Digital Photographer - UK (2020-01)

Unleash the full potential of your photos with

RAW power in our Lightroom

Classic CC crash course

Lightroom

The

guide to

ultimate

W

hen you’ve taken an image that

you’re really happy, with it can

be tempting to upload it to the

internet straight away, or even

print it out and consider it a job done. But

pressing the camera shutter and taking the

photo is only half of the story with modern

digital cameras. Your photos have so much

more potential when using editing software

back at your computer, and there isn’t an

image ever taken that couldn’t benefit from an

enhancement – whether it’s a subtle crop, a

slight boost to the colours or applying a black

and white treatment.

RAW files are digital images that contain

significantly more information from the point

of capture than JPEGs, which are compressed.

The latter are also processed in-camera, with

the camera deciding how vibrant the colours

are and how excessive the sharpening or noise

reduction is. Because of this it’s much harder

to get the images looking exactly how you want

them if the camera has different tastes and

preferences to you.

If you’re not shooting in the RAW format

already then it’s certainly worth trying it now,

as you’ll be able to tweak things such as

exposure, colours, white balance and sharpness

after the point of capture.

To edit a RAW file you’ll need a RAW editor

such as Adobe’s Lightroom Classic CC, and in

this crash course we’ve laid out everything you

need to know about the software – from how

to import your photos, how to apply basic and

more advanced edits, and also discussing when

it’s time to take your photos from Lightroom

into Photoshop. We’ll be covering Lightroom

Classic CC, rather than Lightroom, which is

geared more towards use on a mobile or tablet.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Techniques

ith

RAWpower inourLightroom

ClassicCCcrash course

The

guide to

ultimate

W

hen you’ve taken an image that

you’re really happy, with it can

be tempting to upload it to the

internet straight away, or even

print it out and consider it a job done. But

pressing the camera shutter and taking the

photo is only half of the story with modern

digital cameras. Your photos have so much

more potential when using editing software

back at your computer, and there isn’t an

image ever taken that couldn’t benefit from an

enhancement – whether it’s a subtle crop, a

slight boost to the colours or applying a black

and white treatment.

RAW files are digital images that contain

significantly more information from the point

of capture than JPEGs, which are compressed.

The latter are also processed in-camera, with

the camera deciding how vibrant the colours

are and how excessive the sharpening or noise

reduction is. Because of this it’s much harder

to get the images looking exactly how you want

them if the camera has different tastes and

preferences to you.

If you’re not shooting in the RAW format

already then it’s certainly worth trying it now,

as you’ll be able to tweak things such as

exposure, colours, white balance and sharpness

after the point of capture.

To edit a RAW file you’ll need a RAW editor

such as Adobe’s Lightroom Classic CC, and in

this crash course we’ve laid out everything you

need to know about the software – from how

to import your photos, how to apply basic and

more advanced edits, and also discussing when

it’s time to take your photos from Lightroom

into Photoshop. We’ll be covering Lightroom

Classic CC, rather than Lightroom, which is

geared more towards use on a mobile or tablet.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Techniques