Lightroom
Develop Module
In Class Exercise: 12 versions of one photo
Adopted from an
exercise by Julie Verdini
After learning some basic adjustments in Lightroom’s Develop Module, use the
following exercise to experiment with some of the tools in the module.
Import a photo of your choosing (or use an existing one in your catalog). You’ll create a virtual copy for each
of the exercises below from the same ORIGINAL photo.
You can do this by either right-clicking and choosing “create virtual copy” OR
from the Menu Bar choose Photo→ Create Virtual Copy.
Remember: to undo an adjustment, hold down the Command key and the letter Z
at the same time. You can also use
the History panel on the lower right to step back through adjustments you’ve
made.
1) Using a Lightroom Preset
On the left panel there is a list of presets. Try them all to see their effects (remember
that Lightroom will "layer" these, building one on top of the next.
Be sure to click "un-do" or "Command Z" to see the full
effects of each).
After playing with presets, choose a pre-set that you like, but feel goes a
little over the edge on a particular adjustment. Find that adjustment on the
right hand panel and neutralize it by double clicking the slider point.
Continue to make adjustments until it looks AMAZING. Then save these settings by creating your own custom pre-set by choosing the
plus symbol. Name it and save.
2) Manually Adjusting
Color Temperature and Tint
Create another virtual copy. Using the blue/yellow and
green/magenta sliders, manually create a white balance effect of your choosing.
3) Manipulating Exposure
Create another virtual copy and using the Exposure, Contrast,
Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Black Sliders, create an exposure that is very
different than your original.
4)Adjusting Presence:
Create another virtual copy. Move the clarity slider only
and create an image that has a different amount of clarity than the original.
Note what happens when you push the slider to extremes.
5) Color Vibrance and Saturation
Create another virtual copy. Now Using the Vibrance and
Saturation sliders change the presence of your image in relation to color. See
if you can notice the difference between the two. How do they operate together
and isolated? Try both. Then create an image that differs greatly from the
original in terms of color presence.
6) Using the Tone Curve, auto
adjustments :
This tool is helpful if you want to isolate adjustments
relating to highlights, lights, darks or shadows. Create a virtual Copy. At the
bottom of the Tone Curve menu they’ll be a pull down menu opposite “Point
Curve” Select Medium Contrast and then Strong Contrast and note the affect it
makes to the shape of
the line on the graph.
7) Using the Tone
Curve, s-Curve for increased
contrast:
Create another virtual copy. Pull on the line itself to create an “S curve”
Note how this affects the positioning of the sliders. Now continue to “pull”
the line until you get a tone that you want to keep.
8) Hue/ Saturation/
Luminance, Pt 1:
Create another virtual copy. Click on Hue and move all the
sliders noting how it can isolate the hue of particular colors. Pick a dominant
color in your image and drastically change its hue.
9) Hue/ Saturation/ Luminance, Pt 2:
Create another
virtual copy. Repeat the same exercise but in the Saturation panel. Desaturate
a dominant color in your image.
10) Hue/ Saturation/
Luminance, Pt 2:
Create another virtual copy. Now click on Luminance and
alter the luminance levels of at least three colors.
11) Black-and-White
Create another virtual copy. Now click on "BLACK and
WHITE" to convert your image to grayscale. Use the “b&w mix” and note
how adjusting color sliders affects even “colorless” images”
12) Photographer’s Choice
Experiment with one of the adjustments we haven’t used yet
to test its effects.
Export your virtual
copies with our normal export settings to share results with the class. Rename yourlastname_DevelopModule_01,
02, etc. Keep images in the order
listed above so we know which adjustments were applied to which version.
