In the past we’ve covered making the eyes pop in Lightroom 3 using adjustment brushes, but the introduction of Lightroom 4 has made the entire process much faster and less complicated. Now, using the adjustment brush too and new preset, we can achieve the same—maybe better—results than in version 3.

Lightroom 4 introduced adjustment brush presets to fine-tune things like contrast, temperature and exposure, but it also includes presets like Dodging, Burning, Teeth Whitening and Iris Enhance. This article is going to focus on the Iris Enhance and Dodge (lighten) brush presets.

First we’ll take care of boosting the color in the irises, then we’ll clean up the whites.

Pop the Color in the Iris

To start, zoom in on the eyes of your portrait. Then select the adjustment brush tool, and choose Iris Enhance.

With the Iris Enhance preset selected, paint the irises of your subject. Make sure the inner circle of the brush tool stays inside the colored portion (iris) of the eye to keep the adjustments only where you want them. You should see an immediate and noticeable difference—sharpness, saturation and overall pop!

Photo Caption: In this photo, the eye on the right has been hit with the adjustment brush using the Iris Enhance preset.

The default settings on the Iris Enhance preset are pretty strong for my taste, so I pull back the saturation and exposure sliders just a bit so the eyes remain realistic looking. Too much saturation and exposure can make them appear fake.

Play with the default settings to find what you like best. Don’t be afraid to slide everything down the whole list just to see how each slider affects the iris. You can always bring sliders back to zero by double-clicking the name (for instance, double-click the word Exposure to return the exposure slider to the zero setting).

The Whites of the Eyes

Once you’re happy with the look of the irises, it’s time to clean up the whites of the eyes. Choose a new adjustment brush state by clicking New in the toolbar.

Then, hit the Effect dropdown and choose the Dodge (lighten) preset.

The defaults on the Dodge (lighten) preset may appear a little muted at first, so you might want to push the exposure up a bit to start. You can always go back and adjust it when you’re done painting. Paint the whites of the eyes and make sure the center ring of the tool stays in the white areas.

If the whites of the eyes are too bright and too perfect, they’ll look fake, so increase exposure little by little if you need to. The default setting of 23 might be all you need. Subtlety is key here.

If you feel the whites need a little more pop, leave the exposure at 23 and try adjusting the other sliders. Sometimes I’ll drop the saturation (to remove some of the redness or other tints), then boost the shadows, highlights and contrast. Here’s a look at what my eye whitening recipe might look like. It all depends on the eyes, each person is different and you’ll have to adjust for each.

Here’s the before and after. Nothing too overpowering, but that’s by choice. You can go crazy and make the eyes look perfectly white and saturated, or you can go the realistic route like I did here. The point of enhancing the eyes is to give them a little pop to draw viewers in, not make them look unrealistically perfect.

That’s it, you’re done and the eyes are poppin’! Don’t be afraid to play around with all the settings to see how each slider changes things. You’re working in Lightroom so you can always go back and change your adjustment states because it’s all non-destructive editing. Now start poppin’ those eyes!

Ryan Klos – Ryan Klos Photography

Note from the Editor

Graham Douglas is one of my favorite new Guest Writers. I totally love his new piece on using the Lightroom Book Module – hopefully you will feel the same. As always, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Now … on to the knowledge bomb!

Working with the the Lightroom Book Module

I love picture books. For me, it’s just not a photograph unless it’s been printed and either hung on a wall or bound into a book. I’ve made a few books of photographs using Blurb’s BookSmart software, so I was rather excited to see the new Book module make an appearance in Lightroom 4.

The problem with using BookSmart was always one of keeping the images synchronised with the Lightroom originals. This was ameliorated somewhat when Blurb brought out their Publish plugin – finally I didn’t have to keep manual track of which images I’d recently changed. There was still the issue of having to swap between apps, and being confident that BookSmart had picked up the latest version, but, well, life needs its little hardships.

The Lightroom Book module is capable of producing perfectly adequate books and, for many purposes, it’s all you’ll need.

But now we can create a Blurb book right inside Lightroom: no app switching, no worries about picking up the right version, no need to remember to hit the ‘Publish’ button. But how does it stack up against BookSmart as a way of constructing a book? I already knew that you can’t edit or create custom templates, but how much of a problem would that prove in real life?

To test this out, I decided to try re-creating a book (here) that I’d made about a year ago as part of a project for my college photography course. It’s a fairly simple book, less than 40 pages with only a couple of pages of text and it mostly uses standard BookSmart page templates, so it seemed a good choice for a first dive into the murky realms of the Lightroom Book Module.

Before we start

This is not a tutorial. For that, I can heartily recommend Julianne Kost’s excellent 3-part video series over on Adobe TV (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). What I will be doing is recounting my experience of trying to put together a book based solely on having watched Julianne Kost’s videos and poked about with the Book module a couple of times. As such, I’ll have made mistakes, gone down blind alleys and not have done things in the most optimal way – but that’s part of the learning experience and also a function of the effectiveness of the user interface.

Let’s dive in

For reference, this is the book in BookSmart, showing the book’s cover.

Since I’ve already made the book, I have a collection inside Lightroom containing all the images that I want:

so, I select the collection and enter the Book module.

(At this point Lightroom will, by default, ask you if you want to autofill the images. Personally, I don’t see the point in doing that right at the start, so I had already turned the preference off):

This preferences dialog can be found under the ‘Book’ menu when you’re in that module.)

What type of book?

The first thing to consider is the size and style of the book you’re creating. I already knew that I wanted a Standard Landscape, soft cover, Premium Lustre paper (I was a poor student – it needed to be cheap, OK?). And here comes the first deal-breaker: no soft cover option. I could have Hardcover Dust Jacket or Hardcover Image Wrap, but no Softcover option was available.

On the plus side, though, it does give you an estimated price right up front: something you don’t get with BookSmart.

Laying out the book

So now it’s time to get the pictures into the book in something approximating the final order. I had a couple of things to consider at this point

1. The collection contains more pictures than would eventually be used in the book
2. There are two ‘sets’ of pictures – a main ‘narrative’ set and a ‘details’ set.

What I would like to do is to use Auto Layout to put the narrative set in place, and then add the detail images manually. Easier requested than done, though – Auto Layout uses all the pictures in the film strip, even though I had selected the ones I wanted to put in. I think Adobe have missed a trick here: Auto Layout is potentially a time-saver, but without a little bit more control you could end up wasting as much time as you’d saved undoing some of the things it’s done.

Still, in this case it’s simple enough to correct, since all the pictures I want to remove are consecutive, so I click on the first page and then shift-click on the last page. That didn’t do what I wanted, though – it only selected the two pages that I clicked on.

It took me a little while to figure out what was going on here: you have to be careful not to click on an image or text cell, because then you’re selecting cells (for which range select doesn’t really make sense). Unfortunately, Auto Layout had used a full-bleed template for every page, so it’s impossible not to click a cell if you click anywhere on the page thumbnail.

The best way I’ve found to ensure that it’s pages you’re selecting is to click on the page number under the thumbnail. That way, range select works just fine.

This still left another issue: I couldn’t find a way to autofill using a specific template: no matter what I tried, it always created new pages using a default, full-bleed template. I assume that I’ll find out how if I dig a bit deeper, but I’d just like it to be more obvious, if there is a way to do it. Anyway, it’s simple enough to select all the pages and apply a new template that’s more like the one I want.

So, the book now looks like this:

Time for a break…

At this point, I felt that I needed a break. Before sloping off for a nice cup of tea, though, I thought I’d better just save the book and get rid of that distressing ‘Unsaved Book’ label at the top of the page. So I clicked ‘Create Book’, gave it a name in the subsequent dialog and clicked ‘Create’. If only I’d spotted that check box lurking, I’d have saved myself another minor annoyance a bit later on…

So, back to the book. To recap, I’ve got the basic narrative pictures in place; now I have to tidy up the layout and insert the detail pictures, add the text pages and fix up the cover. As reminder, this is what the book looks like at this stage:

It’s looking OK, but all the pictures are in the middle of the page – in the original, I had moved them to the right and slightly down to break up that symmetry and give a bit more ‘life’ to the page. In BookSmart, this is quite easy – you just select all the images and apply ‘Align Right-Bottom (don’t crop)’. This will fit the image and align it to either the right or bottom edge of the cell, depending on the relative aspect ratios. But there’s no such option in the Book module.

At this point (given hindsight) I made a possible mistake – I started looking around for a layout template that put the image more to the right of the page and eventually found a two-picture layout that seemed to work. (This image includes the effect of padding as described below.)

It’s worth pointing out here that, just because you want to put only one picture on a page, doesn’t mean you should restrict yourself to looking only in the ‘1 Photo’ layout section.

So, I’ve got the pictures over to the right, but they’re still in the middle vertically. Now I remembered what I should have remembered before: namely, that you can adjust the padding around the picture within the cell.

By deselecting the ‘Link All’ checkbox, you can control the position of the image. Here I’ve added some padding to the top to move the image down in the cell to the position I want. I could have moved the image around in the original layout, by adjusting the left and top padding and saved myself the task of applying another layout. That would work, but it would have made the image smaller and may not have looked quite right. As with so many things, there are multiple ways of achieving an end, and you may need to experiment to find the best one in any given circumstance.

One thing I found that surprised me slightly is that copying and pasting a layout (select a page, right-click and choose ‘Copy Layout’ – or Cmd/Ctrl C, select another page, right-click and choose ‘Paste Layout’ – or Cmd/Ctrl V) inserts a page in front of the second one you selected. My initial feeling was that pasting a layout on a page should change that page. To change a page layout, you have to click on the down arrow at the bottom-right of the thumbnail and choose the layout you want – this works across a multiple selection, by the way.

Finishing the main section

Given what I had learned from the previous attempts, it was a fairly simple matter to add the rest of the pictures in their correct places and move them into the positions that I wanted.

One minor annoyance cropped up here, from the point where I had initially created the book – it only copied over those images from the original collection that I had already added to the book. Remember that the Create Book dialog has check box that I missed first time around:

It meant a quick round trip to the old collection to transfer the remaining pictures to the book collection – a small thing, but something to remember for the future.

Adding text pages

This turned out to be the simplest process so far – it was just a matter of looking for a template that had a text box in approximately the correct position, and then using the justification controls (seen at the bottom of the Type control panel) to position it to my liking.

Headers and footers

This is a feature that I wasn’t able to replicate exactly. The original book had page numbers at the bottom and the book title at the top of the page. The Book module allows you to add a page caption at the top or the bottom but not both, so I could have either the title or the page numbers.

Add to that that there doesn’t seem to be a way of automatically inserting the page number, and we have another potential deal-breaker.

The book cover

This was the trickiest part of the book to reproduce, and the least satisfactory, since there was no template that was at all close to the original layout. The best I could come up with was this layout:

To get the long, thin image, I made a virtual copy of the ‘real’ image, cropped it to the appropriate aspect ratio, and positioned it within the (full-bleed) cell using the padding controls as before. The image for the back cover was near enough, so I didn’t change it. Front cover text was easy enough to add, but I could not replicate the positioning of the original.

I should add that I could have used the ‘whole page picture’ trick that Julianne Kost describes in one of her videos (basically, construct the page as an image using something like Photoshop, and just add it to the book on a full-bleed template). Yes, that would have worked here, but as a general solution, it’s not really practical if you have more than a few pages to mock up this way.

Conclusion

The truth is that I like the Book module, but I’m not going to be ditching BookSmart in the foreseeable future.

The Lightroom Book module is capable of producing perfectly adequate books and, for many purposes, it’s all you’ll need. If you want more control over your layout, though, you’re going to find yourself going back to BookSmart or InDesign.

I should also point out that this review is based on a little bit of poking about after viewing Julianne Kost’s tutorials, in addition to the project described here. If any of this article sounds negative, that’s probably more to do with my unfamiliarity than any real failings of the module. I’m sure that, if I tried to do this with another book, it would all go much more smoothly, and with possibly better results.

That said, there are things missing that could make it into much more serious contender for being the go-to tool for creating serious books.

My suggestions for things I’d like to see in the Book module in future releases:

1. Editable templates, please!
2. More automation for things like page numbering, book title, author.
3. The ability to export the book so that it could then be imported into BookSmart or InDesign. That way, you can get the bulk of the book done in Lightroom and tweak it in a more powerful editor (not unlike tweaking photos in Photoshop after developing them in Lightroom).

Of these, the ability to export the book would probably be the simplest addition that would cause me to use the Book module by choice every time: it shouldn’t be under-emphasised that staying within Lightroom whilst creating the book is a great boon. To be able to quickly switch to the Develop module to tweak a picture or to be able to quickly add a photo from anywhere in your library really is a time-saver.

I want this module to be great. It’s not there, yet, but it’s early days and it’s certainly well on the way.

Graham Douglas – Grey Dog Photography

A little while ago I did a panoramic stitch of Rotterdam covered in beautiful hazy autumn light. Since I received a lot of positive responses and even a few question on how I did it, I’ll be explaining the process of making a panoramic photo using this photo as an example:

{click on the image to enlarge}

The basics

So … what will you be putting in your camera pack?

Any digital camera will work, but I prefer my images – and panoramas – as sharp as possible. So if you have a DSLR, use that. If not, you can go for something smaller like a digital point-and-shoot.

While not a requirement,  (I didn’t use one for this photo), a tripod will simplify the process. Just make sure you mount your camera as level as possible.

You can use any lens you want – keeping in mind you’ll have to rectify the distortion in wide-angle lenses. I prefer prime lenses because of their sharpness, and would always choose a 50mm or something a bit more tele. This particular image was shot with a 80-200mm lens at 80mm  f/8.

Let’s do this!

The Location

Well, you probably already had a location in mind, but don’t forget the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. Go for the harder to reach places with those unique views.

If you have the opportunity, pick a time of day that intensifies the scenery. Sunsets are made for these kind of photos although nighttime is an excellent time as well.

Setting Up

Most of you will probably shoot in Automatic mode or Aperture Priority mode, and that is not the way to go in panoramic photography. Since you’re shooting a wider view you are bound to have different exposures for every photo you take. Get an exposure that works and shoot in Manual mode. In this photo I wanted the boat to be exposed properly and didn’t mind over-exposing the right side of the image.

It actually helps accentuating the boat. Also be sure to turn off your Automatic White Balance and shoot at a constant Temperature.

I prefer to shoot my photos in RAW for the sake of post-production, but if you’re not really into that, you can go for JPG too.

OK, let’s actually shoot something now.

Start on the farthest side of your image and work your way to the other side. Be sure to include an overlap in each photo you take. The more recognizable features that overlap, the better the stitching will go.

Again, make sure parts of the images are overlapping. The tall buildings in our sample image are a good reference point for the stitching software.

The Stitching

There are tons of programs that will allow you to create panoramic photos, some are good and some aren’t.

If this is really something you want to cherish, go for a program that has proved itself throughout the years, like PTGui or it’s Pro equivalent. If you’re still experimenting you could try Hugin as an alternative (although I find it to be a bit harder to use). Both of the programs include excellent tutorials, so I won’t be explaining that to you.

Be sure to export your file to high-resolution format like TIFF and PSD. Both formats are compatible with Lightroom.

As you can see above, if you take the panorama without a tripod you’ll loose a bit of the information from the top and bottom of the image.

The Editing

Although there are a lot of other similar programs that will do the job for you, I prefer Lightroom for quick color adjustments.

For this particular image, I wanted to make this look more than a painting than a actual photo. I always start out with the exposure adjustment. In this photo I wanted the boat to be the center of attention so I fine-tuned the exposure for that one using the slider in the upper right.

Then I wanted it to be more contrasty and adjusted the saturation for the containers of the boat.

That’s nice. But the rest of the image is kinda weird looking now.

Let’s do some selective coloring by opening up the HSL panel.

I picked a yellowish highlight color to give it more of the autumn feel and made the shadows a bit bluer since that just seemed like the best combination. Feel free to experiment with things a bit and you’ll get the hang of it. Otherwise, you could always try a few of the Creative Presets available on X-Equals.

Now, let’s work the sky a bit. Yes, it’s a bit blown so, use a yellowish gradient and pull down the exposure a bit.

OK, we’re almost there now.

Use the vignette tool to over expose the sides of the image a bit, hence leading you to the center of the image.

The last step is to brush the water a bit to lighten it up (overexpose) by just a tad in the corners.

Of course every image is different, and I just wanted to share a bit of insight in my basic workflow and thoughts for working these kind of images. Also, I did use a fair amount of Photoshop in this particular image, but I left those steps out for the sake of sense and simplicity.

Peter-Paul de Meijer – Peter-Paul de Meijer Photography

Peter-Paul de Meijer is a freelance documentary photographer, based in the Netherlands, Rotterdam. He works with both national and international magazines and is supported by F-Stop Gear and Transcontinenta B.V..

One of the most alluring parts of a portraits is the eyes. Just like meeting someone face-to-face, you search for the eyes first in a photograph as well. And since that’s where a viewer’s attention is naturally drawn, I say make them command attention. I retouch the eyes in my portraits just enough to give them a little something without looking fake or overdone, and I often do it all in Lightroom 3. Here’s a look at how I do it.

First, process your image to the point where you’re happy with it—exposure, white balance, contrast, saturation, split toning, clarity, curves, sharpening—all the normal processing you do. You want all that in line before doing the eyes so you don’t alter your eye edits with normal processing.

Once you’re happy with your processed image, zoom in on the eyes and open up the Adjustments Brush tool in the Develop module.

Let me say at this point that working with a pen tablet like a Wacom makes working with the Adjustment Brush simpler and more accurate than using a standard mouse, but you can use either. I prefer a Wacom tablet and pen.

We’re going to start with the exposure of the entire eye. (You can do both eyes at the same time, or separately if they need different treatments than one another.) Push the Exposure slider up to a noticeable level, like 0.60, make sure your Feather is fairly high, around 90. Set Flow to around 90 or 100 and Density to about 80, and start brushing the entire eye—color and whites.

It’s easy to overdo the eyes and make them look fake, so once you’ve brushed the entire eye, scale back the exposure slider to a realistic level. Subtlety is key here. Whites should be bright, but not blinding white with zero color. Never make them pure white—doing so instantly makes them look fake and obviously retouched.

If at any point you get sloppy with the brush, hold your mouse over the adjustment pin to see a mask of the area you’ve brushed. If necessary, clean up the area by using the erase brush, or you can hit the delete key and start over.

Next, let’s focus on the iris, the colored part of the eye. Since we’re editing a different part of the eye now, add a new Adjustment Brush state.

This will add a new adjustment pin so you’ll see two pins now; hit the H key on your keyboard to hide/reveal them. Depending on your image, you may want to increase the Exposure even more here, or decrease it. For this particular image I decreased it. Once I’m happy with the exposure of the iris, I go down the list of Effects and determine what the eyes need. Usually I’ll add just a touch of Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Clarity. There’s no magic number for what works best, it’s what you like and looks right.

After the iris looks nice and lively, I do a few more things to add just a bit more pop. Add another adjustment pin and set the Exposure, Brightness and Contrast in the negative numbers. Then push Clarity up a bit. With a very small diameter brush, paint a thin line around the very edge of the iris (make sure your brush has a good feather to it). The iris naturally gets darker near the edge, we’re just giving it a bit more contrast to make it more noticeable.

As with all these adjustments, use the sliders to fine-tune the look. You can even add some color if you want. I prefer to enhance the eyes as they are and rarely add color.

You can add a reflector highlight if it works for your image. I don’t do this on every image, but sometimes I like to add a subtle highlight in the lower part of the iris to mimic a reflector that has bounced light into the subject’s face. To do this, add a new adjustment pin and push the Exposure to about 0.10 and Brightness up to about 40. Move the Density slider to 50, make sure your brush is very soft and fairly small and paint a small downward curved line (like the letter U) in the lower part of the iris. Adjust your Exposure and Brightness as necessary.

Last step, enhance (or add) the catchlights. Catchlights are what make people look alive. Without them, their eyes look dry and dead. But sometimes a natural catchlight doesn’t exist because the angle of the light source, or it’s small and unnoticeable. Lightroom 3 makes it easy to use the adjustment brush to either add a catchlight or enhance a puny one. Add a new adjustment pin with a fairly soft feathered edge and push the exposure up to the 1.0 range so you can see what’s happening. Set the Density slider to 40, click several times in exactly the place on the eye that you want your catchlight (if one doesn’t exist), or click on the existing catchlight to enhance it. Adjust the Exposure and Brightness as necessary to make it believable.

That’s it. We’re done.

Here’s the before and after:

All Photos © Ryan Klos

The beautiful thing about making these adjustments in Lightroom and non-destructive editing is that you’re able to intensify or diminish the amount of your adjustments. If, after making your edits, you come back to your image and realize things are a little too poppy, you can easily scale back the Exposure or Brightness.

Gotta love non-destructive editing.

Ryan Klos – Ryan Klos Photography

You know all of Robbie Maddison’s crazy jumps, the Extreme Sports Channel is what you chew on for breakfast and most of your Saturdays are spent on a skateboard. Truth be told, you’re a real action sportsaholic. Meanwhile the photographer inside of you has been screaming for days or months to come out and you’d let him (or her) if you just had a bit more know-how on the approach of capturing fast action.

Now is your time to get out there and we’ll show you how.

The Planning

Getting up here wasn’t easy, plowing through snow with those heavy skiing boots isn’t exactly the most favorable thing to do, although the view of the mountains and those fresh powder fields awaiting you below clearly compensate for all the time and effort you’ve put into this.

The hit (approach to the jump) is one of absolute beauty, whether that is because you’ve built it with your own hands, or it is one curved like a Greek goddess, it doesn’t really matter, because you just know this will work.

Now it’s just a matter of a few moments before the the wind pushes that last cumulus away from the sun.

You’re friend is already up there and straps on his boots. You get in position, there’s the 3-2-1, you hear the hissing of the snowboard rapidly gaining speed, chop, lift-off, click(!) and a smooth landing.

There it is, one excellent photo never to be forgotten.

All Photos © Peter-Paul de Meijer

Camera

Most photographers I know shoot with a Canon or Nikon DSLR. Don’t go medium-format or film SLR unless you know what you’re doing. If you’re new to photography I’d suggest getting an older DSLR and investing in glass. Buy a fast, low-light portrait lens (eg 35, 50 or 85 millimeters; f/2.8 or faster), and depending on what sport you’re trying to shoot a telelens, but try to stay away from teleconverters as they will eat up light, slowing shutter speeds.

Sure it’s nice to have a fish-eye in your lens-kit, but it’s certainly not the first thing you’ll need.

If you’re into sequences and skateboarding is the sport you’re covering look for a camera that shoots at least 8 frames per second. If it’s skiing or mountain biking, 6 frames per seconds will be just fine.

Timing

Whether it’s on foot, wheels, snow or water, if you’re trying to capture a great photo, be sure to know your sport. In action sports, timing, not only for the athlete but for the photographer as well, is most important. Since most of the action you’re trying to capture takes place in just a few milliseconds, timing is essential to have a good feeling for the sport.

If you’re already acquainted with the sport, chances are big that you’re already there. You know when to press your back foot down to catch that kickflip, whilst pushing that tailwhip you know how important it is to lift your legs up.

However, if you’re new to the game try to get familiar by looking through magazines and see at what point professional photographers have been freezing their frames.

Composition

Composition to a photo is what a banana is to a monkey. It’s pretty obvious that good composition is essential for good photography. Although the internet is stacked with information on composition in sports here are a 5 tips that generally apply in most, if not all, fields of action sports photography.

1. Be sure to capture the whole story

This one is important. Sure it’s nice to have a photo of your friend hanging mid-air, but without a way in or way out it’s hard to read. It’s a bit like ordering Chinese in a fine steak restaurant, it’s nuts! Be sure to capture at least a small part of the take-off and the landing.

2. Centering or the rule of thirds?

The rule of thirds will be your safety-line in most of the cases. However centering does work from time to time, so keep your eye out for symmetric opportunities.

3. Fresh angles

Good angles can be hard to find, but they are everywhere. Look around, go high, go low, life is short, but if waiting a few more minutes would incorporate the gondola, I’d know where to put my money.

4. It’s faces we’re looking for, backsides please move on.It’s simple, faces show emotions, faces connect, without faces life would be boring.

5. Straighten your horizon – Columbus knew the earth was not flat.

One extra tip is to keep things simple. People like to get a good overview and cluttered backgrounds just won’t help.

Again, don’t be shy to peep in those magazines to learn what works and what doesn’t. Composition is what makes or breaks a shot.

All Photos © Peter-Paul de Meijer

Setup

Action sports are all about sharpness, so shutter speeds slower than 1/500, please move on. Basically you’ll always pick the the fastest shutter speed that suits your lighting. On blue-bird days and occassions with plenty of light bring in a bit of depth by playing around with your aperture. Although action sports are all about the heat of the moment, take your time to choose your location and don’t forget to focus before the action takes place.

On darker days seek shelter in a higher ISO before you choose to lower your shutter speed. You’ll want full control over your lighting so turn your camera to Manual mode.

In lower light situations, when the ISO hat-trick isn’t working for you anymore, you might want to consider getting your strobes out of your bag. Flashes during the day will require a flash synchronization speed of over 1/250th of a second. In the darks you’ll be fine with both a lower synchronization and shutter speed. Always be sure to keep your shutter speed lower than you’re flash synchronization speed, or you’ll get half-lit frames.

The more flashes you use the better you’ll be able to separate the subject from the background and the clearer the action will get.

Firing multiple flashes can be achieved by good old fashioned wiring, but aren’t preferred in a watery surrounding, due to a lot of mis-firing. The more reliable way is to use radio-transceivers, like Elinchrom Skyports, PocketWizards or RadioPoppers. You could go for the cheaper eBay transceivers, but those often lack the distance the big brands do have. A less reliable but cheap in-between option is slave-units.

Remember, try to keep things simple and don’t show your flashes in the photo.

Gear

So how did you get up there anyway? In a ideal situation you’d probably have a expensive DSLR carried up with you by some specially trained husky, who’d ideally carry a small supply of liquid beverages too.

In a less comfortable world you’ll always have to cope with the balance of not carrying too much gear, but certainly not forgetting things either.

There are plenty of ways to carry your camera equipment around the place, but if you’re into action sports photography, you’ll generally want to keep your stuff protected from most forces of nature, and stay mobile at the same time.

Plenty of camera manufacturers, third-party manufacturers and even the bigger outdoor have come up with a backpack targeting the action sports segment. Lowepro, Burton and Dakine all have their own specialized packs. F-Stop has even bigger packs, with a metal frame inside to keep your gear even safer.

Whichever bag you should pick, be sure to get one with straps on the side. Those will come in handy for carrying your tripod and lightings stands, your shovel, and your helmet.

All Photos © Peter-Paul de Meijer

Get out there!

Ofcourse there’s much more to action sports photography than meets the eye. In the end it’s the combination of action, timing, composition and a bit of luck that will ultimately deliver you a great photo.

As with everything, practice makes perfect and I encourage you to pick up your phone and call your buddy to get out and shoot this instant.

Let’s see what you’ve got.

Peter-Paul de Meijer – Peter-Paul de Meijer Photography

None of this happens without you

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s so true …

Your comments, questions, ideas, and feedback are what have made X-Equals what is today! Without you, we’d be nowhere.

We’re now looking to get more involved with our community to help bring your ideas to life, and we’re reaching out for your continued involvement.

What we are looking for

We’re currently looking for guest bloggers to develop content for the following topics:

• Photoshop (tips, shortcuts, tutorials, videos, workflows)
• Lightroom (tips, shortcuts, tutorials, videos, workflows)
• Digital Asset Management (file management, storage, archiving, exporting, etc.)
• Lightroom and Photoshop add-on product reviews
• Hardware reviews (data storage, scanners, cameras, lenses, best practices, etc.)
• Photography business related tips, advice, and products
• Marketing and Social Networking

We’re also looking for simple, easy to implement ideas to support our X=101 section as well as multi-part posts to support our X=Series section.

Working for free sucks

One thing is for certain, pouring your time and effort into a topic, generating the screenshots, proofing the content, and preparing to publish isn’t easy, so we will continue to make working with us worth your while.

We offer payment for your work, and always toss in a lifetime supply of all our products in the shop – including all future releases.

Working for free sucks, and we’re not going to ask you to do that.

Getting started is easy

We’d love to hear from you, discuss your ideas, and collaborate with you to develop top-notch content for our community.

We’re always open to discussing possible topic ideas and approaches so feel free to reach out for whatever reason to help get the gears moving!

Please use this form as a first step in getting onboard with X=. Please place the words “Guest Blogger” in the subject line below so we can respond to you quickly.

Let’s Rock!

|Brandon Oelling
X-Equals – image, workflow, technology, business

Guest blogger Michelle Moore takes on a topic that doesn’t get discussed as often as it should: Composition.

If you’re not familiar with Michelle’s work we suggest you check out her Photo Profile along with her perpetually insightful post on working with Natural Light.

This girl has serious talent!

Luckily for us all, Michelle is also good on a keyboard, and took some time to discuss with us her approach to composition and some of the fundamentals we should all consider when crafting an image.

Composition.  What does it mean?

Definition:

The nature of something’s ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up.  The action of putting this together; formation or construction.  A thing composed of various elements.

Sure you can read about composition in your photography book or online, and yes, you’ll learn the rules, but I’m here to teach you real-world application and when to follow or break those rules.

Don’t rely on thinking you can crop, or Photoshop things out later.

Study great photos, analyze why it seems to work.  Notice when photos make you feel uncomfortable.  Are they “breaking the rules” or simply being lazy?  Train your eye to see good composition everywhere and soon it will start to come naturally.  My rule of thumb is to always frame in-camera.  Pay attention to all the details.  Don’t rely on thinking you can crop, or Photoshop things out later.  Stop and pay attention, and treat your images as digital negatives, and practice getting it right the first time.

I’m going to assume you know the fundamental concepts and key terms behind good composition such as the Rule of Thirds, Empty Space, etc.  If you need to reference the basics of composition check out a few of these online articles, or check out a book or two,

• 5 Elements of Composition
• Photographic Composition
• The Elements of Photography

This article will cover a few key composition elements to create gorgeous and successful portraiture images.  I’ll describe 4 of my favorite composition elements, why they work for me, and how you can make them work for you!

Rule of Thirds & Negative Space

The rule of thirds is about splitting your frame into three sections, whether it’s from top to bottom or left to right.  Think of framing your subject on the right third of your frame, or the bottom third, etc.  This gives a really nice, pleasing framing to your subject.  I also adore negative space, which is something you can create by using this rule of thirds element.  If you are doing a really nice beauty close-up of your subject, I recommend using a shallow depth-of-field.

This will create a really nice soft blurring effect, and create a stunning portrait that leaves ALL the focus on your subject.  Be careful for things in the background – as you do not want distracting elements off to the side.  Shooting at a very wide aperture (anywhere between f/3.5 – f/1.4) really helps.

Plus, more often than not you can find everyday elements (such as a field of grass, a brick wall) that create unexpected textures.  Don’t be afraid of the negative space.  It’s good to leave a little room for your viewer to breathe.

The rule of thirds also applies to wide shots where you can see your entire subject.  Paying close attention to this rule will allow you to create absolutely arresting images.  As you include more of your subject in the frame, you’ll really want to pay attention to the additional elements composing your negative space.  Are they complimentary to your subject?

Are you balancing your subject?  Even if you are shooting wide open at f/1.4 – because you are further away – things will be less out of focus, than when you are inches from your subject’s face. Think of the angles, where you client is looking, etc.  If they are walking to the right, you’ll probably want to frame them on the left side.

Why?  Because they need somewhere to go in the frame.  If the subject is looking away, or headed somewhere, make sure you give them somewhere to go otherwise your viewer is going to be distracted and trying to look off-camera and whatever seems more interesting – because that’s where the subject is gazing.

Shooting wide – and getting your entire subject in the frame is more challenging because there are so many elements involved, but you can get some really great work if you pay attention to the rule of thirds, and negative space.  Shooting horizontal will create those sweeping cinematic looks, and shooting vertical will create awesome magazine worthy shots.

Pay attention to your lighting in the close-up shots.  You’ll want smooth even lighting, such as in open-shade, or you can create some nice flare with a back-lit shot (don’t forget your reflector for fill!).  Wider compositions are a bit more forgiving with lighting.  You can create nice angles, and shadows with the light, and/or open shade is always perfect for a nice even look – the image is found always comes to mind when I think of great composition that uses light and shadows in innovative ways.

Fill the Frame

Filling your frame is the opposite spectrum from the rule of thirds, but still uses similar elements.  For example if doing a beauty shot, you’ll want to make sure the eyes are on the top third of the frame for strong compositions – unless you are bending the rules.  I love images where the subject fills the entire frame.

Having good lighting will take this composition from dull and flat – to bursting with emotion.

You can elicit so much emotion from your subject, be it sad, happy, contemplative, etc.  Creating a gaze with your viewer creates the most impact, but looking away, or to the side can create a entire different mood as well.  Personally, I think a little top of the head cropping is best – for headshots, and stronger composition, but in the case of my primary market, high school seniors, moms will choose the shots where they can see their entire head and face.

Make sure you get a couple of mom shots in there too so your client is happy.

Lighting is super important for these kinds of shots because you’ll want to see the eyes and have enough light reflecting so they have that sparkle.  Open-shade, a reflector, etc. is also good.  Just make sure you check to see the eyes aren’t dull and lifeless.  Having good lighting will take this composition from dull and flat – to bursting with emotion.

Creating Tension & Angles

Creating an interesting image has a lot to do with your angles, and the different dimensions or layers you create.  You want to give somewhere for the viewer to look, or follow through the frame, without getting lost.  If there are too many distracting elements that are not working in harmony, there will be nothing interesting for your viewer to grab on to.  Annie Leibovitz is a photographer famous for her composition, and use of creating triangles in her images.

Move around your subject, try different angles.  What compliments your subject?  What works with their pose, and the mood?  Is everything balanced?

Are there enough layers to create a visual interest?  I find that when shooting with a wider angle lens, I have to create a lower perspective so there is enough visual weight to the bottom of the frame.  There is nothing worse than a disappearing horizon below your subject.

You’ll want to make sure there is enough weight below your subject, and no distracting elements – like trees coming out of the top of their heads, etc.

Be sure to check your lighting too, as this plays an integral part of creating tension.  Is the subject facing the sun?  How are the shadows?  If the light is even and dull, how can you create interesting movement within your frame to tell your story?

Symmetry

This is one of my favorites!

Nothing beats a killer dead-center composition with an awesome subject.  Any basic composition book or class will teach you that framing something in the center is bad, but the key is doing it right, and with the right intentions.  Framing something in the center screams confidence, and you’ll want your subject to have a killer expression, or interesting pose, or else there is nothing to give the image visual interest.

Symmetry is a good place to play with shadows, or lighting.  Create visual excitement by playing with your lighting, and giving the viewer something to look at.  Lead them through the frame with light and dark space, shadows, or some nice sun flare.  Above all else, just remember that when framing a subject front and center, you have to make up for the lack of interesting composition by creating tension in the subject, and/or with your lighting.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, it’s important to take away a few key elements from this article.  The first being: study good photography, and two: know your basics – before you start breaking all the rules.

Practicing, learning, and getting a feel for what works and what doesn’t takes time, but with dedication to your craft (and a soft spot for reading/learning), you’ll get there in no time!

Thanks for sticking with us!

I hope that you have learned a few things about our modern take on the classics of composition in Photography!

To see more of Michelle’s work:

Blog – http://michellemooreblog.com
Facebook – http://facebook.com/iammichellemoore
Twitter – http://twitter.com/moorephoto

First, a few words about input devices

There are a multitude of ways to interface your hands with Lightroom: Mouse, Tablet, Touchpad, RPG Keys – all good ways to get your nerve impulses into Lightroom to do your handy work!

When we’re dialing in a specific batch of images – diving head first into the Develop Module, we often turn to an old mainstay – the mouse. The cool thing is that Lightroom has some nice integration with the scroll wheel on a mouse.

Mice play nice …

This is our favorite mouse integration*.

(*there may be other cool integrations with Lightroom similar to this one, but we don’t know what they are. Enlighten us in the comments below)

When it comes to Spot Removal, this one rocks!

1 . Head over to the Develop Module

2. Select the Spot removal brush

We’re always annoyed with trying to use the sliders to set brush size:

Instead, when activated, use the scroll wheel on your mouse to set brush size:

That’s it! Total timesaver!

The mice we love

When it comes to picking a mouse that offers you both the proper ergonomics and precision, one need to look no further than a gaming mouse.

Why a gaming mouse? Easy:

• built for speed (how does 5,600 DPI sound?)
• built for long-term use (designed with hours and hours of use in mind)
• durable (they just work)
• smooth (teflon anyone?)

Razer Copperhead Wireless Laser Mouse

For a wired mouse, you can’t beat the price/performance on the Copperhead. Included are some super smooth teflon feet that go onto the bottom of the mouse and it feels like butter all day long.

Mamba Wireless Laser Mouse

We were convinced that a wired mouse was the only way to get the fast response times and DPI we were used to, then Razer dropped the Mamba onto the world. This mouse is insane!

Fully Ergo

The other thing to consider is the ergonomics of the mouse which should work to help combat repetitive stress injuries. That doesn’t mean you can bang away for 18 hours a day without a break, but for long term use these mice are the most comfortable we’ve ever used (and we’ve tried dozens of brands). The thing we like about the Razer line is they are built for speed and comfort.

What else?

What other mouse and/or input device tricks for Lightroom are out there? These seem to be undocumented across the board. Share below in the comments!

|Brandon Oelling
X-Equals – image, workflow, technology, business

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We were discussing some of our favorite Lightroom tips with some fellow photographers this weekend and we were reminded of our Tip ‘O The Week series we tucked away in the X=101 Category.

Rather than keep things as a bunch of mini-posts, and in the spirit of making things EASIER for everyone to access and reference in their workflow, we’ve dropped all our juicy tips into one single post below.

The key to these tips is to provide some high-impact, memorable, and quickly usable tips to get you moving faster … faster .. FASTER!

Become a Zoom Tool Ninja

This tip is an integral part of my workflow – especially when I am using these Adjustment Tools:

… to fine tune my images.

These tools, in conjunction with using the spacebar on the keyboard, give you access to 2 additional functions beyond the adjustment tool you are using.

I often want to stay in the tool mode I am in (ie. Spot Removal, Red Eye, Adjustment Brush, etc.) but still have access to my Zoom and Pan Controls.

With this tip I’ll make it ultra-easy to scoot around your images doing just that.

In this example workflow I start out in Fit zoom mode:

Next I’ll select whichever adjustment tool I need at that moment:

In this example I chose Spot Removal:

… and I didn’t really choose it, I used the shortcut key N to set me into this mode. Make it a habit to remember these time saving shortcuts.

If I can get some of my work done in Fit zoom I will do so, but when I need to get in closer, holding the spacebar will set me back into Zoom mode:

And allow me to zoom in 1:1.

… but what if that initial click doesn’t get me into the visible area I wanted?

The spacebar holds yet another magical power! Holding the spacebar will set me into Pan mode:

… which will allow me to pan around the image in 1:1 zoom mode.

Once you get comfortable with this technique, you shouldn’t need to look at the keyboard – which let’s you focus on what you do best … creating!

As we all know it’s about speed and accuracy, and this is one worth putting into your arsenal!

Give the Library Module the finger

This tip is as short as it gets …

2 keys and 1 finger are all that is required for adding some lightning to your workflow.

In Library mode, if you want to take a smaller set of thumbnails like this:

… and increase their size to something like this:

You simply press the + key

+ increase thumbnail size

- decrease thumbnail size

Yet another reason to NOT have to look at your keyboard, while maintaining a productive workflow!

Access Shortcuts when you need them

This tip is quick … but ohhhhhhhh so handy!

When you don’t want to memorize or keep a list handy of all those fancy Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts, you can always bring up a list of shortcuts while in any Lightroom Module by selecting Command+/ (mac) or Ctrl+/ (pc).

… and you’ll be presented with a nice on-screen cheat sheet:

Stitch together shortcuts like a pro

When we first start a job, there are some top-level adjustments we perform often. We don’t always commit these changes but they’re always a first line of attack with a new job. It’s worth remembering these shortcut as well as the order they are utilized:

• Auto White Balance – command + shift + u (mac) ctrl + shift + u (pc)
• Auto Tone – command + u (mac) ctrl + u (pc)
• Convert to Grayscale – v (mac or pc)

If we like what we see from any of these adjustments, or other adjustments we’ve done (exposure, crop, etc.), we’ll use these shortcuts, or the Previous button as we move on to the next image.

• Copy RAW Adjustments – command + shift + c (mac) ctrl + shift + c (pc)
• Paste RAW Adjustments – command + shift + v (mac) ctrl + shift + v (pc)

For a quick draft slideshow of our work:

• Quick Slideshow – command + return (mac) ctrl + return (pc)

Continually going to the mouse to perform adjustments starts to take its toll on your flow and your focus. We’ve found we don’t even have to look at the keyboard to perform these shortcuts once you start to use them often.

Stack ‘em up!

Stacks are pretty cool … I use them quite a bit while I shuffle around images in Library mode.

There’s a very nice shortcut for creating and collapsing stacks that I’m totally digging lately … it’s ultra-simple:

1. Select the images you would like to stack (selections can be in or out of sequence)
2. Press Command+g (mac) or Ctrl+g (pc)

… to collapse the stack:

1. Select the first image in the stack
2. Press Command+shift+g (mac) or Ctrl+shift+g (pc)

{here’s the kicker: does not work on virtual copies, but if you commit those virtual copies, you’re back in business}

Never miss a single pixel

This weeks tip has been around since version 1.0 of Lightroom, and although I personally do not use it that often, it’s a great image inspection technique.

Normally, I’m pushing images to 72ppi for proofing on the web, which will often downsample out any irritable noise, dust, or imperfections.

But when I am pushing to a high resolution print – they have to be perfectly clean! But … I’m lazy, and I wanted an easy way to inspect my images close up without the usual zoom-pan-zoom-pan tedium.

This lead me to a lesser known technique I will call the ‘PageDowner’ technique. Call it what you will, it’s a complete time saver.

In the Develop Module set your Navigator zoom ratio to 1:1. Next, press the PageDown key (mac users fn+down arrow). You will notice that the navigator not only honors your zoom ratio as it scrolls vertically down your image, it automatically sets itself back to the top of the image – precisely to the right of your previous vertical scroll path – booyah!

This gives me complete assurance I have scoured every single area of the image, while allowing me to maintain a tight zoom, and my focus on dust busting.

Here’s to obsessive image inspection!

Export with the best of ‘em

This one is a real no-brainer but one that often gets overlooked.

Whenever you have to bounce out to Photoshop, or export a selection of images to JPG, TIFF, etc. …

… don’t right click, don’t drag your mouse like a lazy old man up to the menu bar … remember and BURN these shortcuts into your brain:

Export Images

Mac: Command+ Shift + e

PC: Ctrl + Shift + e

Edit in Photoshop

Mac: Command + e

PC: Ctrl + e

Don’t fear the rejection!

This is an old standby in our arsenal of keyboard shortcuts …something we call +PICK, PICK, REJECT

As you may recall, when you hold down Shift (mac or pc) while selecting P or X Lightroom will automatically move to the next image in the filmstrip.

This time, it gets even better …

• turn on CAPS lock
• select either P or X – or ANY filter key (star, color, etc.)
• Lightroom will set your filter selection, AND automatically move to the next image in the filmstrip – no need to hold down shift!

An oldie but goodie

I’m a huge fan of using the {Alt} key (mac or PC) to quickly access additional – hidden Quick Develop functions I use often.

During my first pass on a large job in the Library module, I not only rate images and select rejects, I also use the Tone Control sliders in the Quick Develop panel to adjust exposure. With a quick flick of the {Alt} key I can also slap the Saturation around and if necessary, Sharpen up any obvious soft images.

It’s a quick way to reach controls normally relegated to the Develop module.

What’s YOUR favorite?

This is by no means an exhaustive list of tips – just some of our favorites from the past 2 years.

What did we miss?

Sound off in the comments below and we’ll include yours in our next installment of Speed Tips.

|Brandon Oelling
x=photography+consulting – image+workflow+technology+business

Last time we briefly covered scanning photos in such a way that will produce great results when performing further editing in Lightroom.  Today we are going to look at the process of working with these scanned files in Lightroom, laying out my personal workflow and some tips that I have discovered over the past few months of scanning a lot of negatives and processing them in Lightroom.  So let’s begin with getting those files into Lightroom.

My first recommendation I have is to start a new Lightroom catalog solely for editing scanned photos.  I make a new catalog for every roll of film I shoot. If scanning old, unsorted photos and negatives, I try to group them into folders of about 50 photos.

The reasoning for doing this is twofold; it segregates my scanned photos from my DSLR RAW files and it also keeps the Lightroom catalog small, increasing performance with these rather massive files.

Keeping the scans in separate catalogs also allows you to backup each set of scans with their own respective catalog, easing future editing if required.

Now that you have your new catalog created, you need to bring the photos into the catalog.  For this I import the files from their location on the disk.  Simply click File and select Import Photos from Disk…

Once the dialog box opens, browse to the folder where your TIFF files are contained.  Highlight the folder of images you wish to import and then click on the Import All Photos in Selected Folder button.

I keyword my files with the film brand and speed of the film

Now the Import Photos dialog opens, allowing you to configure your import.  Here I choose to not apply any special processing.  I leave the Develop Settings option to None and Metadata option to None.

I keyword my files with the film brand and speed of the film and any other keywords that will apply to every image in the folder.  Finally, pay attention to the Initial Previews option.   Set it to 1:1 causing Lightroom to render full preview from your TIFF files, this will greatly speed up processing in the long run.

Go ahead and click Import once everything is configured correctly.

I convert all the TIFF files in my catalog over to DNG files.

Next, you will want to rotate any images that need rotating.  Although this can be done at any time, doing so on import will make your life a lot easier down the road.  Simply look at all the scans in the Library Module and rotate as needed, using the rotate buttons depicted on the bottom of the thumbnail box.

My next step, although optional, is a real help to me.  I convert all the TIFF files in my catalog over to DNG files.  Keep in mind that this will not magically make your scanned TIFF files RAW files, but will endow your files with the metadata prowess that DNG can provide.  This is by no means required, but if you choose to back up the scanned files without including your Lightroom Catalog, you can have all adjustments to the images written to the metadata inside the DNG wrapper.

To do this, select all the photos in the Library Module, or click on Edit and then choose Select All.  Now select Library from the menu and choose Convert Photos to DNG.

Once the dialog box pops up, we need to configure the conversion.  In the Source Files section of the dialog, uncheck Only convert Raw files and check Delete originals after successful conversion.  This will allow Lightroom to wrap up the TIFF files in a DNG wrapper and then delete the original scans automatically.

If you want, you can choose to keep your original scans, but to me the DNG file is my preferred format.  In the DNG Creation section set the File Extension option to which ever extension you prefer.  Set Compatibility to Camera RAW 5.4 and later unless you have a need to open these files in an earlier version of Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW.

Then set the JPEG Preview option to Full Size.  Finally, make sure Embed Original Raw File is left unchecked.

Once everything is set correctly, click OK.  This process can take a while, but once it is complete it will never have to be done again.  An added benefit of converting your TIFF files over is that they will be compressed with lossless compression, cutting the size of the file by 25% to 33% on average, making a big difference when it comes to long term backup and storage.

Also note, if you like DNG format and you are utilizing Hamrick’s VueScan you have an option to output your TIFF scan directly into a DNG wrapper at the time of scan saving you this step.

Once everything is converted, if you chose to do so, we are ready to get down to actually processing the images.  This is where you should be thankful that you scanned your images in as 48-bit Color scans as opposed to 24-bit.  In Photoshop parlance, a 48-bit scan is a 16-bit file, having 16 bits of data per color channel.  A 24-bit file has a mere 8 bits of data per color channel.

A 48-bit scan gives you almost as much adjustment latitude as you would get from a digital RAW file.

If you scan a file in as a 24-bit scan, the resultant image will have as much color data as a simple JPEG would.  If you have ever manipulated JPEG files in Lightroom, you know that is not a fun endeavor, leaving you with limited adjustment latitude.  A 48-bit scan gives you almost as much adjustment latitude as you would get from a digital RAW file.

Your actual adjustment performance will depend on a variety of factors however.  First is the dynamic range of your scanner, which can be enhanced by using multi-sampling and multi-pass scanning offered in VueScan and SilverFast.  The more dynamic range present in an image, the wider adjustment latitude you will be afforded in Lightroom.

The next consideration is the media scanned.  A photo print scanned in will have less range than a film scan.  As far as film scans go, if you do not scan with multi-sampling you will get good adjustment range, however if you do scan with multi-sampling software that range will be extended even more.  A final consideration is the quality of you slide or negative.

When I scan a high-quality, high-resolution film such as Fuji Velvia of Kodak Ektar I can push the adjustments of those scans much further than I can with low-end consumer film.  A good Velvia scan can be handled almost exactly like a RAW file if the original slide was well exposed.

In other words, the better quality your scanner, software and media the better your scans will perform in Lightroom.  A better exposed frame will always garner better results than a poorly exposed frame, although it is within Lightroom abilities to help you make a bad exposure better.

Now that I got that off my chest, we are ready to look at actually processing the files.  The very first action I take when working with scans in Lightroom is to zoom to a 1:1 preview and look for excessive color noise in the grain of the scan.

As you can see in the skin tones, this expired Polaroid High-Definition 200 film that I scanned has a lot of color variance.  This can be put in check with the Noise Reduction tools in the Details tab of the Develop Module.  I usually crank up the Color Noise Reduction to about 75 – 100.  This would normally be extreme when processing a digital RAW file, but it will remove excessive color variance from the scanned image.

The next issue you may encounter is excessive grain.  Although I am a huge fan of grain, many are not, and you can alleviate some of the grain by using the Luminance Noise Reduction.  However we will wait to reduce the grain until after we sharpen the image.

Now you need to give you image some sharpness before we go further into processing.  We scanned the images with sharpening turned off in the scan software so that the scan would be as unprocessed as possible before we got it into Lightroom.  This is primarily because I don’t trust automatic sharpening and feel it is much better done by hand in Lightroom.

Sharpening a scan is almost identical to sharpening a RAW file.  If you are not familiar with Lightroom’s sharpening tools please check out my earlier article +SHARPENING IN LIGHTROOM.  Sharpen your image as you would normally, but pay attention to your Masking option of the Sharpening tools.

As you sharpen you will notice the grain in the image starting to get out of control, the Masking tool will focus this sharpening only where you need it, you will find yourself using a Masking of around 80 – 100 on most images.

Keep in mind you will rarely get a film scan as sharp as you would a RAW image from a DSLR, so don’t push it too hard, but make sure you have well defined edges in your image.

Now that you image is reasonably sharpened, you can use the Luminance Noise Reduction tool to kill excessive grain.  Usually you won’t see much results until you get past 40 on the slider, but take care not to overdo it and soften you image too much.  The following zoomed image shows all the steps taken so far.

The previous steps were the most important when it comes to processing scans in Lightroom.  From here editing is generally the same as processing a RAW image, with few differences that are caused by the nature of film.  The biggest issue with film is color casts.

When you get prints made from film, color casts are corrected either by software or by the technician.  Most film will have some amount of casting, but this is easily rectified by the Lightroom White Balance tools.

In this image, there is a significant blue color cast to the image.

My first step is usually to grab the White Balance Selector and search around the image to find a good white point.  As you scan the image with the eyedropper tool, keep an eye on the preview in the upper left side of your screen.

Once you get the image close to where you believe it should be, click.  You now have a corrected white balance, removing the color cast.  Now fine tune the white balance by directly manipulating the Temp and Tint.  You will compensate for Reds and Greens with the Tint tool and compensate for Blues and Yellows with the Temp tool.

Once you have made your fine adjustments to the white balance, you have your color cast completely compensated for.

Now that the color cast is corrected, you can make sure that the exposure is set optimally.  Go ahead and adjust the Exposure slider until you get the image looking the way you desire.  Turn on your Shadow and Highlight Clipping warnings and try to eliminate as much clipping as possible.

Watch in your image window for blue denoting shadow clipping and red denoting highlight clipping.  You can remove shadow clipping by increasing exposure and remove highlight clipping by reducing exposure.  This presents a problem, as many scans with have both shadow and highlight clipping.

Use just enough Recovery to eliminate the highlight clipping and then use enough Fill Light to minimize the shadow clipping.  Once you have you Exposure where you like it and clipping removed you are ready to push on a bit further.

As you look at the image on your screen, you will notice that it is rather flat.  The way we scanned in the image, we did not adjust curves or contrast.  That we need to rectify now.  The first slider I pay attention to is the Clarity slider.  I adjust the Clarity until I get the image to develop some depth, but not too much.

Next, adjust the Tone Curve.  You can manually adjust the points, but I will often start out with using the Medium Contrast Point Curve.

After a little fine-tuning of the curve itself, this is the result.

You can also use the Contrast slider as needed, but you will often find that Clarity and the Tone Curve will create a more pleasing contrast to you image.

With that you have finished up the primary processing of your image.  Now you need to look at your image at a 1:1 ratio and look for any noticeable dust.  This can easily be cleaned up with Lightroom’s Spot Removal tool.

Make sure to select the Heal option of the tool.  Now identify a speck of dust on the image.  Click the cursor over the dust and then drag the mouse toward similarly colored area, watch the spot, once it disappears and the background looks smooth, release the mouse button.

If there is excessive dust or major scratches in the image, you may have to hop into Photoshop to fix the image up, but for most images, Lightroom will be more than suitable.
And with that we have finished up processing a scanned image in Lightroom.

We didn’t use any presets in the process, but if you scan as discussed in the prior article, you can apply most presets designed for RAW files at the beginning of the process.  Presets designed for RAW files will perform differently on scans, but should still get you the desired look with minimal effort.

The above sample is the image I have been working on in the latter parts of this article with my Ilford HP5+ preset from LifeInDigitalFilm.  As you can see, the preset made a smooth conversion, but really enhanced the grain of the film.

Hopefully this series has helped you to understand the basics of scanning for Lightroom.  The scanning technique works just as well for Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw.  Although scanning at a lower bit depth can result in a good quality scan, it will not allow you to manipulate the image as easily in Lightroom as it does with a higher bit depth.  If you need to save space, you can always convert your scans to DNG.

As always, any questions or comments are appreciated.

Michael W. Gray – LifeInDigitalFilm