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Editing: Summer Storm

Lesson 13 from: The Summer Photography Workshop

Alex Strohl

Editing: Summer Storm

Lesson 13 from: The Summer Photography Workshop

Alex Strohl

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Lesson Info

13. Editing: Summer Storm

Before making our own set, Alex creates a preset that he will apply to all the photos while making selects.

Lesson Info

Editing: Summer Storm

Let me store my machete. I don't need that. (machete banging) I got my labels done. I got my selects done. Now usually what I do is I could just go edit the image that has the most exciting light to me. And it is this one right here. (calm music) So right off the bat, I feel like it's a bit too cold. I'm gonna warm it up. That moment there was a bit warmer definitely. The light was just really interesting the whole day and the camera has done a pretty good job at capturing that but it hasn't gotten all the nuances that the eye can see. And I feel like it's definitely warmer there that day. So just warm up bit of white balance. Bring my exposure up a little bit. Jump into my curve. So as you can see the curve really needs a bit more contrast out there. A little bit darker blacks. Not too dark. Oh. Okay. And as usual, just going through it at a first pass. Gonna warm up my shadows a touch 'cause I feel like they're cold. With some proper orange. Okay, not too much. See how that feels col...

d and that feels much nicer. Yeah. Bit of sharpening because I was shooting at 2.8. Do this, you hold the option click here so you don't sharpen your noise. That's key. And then the 16-35 has a tendency to distort things. So I like to correct and then keep the vignette 'cause I like this vignette, works well in the image. So see how this feels now. All right good. Nothing crazy. Keeping it simple. Now I wanna saturate my blues a bit more 'cause I think that lake needs it here. It wants it. Such a pretty place. Okay so this is my first pass. Now I'm gonna work on my hues a bit more. Just a little bit more on that green. The earth could be bit less magenta, right there. Good. Let's check out these blacks. Yeah, just like that. A lot of contrast in this light. I could use a touch of fade. See that fade feels a bit better in the trees now. Not too much. Okay. So this is my preliminary edit. My highlights could be a bit more green. That day was really green. Let's see what that does. Definitely not a lot. Just a touch. Okay, that's feeling good. That's for my first pass. Then I'm gonna do a bit more selective edits on this one. So now the final touch ups of the image, which is pretty much my favorite part, 'cause you get to sculpt the light in the right places. So I'm gonna start with a gradient filter here. I feel like this whole left corner of the image, except for the lake, it doesn't add much except that it just, whoa, it just leads the light to the bikers. So I'm going to darken it. You reset it, double clicking here. Oh yeah it feels better. See that how it's easier to see the riders now, compared to this, versus this. I'm gonna turn it a bit better. A bit higher and then I don't want it to go too much on my lake. Little higher up. All right, good. Now this area is obviously where the attention is and I'm gonna work on it a bit more. I mean, it's pretty great as it is. I was positioned right to take the photo. I used the tree to block a bit of the light. So I did most of it on camera by just positioning well and looking at the light. And now I'm just gonna work on it on the computer to make it even better. Just drawing the eye here, to them with a bit of sharpness. Just a touch of shadows out. Keeping my highlights in mind. I like the image because there's a balance between the right side and the left side. We see the lake and then we see the riders, like wow. Feels good. I think I can do a bit of work on the left side here just to help it with the composition. And darker this side a touch. Oh, it's so nice. Let's see. Just really subtle. See that Lightroom has also recently added this texture slider, which I've used in the past on clouds. I wouldn't use it here, definitely not, but I've used it positive on clouds to make them a bit more present. And then the usual dehaze which will do good work here actually. The negative dehaze, positive dehaze. Okay, that feels a bit more balanced. I've noticed I've warmed it up a little too much. Okay. This is where we were and this is where we are now. So just simple, not too much. The shadows are good like this. Highlights feel good. I might wanna work a little bit on the blue of the sky just 'cause I'm being picky. Yeah, there you go, this feels a bit better. A bit more teal. Okay and a bit more fade, just because. Boom. Happy with the image. Now I can use that preset, that I'm going to save right now, as a sort of starting point for all the images from this set. I'll tweak them for sure 'cause there's blue hour photos, there's harsh light photos. So I'll just tweak it but it's a really good starting point. So that's it, that was my image and now I'm gonna continue with my set.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Workshop
Summer Presets

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ZHIYUAN SUN
 

True Inspiration and amazing way to tell stories with photos

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