Thanks for all the feedback of my previous post about moody photography. Some of you asked me about the editing so I will tell something about that. I work with Lightroom, and focus only on that in this post. I’ve chosen this photo, because I used a lot of tools to edit this photo. Editing is just as important as the photo itself. I don’t know if this is the way to do it, but this works for me. I photograph a bit dark and when I edit I can play with the light. When you’re going to edit yourself I only can say: just try. Play with the settings an see what happens. You can always go back! To make it easier I edit from top to down. So even when you’re lightroom is in an other language (I have Dutch for example) you can follow about which tools I’m talking. It’s the easiest to read this post on a big screen, so you see the text next to the right photo.
1. You must think, what a dark shot! You’re right. On my screen of my camera it looks less dark. So I can see what I’m doing, don’t worry. You will see what happens when I start editing. First I use the tool ‘Upright’ to correct the perspective. I always start with this.
2. Exposure + 0,9. You see how much lighter the whole photo becomes. Do you see how beautiful the light is on the right side?
3. Contrast +35. Love a bit of a dramatic look. Giving more contrast has a different outcome in every photo. You just have to try some things. That’s actually the same for everything. I never edit the same way, every shot is different even when it’s from the same thing.
4. Highlights +68. You see the light (which comes from the right side) becomes a little bit brighter.
5. Whites +45. I lift up the white tones in the photo.
I also edited the shadows (the tool before whites) a tiny bit, but you almost won’t see it when the photo is this small.
6. Blacks -40 I also add a bit more black. It looks more dramatic like this, doesn’t it? I also really love the texture of the wall behind which I accentuate a bit more this way.
7. Clarity + 15. I’m always careful with this tool, because it can look “fake” soon. It just gives a bit more contrast in this photo in my opinion.
8. Now a close up. In this stage I thought I would use only this part of the photo.
Highlights -38 and Lights +50
9. I changed the Red, Magenta and Green colors a bit. Not too much.
10. Okay, the whole photo is more beautiful then only the smaller part. This is the final result. Hope you learned something of it! What would you like to see the next time?
