I was recently asked by photographer Rhonda Pierce to look at an image that she’d taken and to suggest how the background could be lightened to white in Lightroom.

This image raises an interesting question for anyone involved in post production and trying to understand when to use Lightroom and when to use Photoshop for editing.

Ultimately, if this image is to be printed at a large size then Lightroom really isn’t the tool for the job. There is too much wispy hair, particularly on the left side of the model’s face just opposite her mouth, which is cumbersome to work with in Lightroom. Selecting around the hair and doing a detailed job really isn’t possible or feasible in Lightroom. Ideally, Photoshop and a good extraction tool such as Vertus Fluid Mask would be the best combination to use.

However, if the image is not going to be printed at a large size and, for example, it’s destined for the web or if it is a preview image for a client where they’ll choose their favorite image from a series, then Lightroom is a good tool for the job. While Lightroom won’t do such a good job, it will do it very fast and, at the resolution we’ll be using the image we probably won’t see any real difference anyway. For this use, we can compromise on quality and harness the superior speed of Lightroom.

Later on, if this is the image the client chooses and if it will be printed at a large size, then we can wind back the Lightroom changes, export the image to Photoshop and do a proper job. We’ll only be spending time fixing those images that the client is actually paying for and that need a quality fix applied.

Lightening the background in Lightroom

So, assuming this image is destined for the web or for client preview purposes, let’s go back to the original question as to how the background can be lightened in Lightroom.

Any solution will require us to isolate the background. It’s not possible to lighten the background in Lightroom without affecting everything else in the image and that will destroy the rest of the image. The Adjustment Brush is the obvious solution.

In my last post, ‘Vignettes ‘ Lighten or Darken?‘ I discussed vignettes in brief detail and only brought up the issue of lightening the edges vs. darkening them.

The word ‘vignette’ has quite a few meanings. In photography, it is the edge of an image and comes from the old french ‘vigne’ and refers to a decorative border.

Vignettes happen naturally when more light reaches the center of an image than is reaching the edges. Optical vignetting is caused by an internal obstruction in the aperture. It can commonly be seen with wide angle lenses and those used with wide open apertures. Physical vignetting is caused by a physical obstruction preventing light from hitting the sensor. It can be caused by a lens hood a filter, anything preventing the light from coming into the sensor. Even the most expensive lenses can produce this aberration. Although unintentional and sometimes unwanted, vignetting can actually have quite a beautiful effect and quality which has made it something desirable in certain situations.

The word ‘vignette’ has quite a few meanings. In photography, it is the edge of an image and comes from the old french ‘vigne’ and refers to a decorative border.

Intentional – Darkening

Darkening the edges of an image can add a dark, vintage or even macabre effect to the interpretation of your image. It draws the eye into the centre of the image, framing the edges in darkness. Darkening can be achieved in both Adobe’s Lightroom or Photoshop and they function in different ways.

There is so much of Lightroom that’s not apparent when you first begin using it and that takes time to discover and explore. Here are my five coolest Lightroom techniques that you might want to add to your Lightroom toolkit.

1. Shortcuts

There are a lot and lots of keystroke shortcuts in Lightroom, and it takes time to learn them all. It’s also harder still to find them so you can learn them all! That is unless you know this one keystroke shortcut. Press Ctrl + / (Command + / on the Mac) to display an overlay of shortcuts over the top of your Lightroom window.

Danny Jauregui is a Los Angeles based food blogger.  Read his helpful food photography and blogging tips at Food Bloggers Unite!
 
Shooting with a higher ISO can sometimes solve low light shooting situations but it can also present a whole other set of problems.  Higher ISO’s allow you to shoot in low light situations but the combination of low light and high ISO creates a perfect storm when it comes to camera noise and texture. 

Camera noise is most obvious in the darker midtone and shadow areas of your image and often resembles small dots of color, which can ruin a perfectly good image.
 
There are countless ways of reducing camera noise using Photoshop and this tutorial is by no means the end all be all of color noise reduction.  In fact, this method works best for reducing small amounts of color noise since it primarily reduces the color not the texture.  By reducing the color it gives the illusion of less noise.  It’s a simple technique geared toward newbies that can yield huge benefits!
 

Step 1

Duplicate the background layer.  You can do this by simply dragging the background layer into the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers window.
 
 

One of the really handy features of Lightroom is its ability to create web slideshows quickly and easily. There are various options you can use and I’ll show you how to use the SimpleViewer slideshow which is good looking and very functional.

Step 1

To get started, prepare all your images and save them as a collection. Use a Collection rather than a Smart Collection so you can arrange the images in the order that you want to see them in the slideshow by dragging them into position using either the grid or the filmstrip.

To create a collection, select the images to use, click the (+) plus symbol to the left of the Collections panel and choose Create Collection. Type a name for it, enable the Include Selected Photos checkbox and click Ok. You can then drag and drop additional images into the collection and order them as desired.

Step 2

In Library view add a caption to each image so you can include the caption in the SimpleViewer slide show. To do this, open the Metadata panel and locate the Caption box. Type a caption for the first image, move to the next image and type a caption for it and so on.