How to process in Lightroom?

[uachemeams4hm]

I feel like I am a complete beginner in PP in Lightroom. I know where to do some changes, yet my picutres seam to never come out as vivid as others. Does anyone have a specific lightroom workflow and settings they use? Thanks for your help. I want to PP with a purpose and not bounce around so much.

[d2creative]

Depends on the photo and what I want to achieve with it.
Of course the best thing is to get exposure correct in camera.
Then in LR you can add a touch of saturation and/or vibrancy, maybe just to certain color channels.
Maybe an s-curve to boost contrast.
I don't tend to do too much in LR because I have more/better control in Photoshop.

[Peruna]

My typical LR RAW processing workflow is the following:

1) The first thing I do in the "Develop" module is to get my white balance how I want it. If I think it is off I'll use the eyedropper on a white point in the photo. Or if I simply want to make the image warmer/cooler I'll use the slider for slight adjustments.

2) Next I'll look at my histogram and see if I need to pull in the blacks/whites. If anything is blown out or blocked up I'll use "Recovery" and "Fill Light" respectively to bring texture back to those areas in the photo but I'll not go beyond 9-10 on the scale. Then I'll use "Exposure" and "Blacks" to bring the ends of the histogram to the edges (just before either arrow lights up).

3) Next, I again look at the histogram and see if mid-tones are skewed left or right and I'll use the Brightness slider to center them. And then adjust contrast according to my preference for the image. At this point I may need to go back to step 2 and make some adjustments so that neither end of the histogram is off the edge (lighted up arrows).

4) Finally I'll add "Vibrance" to every image, usually somewhere between 12-25. And if I need some mid-tone texture, like in sand, I'll use clarity, but only up to 15-20. In rare cases I'll adjust the saturation, but I find vibrance does the job much better.

There are other tools in LR you can use after this, but I tend to do individual color work and sharpening in PS.

[Hogleg 44]

I like the "Punch" preset. I use it on almost every picture. I don't remember if it came with LR of if it was with a bunch of Presets I downloaded several months ago.
Basically, what "Punch" does is set the 'Clarity' to 50 and the 'Vibrance' to +25. It works very well for me.
If you find a setup that works for you, make your own preset out of it. Very easy to do.

[CaptainTom]

I love the ability to convert to Black and White so easily. I needed to make some photos into B&W for a client. I converted and put into a slide show.


http://www.photobiz.com/slideshowbiz...grapherID=1863