Luminosity, Contrast & Impact - A new approach in Lighroom
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- Опубліковано 31 лип 2024
- In this video, I look at how to approach Adobe Lightroom Processing from a completely different angle from the usual start at the top and head down method. I've seen it taught that way for years, and honestly, it drives me crazy and I feel it does the student so much harm.
The concept of someone having a process that is a one size fits all is ludicrous.
Let's learn a new way and develop a relationship with our images that is fundamentally more intuitive, and more unique.
You're in charge. Take control.
My eBook, Luminosity & Contrast: My eBook: Luminosity & Contrast: landscapephotographymagazine....
This is by far the most informative video I have watched on editing. Thank you.
Sorry for the slow response. I am so delighted to hear that. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
@@Alister_Benn I love your videos and your approach to teaching makes your topics easy to understand. I stumbled upon you, after watching this wilder beast named Hardcastle roaming around the Canadian Wild with his Uncle Gumpy. Who wasn't grumpy once you got to know him. Luckily he was able to vacation in Spain where I was able to follow this adventure and stumbled upon you. Please keep up the great work and hopefully one day I'll have time to take one of your work shops with Adam.
Watching your vid under sodden skies here the the Paqcific Northwest of the USA. Between bites of french toast with huckleberry syrup I am really enjoying your narrative and wonderfully presented techniques. Cheers!
Saw other, more recent videos of you, but what good one this is for basic understanding. Again, and still, a very honest and helping as well as a very pleasing video. Thanks a lot! Really appreciated
Love the idea of avoiding the top to bottom slider adjustments in Lightroom, and thinking more about contrast luminosity and impact. Thank you!
really helpful illustrations of bespoke approach to processing. plenty to think about and practice, thanks
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you
Alister - I really like what you're doing here. For those of us in whom the technical side has been accomplished, there follows an emptiness that speaks to our need to now use these tools in order to express ourselves creatively. The more we can come to an understanding of what it is that we desire to express, the more we can make intentional decisions about our post-processing to convey that message. There is a great paucity of information out there on communicating with the "visual language" and you are among a few that are beginning to teach us this language.
I have been of the position that the more we possess insight into our underlying motivation (in my case, there is a spiritual/religious component), then the "easier" it is for us to apply this visual language to communicate that concept. To that end, in the raw image, I will "study" that image in order to try and create a list of post-processing goals in regards to light, color, and texture/form that achieves the intended message. However, I do struggle with an incomplete understanding of the visual language. Of course Guy Tal is helping us along in this regard, and Erin Babnik is also exploring the nature of communication in ways I find understandable. I like how you seem to accept a position that it is not necessary that we have this understanding, but use our intuition and "sense" or "feel" to make decisions about the post-processing. Visual exploration is truly helpful at times to identify what direction we may want the image to go. Thanks again and keep it up...the more you help us understand the visual language, the better we become at telling our story in ways others may be able to resonate/understand.
Jim McGovern thanks for such an in-depth and insightful comment. I’m just getting started in this while I reorganise my work life and relocate. My whole focus in photography education is to unravel from the tired dusty repetitious societal doctrine and allow freewill, innate creativity and unique expression to be valid. Thanks again for your input, it’s very encouraging.
Jim you read my mind.
Mysterious, ethereal, subtle, perhaps even "painterly".... I've discovered that appeals to me much more than the higher volume impact of so many Instagram photographs. I'm a new subscriber and am very appreciative for you taking the time to reveal a little more as to how you process images. It is very helpful - thank you!
Mark Goeman delighted to hear that. I’m so getting into sharing the knowledge I’ve gained over the years. Thanks very much for subscribing
Alister, that was a really good discussion of luminosity and editing images.
What I find interesting is that LR gives us the ability to get to the same or similar results in many different ways. Like you just demonstrated, I can tweak an image and follow a different work flow and end up in the same place. Maybe work flow is just a reflection of the organization in our brains. Some are linear, "top down" in the various panels; while I approach editing in a scattered approach. But I almost always start with exposure.
I usually look at an image and ask myself this question; "what needs to change in this image". I then edit for that result. I then ask the same thing again, and repeat. But I don't do it from top-down in the panels.
It gets really interesting once you use luminosity to create masks based only on a certain tonal range of an image. Then apply edits to only that range. It's a very powerful tool. Since I rarely get it right in camera, I can usually fix it.
BTW, both those images are incredible. Love the comp with the distant rock cradled in the curved shape in the foreground rock. Was that focused stacked?
Thanks for sharing, I'm always happy when I see your notifications.
Steve Miller thanks very much for your comment, I absolutely agree, Lightroom is such a powerful tool these days and getting more so all the time. I’ll certainly be covering Luminosity Masks in the future, in both Lightroom and Photoshop.
Hi Alastair. As a fellow Scott, Ive followed you for a while now. This is a really important message here with the simple complexity of colour and luminance thereof. This also, is directly linked into the output you have (Social Media/ fine art prints) but also helps with the initial 'vision', or 'intent' you had for the scene you are shooting, form the outset. Visualisation, being key through shooting with or with out light, but then realising this vision, right through the complete process, including 'post'. I was humbled to be included with yourslef and others with fellow Scot, Ian Smith Fotografia's latest channel recommendation.
Keep up the great content Alastair
Aye, he's a good guy - questionable taste in music, but a good guy :-) ;-)
@@Alister_Benn - LOL, has he. Ill have to jib him about that!. E
Alister- I have just discovered you today, through Sean Bagshaw whom I have been following and I found Sean through discovering Tony Kuyper around 9 years ago. I started learning the basic luminosity masks from Tony before he came out with the TK dashboards. Your artful style of approaching processing is how I see each image I create. I often have the "What do I need to do to make this image impactful" scenario. I sit and look at the image for many minutes before I start the process. Alot of my process is trial and see how it looks, change it, go extreme and bring it back, and so on and so forth. Your approach has reminded me of how each slider has such huge impact on the image and in the end, it's my final vision that really matters. I've subscribed and look forward to your future tutorials!
Thanks, Dennis
Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate that. Tony and Sean have done such a great amount of work in pushing contemporary landscape photography forward. I too have been using Luminosity Masks since around 2010 and honestly believe we are still just scratching the surface. That said, Lightroom has incredible potential now as a stand alone, accomplishing much of what was the realm of PS before. The range mask function alone is worth the price of the sub. Thanks again, new video coming today...
Thanks for showing this differently than the typical hundreds of videos out there. I have always loved your writings in 'On Landscape' and now it is great to find you here and learn from you.
Saikat Chakraborty that’s really kind of you, thanks.
Fascinating view on this. I've often thought that it pretty much comes down to whether you want your images to be punchy or subtle. Thanks for another great video.
Ian Middleton : Photography & Travel thanks for that, much appreciated
Great insight, thanks for sharing! Learning the why is far more powerful than only learning how. Good job.
Thanks for that, this is going to be the entire focus of the channel, to discover our individual "Why" rather thatn relying on an external one... I hope you're well.
I learned a great deal from that - you make photo processing seem much more accessible by explaining the concepts in terms of luminosity, contrast and impact. I have struggled with the notion of presets and workflow, and now I don’t have to! So a huge thanks for that. I look forward to following your channel.
Chris Grieve delighted to hear that, this is very much my intention and hope.
Absolutely wonderful, Alister! I agree with your method of approaching the processing part of photography as not a structure, but a free flow of emotion and creativity when expressing your art to others. I plan to watch all of your other videos! you have a new fan! Thanks, Linda Henderson from Dallas, Texas.
Awesome - always pleased to hear that.
Excellent treatment of this subject. Thanks to Mads for introducing me to your outstanding channel.
Excellent, a warm welcome. Thanks for your kind comment.
You’re a game changer for me, bro. I’m a newbie, but by applying the concepts that you teach, I’m progressing like wildfire. Thank you.
Brilliant, awesome to hear
Thank you very much for this incredible new way of approaching the lightroom basics! I am highly appreciating your work and find your thoughts about reconnecting to landscape, as you have mentioned in the f/stop collaborate and listen podcast, very deep minded and helpful.
thesittingbull that’s really kind of you and very much appreciated. It’s always reassuring to get some positive feedback as sometimes one feels like swimming against the stream. Thanks again, more coming in December
I do like the new texture slider they've added in Lightroom on the last update as well.
I really appreciate your tutorials. I like your technique of reducing exposure and then adding white and other sliders to create contrast using colors. Super helpful! Thank you!!
Great - glad that helps. This is my personal preference, although I know for some, my images can be quite dark.
I'm enjoying your narrative, thought process, and of course your art. I've charted a similar path and can relate to many of the discussed content; however, hearing it from you is reassuring. Thank you.
That’s great to hear and very encouraging, thank you
Another thumbs up for your work, Alister. I think those "loud" pictures so work better in social media dir the reasons you have told in your video, but the suttle ones definitely fit better on your wall at home. Who wants to have someone in your room screaming "Look at me! Hey you! Look at me!"?
Excellent comment, sorry for the slow reply, been travelling. Many thanks
Man, you are opening my eyes. This was a great video, thank you for generously sharing your knowledge. I'm glad I watched to the end, what you did with the mountain scene blew my mind. I've been a photographer for 15 years and feel that you're bringing me out of stagnation with your focus on luminosity and contrast. Im very grateful Alister.
This means a lot, it genuinely does. Hearing this is very encouraging for us. Thanks.
InstaBlaster...
Wonderful video--wonderful teaching.
Phillip Ziegler many thanks, that’s very much appreciated
Great video, thanks Alister! (link in description needs an update) All the very best!! :) :)
Fantastic informative video mate love it and thanks for your insight 😀👍✌
Paul Thomson Photography great to hear, very much appreciated.
Thank you for another great video Alister! Cheers from Switzerland! Reto
hixxy71 thanks mate
I've been watching your videos and I'm really enjoying them. The way you approach the concept of contrast is simple and original at the same time. However, I would just like to make a small observation: In the second photo, at the moment 13 min, I found that the rocks in the treated photo lost some important information/details. In addition, I loved this concept of image treatment. Congratulations, more success for the channel and greetings from Brazil! PS. As I don't understand English, I'm using Google translator.
Makes a lot of sense Alister, thanks.
Awesome, I like to hear that.
thank you for introducing these new concepts!
You're so welcome!
Wonderful!! Been struggling for years trying to find my voice. This is incredibly helpful. Thanks.
Thanks so much for your comment, I'm delighted to hear the video helps.
@@Alister_Benn Thank you for your work! Best regards.
Phenomenal educational video. Thanks
Rod Scherich that is really kind thank yiu
Thank you so much for your videos, Alister! I am a new subscriber and working my way through - viewing each topic as the mood takes me. I love understanding the 'why' and 'how' of whatever I am doing and this video has given me the techy bit behind and will make my processing so much easier. I use lightroom and process my photos how each one tells me but I thought I was 'odd' for doing that way! I have tried presets but it didn't take me long to realise that they are not for me. Why not just enjoy doing the creating myself?
Delighted to hear that, sincere thanks...
This is very helpful to me. Thank you so much!
Melissa Hall I am always delighted to hear that, thank you so much
Fantastic explanation and teaching on these subjects Alister. I haven’t looked back very far in your videos but was wondering if you do any onsite teaching videos? Thank you for your heart for teaching and educating. ❤️
Thanks for that. A few back in February, it most of my content has been produced during lockdown. Certainly in the autumn there will be some more in the field videos.
The mere mention of the word "Preset" causes the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end! Good to see that you are also not a fan. My guess is photography is called a creative endeavor because those involved in it are attempting to create something original...something reflecting their personal appreciation of a scene or object. Why would I want to use somebody else's predigested work as some sort of shortcut?
One word - EXACTLY :-)
Great content Alister, you channel is very helpful.
Maybe a little recording tip. The sliders in LR are tiny in this recording. When I do desktop recording myself (it seems like we have the same monitor) I increase the font size in the Settings menu of Lightroom. For the viewers everything is better to follow 🙂
Yeah, that's something I need to remember, thanks for that
You make me approach PP in a much more zen way
Well said Sir!
TimberGeek many thanks
Thank you very much, Alister.
A musician learns how to make music from notes. You do the same with a picture.
Friendly regards from Holland .
Johan Pannekoek funny you should mention this, as a guitar player for as long as I’ve been a photographer, it was noticing how we learn to play versus how we learn photography that prompted a lot of this mentality. More on this in future videos :-)
Really impressive how may permutations you wrenched out of that RAW. Thanks for the insights! Would be grateful if you give some lines how you created the one thats on the UA-cam-Minipicture (that one with a lot of "artificial" fog on the left and the reddish look). Did you use negative clarity to achieve that?
Many thanks. Yeah, something like a warmed meg dehaze or similar
Hi Alister great video really liking your work I'm new to this as I have only just changed to Lightroom so this is just what I need I used to use affinity photo but it just doesn't have the versatility of this by the way sorry for spelling your name wrong on last comment damn pre emptive txt
All the best
No worries. LR is getting better and better.
Hello Alister. I just found your channel recently and I am a new subscriber. I am a landscape photographer from Canada and have been using LR for 4 years. I regret not finding you earlier. Your approach to developing is incredible. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on Split Toning? How often do you use it? Cheers
I use it quite a lot, if I stay in Lightroom. It just doesn't pop up too often in the videos :-)
You may have just sold me on LR but im still suspicious 🤔 🤣 great vlog Alister ill give it a go!!
Joseph Cole well, it’s a tool like any other. It’s how it’s used and many of the principles I discuss work across platforms.
Expressive Photography i agree with all the tutorials ive watched and crazy techniques its crazy to think adjustments can be made so simply
Joseph Cole processing can be complex, but mostly it just has to be effective.
Expressive Photography 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻