Amateur Photographer - UK (2019-10-18)

56 12 October 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113

Technique

Maarten Mellemans reveals the

necessary steps he takes to get his

images print ready using Lightroom

A

big chunk of my

assignments

consist of

capturing events

in a documentary style,

ranging from corporate

events to weddings and

music festivals. I love being

on the go and capturing

moments that are over in

the blink of an eye. As such I

have to travel quite a bit and

Behind the

print

2

By lowering the

highlights slider,

details can be brought

back into the lights.

4

Using the spot removal

tool to get rid of this

bright spot will keep the

focus on the face.

1

This wall is ideal to use

for selecting the white

balance with the pipette tool.

3

Adding subtle colours to

the shadows will create

a cinematic look.

Maarten Mellemans

Maarten is a fine-art

photographer based

in Belgium. He’s

worked with a wide

range of clients

including magazines

and music festivals;

he also organises workshops.

See maartenmellemans.be and

photographydomination.com.

PREPARING FOR PRINTING

1 White balance
I never bother with in-camera white balance,
so the first thing I do in Lightroom is adjust it,
either by eye or with the pipette. I don’t care
too much about getting it ‘right’ but try to find
a specific mood that I think suits the image or
series. So in this case I reduced the orange.

2 General adjustments

I further enhanced the image by playing

around with the sliders in the ‘Basic’ panel.

While doing this, I kept a close eye on the

histogram as I wanted to retain detail in the

shadows and highlights. I also nudged the

Clarity slider, to add a subtle punch to the print.

3 Fine-tuning

Next, I fine-tuned the colours further as this is

the key part of the image. The shadows were

quite blue so I added some green into them

to achieve the moody look. This finish is often

used in classical paintings or movies such as

Amélie or The Matrix.