Can anyone help me with some editing tips?

Fuganater · Mar 25, 2013

Ok so I'm trying really hard to learn Lightroom 4.3 but I'm having issues. Here are 2 .jpg right from the camera but I'm trying to edit the RAW files. Her shirt was not ideal and thinned out in the front due to the large belly and there is a spot too. I can get them out mostly but if I turn blacks all the way down (-100) the shirt turns pure black which is great, but her hair goes 5 shades too dark. If anyone has some helpful tips, I'm all ears.

Any other recommended edits are welcomed. I have about 100 photos to edit.

Thanks!

The_Traveler · Mar 25, 2013

learn to use the control points.
search 'lightroom control points tutorial' on the web

KristenJane · Mar 25, 2013

Hi,

It's kind of hard for me to see what you want to fix in this photo, but I think I get what you're saying. If you want to edit just the shirt and not change the rest of the image, you will have to use local adjustments. This is going to be time consuming if you have to edit 100 photos. Anyway, right under the histogram, the tool on the far right is the "spot adjustment brush". If you select that tool, its menu will open underneath and you can adjust settings for the brush. (You could reduce the exposure or change the blacks, for example.) Then, you just paint over the area that you wan to change. I think if you look up "adjustment brush" in the LR help menu, it will give you an overview of the tool.

If I had to edit this, I would probably open it in photoshop and use the clone tool over the thin area, but again, that's going to take a lot of time on 100 photos. I hope that helps.

Fuganater · Mar 26, 2013

Here are a few with some edits. Still not really happy with the result.

ryanwaff · Mar 26, 2013

For this edit I did the following:

For the background, I used the adjustment brush bumping the exposure to +4 and then painting the background.

I used the same process for the shirt, except I had an exposure setting of -2.

Then general adjustments, I had an 'S' tonal curve, I also boosted the vibrance slightly

Then for the colour balance, I decreased the yellows a bit, making it slightly cooler.