Have you ever called yourself and listened to your own voice on your voicemail message? Don’t do it. It’s totally creepy.
Now have you ever recorded a 20 minute screencast? Ick, ick, ick.
ICK.
I had to crawl under my desk when I heard my voice play back on this – my very first ever screencast. The sound of my own voice felt like somebody completely different. Am I really that high-pitched? Is that why everybody backs up when I speak? I always thought it was my breath… But Jeff just smiled at me from across the room, leaned back in his ergonomic desk chair, stretched his arms up high, yawned, and said, “Great job sweetie. That was pretty awesome for your first time.”
In this screencast (again, my first ever), I demo how Jeff and I edit our wedding and engagement images in Adobe Lightroom 3. This isn’t a tutorial on how to use Lightroom, it’s simply an explanation of the editing process we use to achieve our natural style for our wedding and engagement shoots.
I even give away our ‘secret ingredient’…
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Enjoy!
Things we referenced in this video : Jared Platt’s Lightroom Workshops
Hugs,
Erin
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Super informative. I had no idea I could “auto sync” where’s that function been all my life!
You say stinkin’ a lot.
oh yay! I can’t wait to get the email with the password
lovin’ it so far! thanks so much, erin & jeff!
@[64300092:2048:Jeff Youngren] I would assume that if you switch completely over to Lightroom’s sharpening, wouldn’t you then be able to export images sizes on a per needed basis rather than exporting full size images all the time?
Super informative. I had no idea I could “auto sync” where’s that function been all my life!
Jeff Youngren would love to know the results of your sharpening comparisons.. I also use magic sharp, but only for web images…never thought to use it for printing, so I’m very curious to see what your results are.
That was great, thank you! The clarity was a real eye opener, I always went the other way for sharper images but paid for it in blemishes. Any chance you would elaborate a little more on using magic sharp? Being obsessive compulsive over sharp images, as I am, I’d love to see how it’s done. For my wedding and portrait sessions I am 99.9% lightroom and avoid photoshop (like the plague) but will use it if I have to. Thanks again.
loved the fun stuff at the end… *clap…clap clap*
Learned so much! You guys are awesome! Thanks for being so generous with your information! I love this site
Haha, loved the “outtakes” at the end
Thank you for sharing!
Awesome screencast- thanks for sharing! The clarity trick is one of my favorites to do. I stopped using PS when I discovered that about a year ago.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing such great information on your post techniques. The negative clarity really surprised me but makes so much sense!
You say stinkin’ a lot.
You guys rock! Your voice is sweet…easy to listen to.
To use an Erin Youngren phrase: “So stinkin’ good.”
Wow, you guys do pretty much the exact opposite as everything I’ve learned. But, hey, who cares when your photos are the best! Great info.
LOL. I love her.
@[17811115:2048:Nathan Cashion] Really? Like what? Were you still able to follow?
Oh man, that changes everything!
We export full size images from LR, and then run magic sharp on them. HOWEVER, Lightroom’s sharpening has gotten so good that we may be eliminating this step, but we need to do some side-by-side print comparisons, which we’re planning to do. When we do, we’ll post results here. We’ll be doing different sharpening methods, and then having 20×30′s printed of each of them.
I loved that part, too. I *had* to leave it in. So funny.
It’s definitely magic sauce!
Erin, it’s always shocking to hear your own voice, but don’t worry, you sound awesome!
This was so awesome. The ‘trick’ was such a good one! Thank you! And Erin, your voice is beautiful and lovely to listen to!
thanks! the shadows slider tip is really going to help me! bye bye blacks slider, hello shadows slider! thanks for being so giving!
The reason Brightness preserves highlights a little better than Exposure is because Exposure is weighted to the highlight tones. Imagine using the Levels arrows in Photoshop. Exposure in Lightroom is equivalent to using white/highlight arrow on the right, and just like in Levels when you do that it also moves the middle arrow by half. It feels like you’re just lightening up the whole image, but you tend to blow the highlights if you’re concentrating on the midtones. Brightness on the other hand is pegged to the mid-tones so it is like using the middle arrow in Levels independently, or if you use the Curves adjustment in PS it is just like pulling up the middle of the line. It doesn’t push up the highlights generally. Just FYI I am hearing that Lightroom 4 does away with the Exposure slider altogether.
@[64300092:2048:Jeff Youngren] I would assume that if you switch completely over to Lightroom’s sharpening, wouldn’t you then be able to export images sizes on a per needed basis rather than exporting full size images all the time?
Jeff Youngren would love to know the results of your sharpening comparisons.. I also use magic sharp, but only for web images…never thought to use it for printing, so I’m very curious to see what your results are.
That was really great and very encouraging as I’ve been pursuing a very clean editing style myself, after spending a few years jumping all over the map trying different styles! It was fun, but I find that what I love best is clean, bright, vibrant images that are true to life! Thanks for some great suggestions on how to use Lightroom tools better!
Wahhh! I haven’t gotten my secret pass code yet
very cool! I love contrast but I use the black waaayyy to much, the shadow slider will now be my friend!
I watched this tonight too! I’m enjoying Lightroom so far..
Yeah, @[64300092:2048:Jeff], I definitely could follow. I’ve always been told to use exposure and avoid brightness/contrast, use black point over shadows, and to increase clarity. But in each case, your reasoning made sense and the results proved your point. Of course, I use Aperture and do mainly landscapes/non-portraits, so there may be some slight differences in subject matter and processing. I’m going to have to test and compare your workflow.
BTW, @[64300200:2048:Erin], I would have liked to see before & after comparisons with the masters after each edit. You did a great job on your first screencast! They’re so awkward for a while.
My favorite parts are from 20:00 on… LOL Loooove you Erin!
Thanks for sharing all this great info! I love LR and the clarity slider as well. Please do keep us posted on your sharpening ‘experiment’.
Great
Thanks for sharing all this great info! I love LR and the clarity slider as well. Please do keep us posted on your sharpening ‘experiment’.
Thanks @[17811115:2048:Nathan Cashion]! I totally meant to show the before/after! Shoot! Thanks for the reminder
And yes, all of our editing is geared toward beautiful, creamy skin-tones and preserving detail, so if you’re not editing portraits, then the editing methods are probably going to be pretty different.
@[1546596013:2048:Don] Yep! Lightroom 4 will combine the brightness slider with the exposure slider. So now the exposure slider will actually be a pretty useful tool that will preserve the highlights and it won’t be so confusing anymore. I can’t wait to do a screencast with the new version!
Ha! I need to put a dollar in a jar every time I say that… or maybe just a penny…
LOVE the tip about using the shadows more! That was definitely missing in our editing…beautiful! Thanks so much for the info.
This was a great screencast! Thanks for sharing part of your workflow with us! I noticed that all the images you showed were shot with ISO 200. Do you notice a sharpness or highlights difference when shooting in ISO 200 vs. 100? I know some other photographers who shoot in available light and use ISO 200 as well, even in daylight. I’m wondering why you guys seem to have this preference.
Thanks again for sharing this!
FREAKIN AMAZING! One of the best editing videos I’ve seen. You make it look so easy and I’m so glad I found you! ♥
To be honest, there’s not much of a difference, but you can call it old habit. One of my favorite films back in the day was a Fuji ASA 200 and so it’s just old habit to have that be a happy place. On the 5D Mark II I don’t see a big difference. Good observation!
YAY!
Yeah, when Erin discovered that and showed it to me I was like WHAT?!
You’re welcome!
You’re so welcome
Glad it was helpful for you! Aren’t the shadows so much more lovely than the blacks slider?
You got it!
We’re glad we connected, too
Thanks for the kind words – that means a TON!
YES! Excited for you!
Check your SPAM, or if you’re a new subscriber you would see the PW in your final confirmation e-mail.
David Bjorgen We already can do it on a per-size basis because LR runs a Droplet on the images when they finish exporting, so it’s nice and slick. But I’d rather just do it all in LR, but the ex-scientist in me says that tests are needed first *pushes up glasses*