7 Now you can begin with some basic edits to get the
image a bit more balanced than it is at the moment. Let’s
tackle the shadows first since they need the most attention and
are in need of a boost. Open the Basic tools panel and start to
move the Shadows slider to the right.9
It is down to personal taste but it might be a good idea
to actually see a comparison to your original so you can
judge how much the image is changing. If you press Y you can
use a Before and After split screen with your current edit shown
on the left.10 Our next edit will remove the small area around the
rising sun that is currently lost to overexposure. Drag the
Highlights slider to the left and you can see the lightest areas
of the image start to decrease in brightness. In effect, this is the
reverse of the Shadows adjustment.11
Depending on the image, pushing the Highlights slider too
far left will create a very unnatural looking image. In this
case, a -65 value gives us a good sky. Sliding the Whites tab
a little to the left also ensures there are no pure whites in the
image, if that’s to your taste.12
Now that everything is a little more balanced, you can
bring up the exposure of the entire image, by increasing
the Exposure to about +0.65. At the moment though, things are
looking a little flat. It could do with some more contrast and a
little more colour.8
You will see the darkest parts of the image start to
increase in brightness. Shadows adjustment can be fairly
subtle at first but if you push it too far, you risk exacerbating
any image noise that might be present in the shot. In this case a
+85 adjustment works well. Then, also add +5 to the Blacks.130
GOING FURTHER: LIGHTROOM PROJECTS
BDM’s Made Easy Series | Volume 22