Post photo editing - Lightroom

[Dazzauk]

Ok im starting to think that im doing too much to my photos in lightroom, actually removing some of the quality ans smoothness from the original.

One of the issues definitely is that in when viewing the picture in the developer mode in lightroom the picture is a lot lighter and less saturated than viewing the picture on the imac straight from its folder?

Any help appreciated..

Daz

 

[mdowney58]

Samples help

 

[Dazzauk]

Samples help

 

[Dazzauk]

 

[livefreeanddrone]

They look post processed but I don't think you took them too far. They look great. Love the one of the ship particularly.

 

[With The Birds]

The queen mary images are awesome, I would crop them closer though, really give the ship the attention it deserves.

Often in post less is more. I recall you saying you were using presets with lightroom. I wouldnt. Arbitrary adjustments can't possibly provide ideal settings for all images.

Start with some simple level adjustments (white point and black point) and use contrast and. Clarity etc sparingly. Apply any noise reduction as your last process and at the desired final image resolution. Local adjustments seem to give greatest benefit, ie if your looking at increasing contrast and saturation in the clouds apply it to the sky only with a graduated mask.

 

[DaRana]

I assume you're shooting DNG if you're doing post editing? One thing to check, In LR dev module, go down to the bottom and check the calibration settings on the image. The DNG Files from the P4P have a built in color profile that Lightroom picks up. But if for some reason it isn't picking it up, or the default got reset and it's using "Adobe Standard" or something that could explain the difference in the rendering.

Also you didn't mention what app you're viewing it in "straight from its folder" - again, that app may be applying some sort of automated processing to the DNG file. Remember that RAW files are not like jpgs, they're the raw sensor info so the rendering (demosaicing) engine you use to view it can make a difference in that presentation.

On your samples, are the top images edited or unedited? Not sure which one looks like the Lightroom develop mode and which one looks like the iMac folder view.