Introduction
This tutorial is a demonstration of the SLR Lounge Lightroom 4 Preset System and has been transcribed for DPS from the accompanying DVD. With over 200 presets, the LR4 Preset System has been critically acclaimed as the most powerful and intuitive preset system available for Lightroom 4, click the link above to learn more/purchase.
Overview
This tutorial is a step-by-step method of creating a faux-HDR look that works great for both landscapes and environmental portraits. What this effect does is simply tone-map the image to bring out the shadows and pull down the highlights, which expands the image’s dynamic range without going too over-the-top.
Mixology Recipe and Tutorial
If you own the LR4 Presets, this effect can be achieved in around 10 seconds and 5 clicks (as outlined below). If you don’t own the preset system, please skip to “How to Shoot the Image” to learn how to do it manually.
1. MY MIXOLOGY > 00 Standard Import
2. BASE ADJUSTMENTS > 16 Heavy HDR (Base Tones)
3. BASE ADJUSTMENTS > 35 Heavy Boost (Contrast)
4. BASE ADJUSTMENTS > 62 Light (Noise Reduction)
5. NEUTRAL CURVES > 31 Ivory (Neutral Punches)
Continue reading below to see what each of these preset adjustments are making to create our final faux-HDR look.
How to Shoot the Image
This effect works best when using RAW images without significantly blown highlights and clipped shadows. Images with blown highlights and clipped shadows have lost details in areas that will not be recoverable using this technique. When shooting, we try to retain as much details by “exposing to the right.” Now, this doesn’t mean that you are blowing out your image, it simply means that you are pushing the highlights all the way to the right of the histogram without blowing out the highlight detail. Be sure to shoot at your cameras lowest native ISO as well in order to retain as much detail and dynamic range as possible.
For this tutorial, we have selected the following RAW image from the exercise files of DVD.
Step 1. Boosting the Dynamic Range
We are going to expand the dynamic range in our image by lifting up our Shadows and Blacks +60 each, and pulling down the Highlights and the Whites by -60 each. This will shift the majority of our tonal range towards the middle of the histogram to retain more detail in the highlights and shadows. This process of increasing the tonal range kills overall contrast, so we will balance out our adjustment by adding +75 to Contrast as well.
We are also going to boost Clarity to +15 and Vibrance to +15 just to increase mid-tone contrast and image detail, as well as give a slight boost to the overall colors.
Lifting up the shadows by this much amount also tends to introduce noise, so to counteract that, let’s add a light amount with Noise Reduction. Go to the Detail panel on the Right Side Panel and add +20 to Luminance in the Noise Reduction box.
Here is the image with the adjustments made thus far:
Step 2. Additional Contrast via Curves
We want to separate the highlights and shadows a bit more to add a little extra punch to the image, so this time we are going to use the Tone Curve panel to sort-of “stack contrast”. Make sure that you are using the Point Curve mode by clicking on the Curve icon at the bottom-right of the panel. You will know if you’re in the right mode because under the curve graph is a drop-down menu for RGB Channels. We are only going to be working with the main curve and not the individual color curves for this tutorial.
Add two points in the shadows and two points in the highlights, then pull down the shadows and bring up the highlights. You can experiment to see how curve adjustments you will need, but you should end up with a standard contrast-boosting S-curve that looks similar to the curve below:
Here is the image after the tone curve adjustment:
Step 3. Finalize Exposure + Temperature
At this point, I like to fine tune my Exposure and Temperature to give me the final color toning and mood I am going for.
For this particular image, I’m just going to lower the Exposure by a full stop (-1.00) to get some nice romantic sunset colors into the scene and I am going to leave the temperature as shot.
Here is the image after the final Exposure and Temperature adjustment:
Step 4. Graduated Filters
I like to use the very subtle -1 Graduated Brush preset in the LR4 Preset System to pull down over the sky just to add a little more color and drama into the image as shown below.
Final Before and After Images
So here is the before and after image with the Vivid Landscape HDR Light Mixology Preset:
RAW Image
Final Image
The Lightroom 4 Preset System
Effects created within the The Lightroom Presets include basic color correction, vintage fades, black & white effects, tilt-shift effects, faux HDR, retouching, detail enhancing, and virtually any other look and effect. All within Lightroom 4 only and most within 5 clicks.
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