When making your own presets, don’t push the sliders too far, and don’t go for wild color shifts or major tone curve adjustments.Īlso, when you develop presets for a natural-looking result, keep in mind how you saw what you photographed. You can choose presets that look however you like – it’s your photos, after all! – but if you’re looking to make your RAW photos more realistic, then you should be somewhat restrained in your approach. This isn’t hard to do, and it’s a great way to develop presets that are particular to your editing style. As I mentioned above, you can also find presets online, so if you don’t like any of Lightroom’s included offerings, that’s a solid option.Īnother approach is to make presets of your own. Test out the different options, and see if you can find any you like. Spend some time looking through Lightroom’s built-in preset collection. Many of these looks will be gimmicky, but if you put in the effort, you can find presets that will make your images look natural and lifelike. You can create images with cinematic effects, incredible vibrancy, artistic fades, film-like colors, and more. Many presets, when applied, will give your photos a somewhat surreal look. Some of these presets come with the software, while others can be downloaded online and added to your Lightroom collection. Lightroom has many presets, which let you make dramatic changes to your shots in a single click. Don’t be afraid to use (and make) presets Here’s the same image it’s been edited to look more vibrant and realistic. That way, you can have a sense of what’s achievable when you view the images in the field. If you want to capture the most detail, spend time understanding precisely how your camera renders JPEGs and RAW files, and know how your camera’s RAW files respond when you post-process them. When you process the RAW file in Lightroom, you can carefully tweak the tonal sliders to recover this detail and create a far superior image.īut it’s essential that you account for this when out shooting with your camera. For instance, the JPEG image may show a lack of detail in certain areas – the extreme highlights and shadows – yet the RAW file retains that information. The JPEG is automatically processed by your camera to look more true to life, but when you import the RAW image into Lightroom, all your camera’s processing disappears, and you gain access to the original, unaltered file.įortunately, this has major benefits. Here’s what’s going on: What you see on your camera screen is a JPEG photo, not a RAW file. “What happened to my vibrant, contrasty image?” they ask. Many photographers review their images on the camera’s rear LCD screen and find them to be colorful and punchy – but then are confused when the shots look flat and dull on the computer. That way, the next time you capture a batch of RAW files, you know exactly how to process them for outstanding results! In this article, I offer five easy tips to ensure you can effectively edit your RAW photos in Lightroom. With a bit of effort, you can balance the light and color to get your photos looking lifelike – so they more closely match the view you experienced. That’s where RAW photo editing in Lightroom comes in handy. Unedited RAW files simply do not look like what you saw with your eyes! For instance, in high-contrast lighting, the human eye can see more detail in the highlights and the shadows – and when faced with colorful subjects, RAW shots just don’t have the same pop as the real-life scene. If you shoot in RAW and you want your photos to look realistic, photo editing is a necessary step in the photographic workflow.
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