!
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 16:51:46 +0000