Adjust density first.......

crj330

Can someone tell me what work flow is done when I'm given instructions to adjust the density of a photo first then the color. Working with new software, Lightroom. (Also have PS CS2, but need to make quick adjustments to large number of photos with Lightroom) Want to make sure I'm understanding what steps should be done to accomplish this.

Thanks

arodney

Work top down, left to right in LR and CR. That means, white balance first and foremost, exposure, etc. The tools were designed to work in this order although you don't have to, you'll spend a lot less time spinning your wheels if you work this way.

LAB.rat

I believe the RealWorld Camera Raw book mentions to adjust exposure before white balance, because its influence can make you to have to adjust it twice.

arodney

LAB.rat wrote:

I believe the RealWorld Camera Raw book mentions to adjust exposure before white balance, because its influence can make you to have to adjust it twice.

I don't have the book here (I'm at Photoshop World) but wouldn't think Bruce would recommend that at least as a default. I'll check when I get home tomorrow. You'd want to WB first before handling exposure, since this does affect exposure (tonality).

Jeff Schewe is here, if I bump into him, I'll ask. He's updated the book for Bruce (just finished) to cover all the new features of CR 4.1. Book should be out soon.

LAB.rat

It's on pages 111 and 113 of the CS2 version.

"On the vast majority of images, my first edit is to set the Exposure slider so that the highlights are as close as possible to clipping."

"If I need to make big Exposure moves, I'll do so before setting white balance, because changes in the Exposure value can have a big effect on the white balance. Other than that, it doesn't really matter when you set the white balance."

After reading this, for me, it was probably easier to remember to always adjust Exposure before white balance.

jfriend

LAB.rat wrote:

It's on pages 111 and 113 of the CS2 version.

"On the vast majority of images, my first edit is to set the Exposure slider so that the highlights are as close as possible to clipping."

"If I need to make big Exposure moves, I'll do so before setting white balance, because changes in the Exposure value can have a big effect on the white balance. Other than that, it doesn't really matter when you set the white balance."

After reading this, for me, it was probably easier to remember to always adjust Exposure before white balance.

Large changes in either exposure or white balance will lead to a shift in the other one. If you have to make large changes in exposure, I do that first just to get the image in the right ballpark where I can see what I'm doing.

Once the exposure is in the right neighborhood (which it usually is right out of the camera), I tweak the white balance first. I do that first for two reasons.

First, I am often setting white balance on a whole batch of photos, many before I've even looked at them because all shots taken in a given setting should probably work with the exact same white balance.

Second, a significant shift in white balance can move the color channels enough that it has a meaningful impact on overall brightness/exposure.

So, I will often pick one good shot with some good neutrals to benchmark, figure out what white balance settings works and then propagate that to a bunch of other photos in a batch change. Then, I'll go through the images one by one and tweak exposure and other controls.

arodney

Large changes in either exposure or white balance will lead to a shift in the other one. If you have to make large changes in exposure, I do that first just to get the image in the right ballpark where I can see what I'm doing.

Agreed. That's why the rendering controls are set as they are.

Here's an example of an image (Raw of course) that initially looks over exposed by about a stop. Simply altering the exposure/fill and a bit of recovery brings the image fully back from an over exposed look. That's because it wasn't over exposed to begin with, I use the Expose to the right technique for lower noice and better data (see http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml). In fact, I have a preset that does the exposure work on import.

Images that appear using the default rendering as over exposed are not! Images that appear to be in trouble due to over exposure (up to a point, in my testing 1 ½ stops over the meter) can fully be normalized as seen above with the correct LR settings. With such adjustments, it often more effective to nail exposure, then WB.