Monday, July 23, 2012
How to Add a Golden Haze Effect to Photos with Lightroom
I had a request for a tutorial on my Facebook page from Jennifer. :)
I would love to know how to get that perfect slight haze and sun glow in pics… the lighting techniques and/or preset for those soft sunny pics.
Well Jennifer, your wish is my command! :)
Step 1: Start with a nice outdoor photo.
Kids are cute, but so are sun bathing rhinos! Ok, maybe just to me. :)
Step 2: Learn the secrets of soft, hazy, golden goodness.
It’s really not as hard as you think. There are two key concepts in achieving this effect when you start with a properly exposed photo (and if your photo is not properly exposed, then fix that first before you apply these changes).
- The “soft haze” effect is a trick of the eye. It is accomplished by turning down the contrast, lightening dark tones, and desaturating slightly.
- The “golden glow” is created by warming up your highlights and mid-tones, and adding both brightness and softness to highlights.
Step 3: Soften and add haze.
This photo already looks a little less harsh and easy on the eyes. Let’s take a look at the changes that were made using just the Basic Panel in Lightroom 4 (though the changes I am making should also work in previous versions):
Note: I did not change the exposure at all. The idea here is that if you want to save all this as a preset at the end of the tutorial, you can do it and still adjust your exposure separate from the soft golden haze effects.
What I did change:
- Turn Contrast down to -75
- Turn Saturation down to -25
- Turn Blacks up to +50 (this is actually removing/lightening blacks to further reduce contrast)
Step 4: Add some gold and a touch of sunshine!
Here comes the sun little darling!
Those rhinos look like they need a little sun, but there is another trick that I like to use besides just the obvious splash of gold from the Split Toning module. Would you guess that I’ve also added some purple in there?
You don’t have to do this, but I like to balance out my shadows with a hint of a complimentary color when changing highlights to keep the photo looking a bit more natural and dynamic. I also don’t like the way that greens look when they have too much yellow in them. A splash of purple in the shadows helps tone down the yellow-green in the foliage to keep the focus on the main subjects in the photos. You could also just call it a personal quirk. ;)
These rhinos look pretty good, but still need a little more smooching from the sun, so let’s tweak the Tone Curve panel a bit. We want to brighten the highlights, but still maintain that low contrast look so we don’t lose the haze. A “zig-zag” pattern (what I call it) works nicely here (see below). I do this because it maintains a balance between the different tonal ranges.
The effect is a bit subtle, but nice, I think. And now, we have happy, sunny rhinos.
Step 5: Save it as a preset
One last step… If you love it, then save it as a preset, but only save the changes to the properties that you adjusted, so that you can still change things like Exposure separately from this preset.
Can this be used on different subjects?
Yes! One thing to keep in mind is that I made this preset on a photo that is more of a landscape than a portrait. What happens if I apply it to a portrait where the subject is much closer and the lighting contrast is much different?
It’s a little too hazy, but no problem. If we see something like this, we can make minor tweaks to bring back a little contrast and brightness as shown below. I turned the Contrast back up a bit, turned the Blacks back down, and brightened with Exposure. I then renamed the preset above as “Sun Kissed - Landscapes” and saved this one as “Sun Kissed - Portraits”.
That’s better!
Happy shooting (and editing)!
Adrienne
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Purposeful Lens Flare
I went on a backstage tour of Animal Kingdom last week, and was having fun playing around with some purposeful lens flare photos. There were a lot of trees and the sun was high in the sky. Lens flare can be overdone, but it can also be quite artistic. Below are some examples of different ways to take advantage of a lens flare. These looks were achieved by adjusting the location and angle of the incoming light into the lens, and the colors were tweaked a bit in post-processing. Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Tutorial Tuesday: Tips for Better Pictures of Fireworks
Hot July weather is in full force and the 4th of July holiday is literally right around the corner! To celebrate, I thought it would be appropriate to post some tips for taking better pictures of fireworks. Happy birthday, America!
Use a tripod and bring a flashlight!
If you want to see the light trails really fill out as the fireworks open up, you’ll need a slower shutter speed, and this will require a tripod, especially if you have a camera with a cropped light sensor (your standard consumer level DSLR). You’ll also want to bring a flashlight so you don’t get frustrated trying to fumble around with your tripod and camera in the dark!
When using the tripod, use a shutter release switch or set your camera on a timer.
The last thing you want is camera shake and blurry pictures when you’ve done all the work to set up and use your tripod! To make sure that you aren’t introducing any vibrations and camera shake into your photo, you’ll need to take the picture without touching your camera. You can do this with a remote switch, an attached shutter release cable, or by setting the timer on your camera so that the picture takes on a delay after the camera has stopped vibrating from your finger touching the shutter button.
Shutter speed settings.
There are many thoughts on shutter speed with fireworks. I’ve been able to capture some pretty brilliant ones with faster shutter speeds (faster in this case being 1/125 of a second), but the general consensus is that you want a minimum of 2-3 seconds. You can do this by putting your camera in “bulb” mode. You’ll need that shutter release cable though. If you don’t have one and don’t want to buy one, most cameras will support a shutter speed of a couple seconds.
Personally, I think it depends on what types of fireworks you’re shooting photos of. Some of them explode quickly, and others open up very slowly, like a flower. If you are thinking about shooting a particular show that is displayed frequently (a local theme park perhaps), you could do some recon ahead of time about the types of fireworks being shot off. It might help you to prepare for which shutter speeds you want to play with. For example, if there are multiple small fireworks being shot off at once, you may want to keep your shutter speed limited to a few seconds to keep from having your photo blown out by all the light sources. If one large firework is being shot off at a time, you will want a longer exposure, from the time it launches, to the time when the brightest points begin to fade after the explosion.
Aperture settings.
Fireworks should be thought of in a similar way to shooting photos of the moon. It’s a single bright light source against a (hopefully) dark sky. I generally like an aperture between f/7 and f/14 for this. If you aren’t comfortable shooting in full manual mode, you can shoot in shutter priority mode and let your camera handle the rest. If you are, then play around with it and have fun.
ISO settings.
When it comes to fireworks, you want to keep this on the down low, when possible. The fireworks are bright enough that they will definitely get picked up by the camera. The problem happens when other light sources start to get picked up too. When taking photos at night, it is usually recommended to turn the ISO up in order to pick up little details that might otherwise be lost. For fireworks, however, higher ISOs meant that you’ll pick up residual light pollution. Try to keep it at 100 if possible, and definitely not higher than 200.
Make sure your flash is turned off.
I preach a lot on this blog about not using the auto settings so you can make your camera do your bidding. If you choose to ignore my nagging on this matter, please remember to at least disable your flash for fireworks photography. :)
Scope out the area ahead of time and pick a good spot to camp out in.
Believe me when I say this is one of the most important things. You will be competing with other people who are not only taking pictures, but just tilting their heads up and watching. There will be many people who get there early and pick a spot to park themselves in. I frequently watch the fireworks at Disney, and the park guests are camped out at least a half hour before the fireworks. Even an hour before, people start to get settled into spots along the boundaries of where they can stand for the best view.
Have fun!
Don’t let this frustrate you! Have a good time and get creative! :)
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saucy Sunday: More Tokyo Belle
Processed with Ginger Brighter from the Professional Portraits Package
Processed with Vamp (coming soon to my next preset package!)
Processed with Faded Lilacs (coming soon to my next preset package!)
