Editing a Cozy Photo in Lightroom Classic

I get a lot of questions about editing. How to skip it or do it more quickly to be exact. 

I’m not sure if this is you, but so many people want to eliminate this part of the solo styling-photographer workflow. 

You can, will, and should capture photos that need little to no editing, but I have to be honest with you. In my own creative work sometimes I take a photo knowing that I will need to edit it to make it what I envision. 

One of the CreatingYOU.® December Styling and Photography Prompts is Cozy and when I came up with that I had creating this photo in mind. 

It’s a photo of myself that I set up in my living room at 3:00 pm. 

The set looked like this: 

I knew I’d have to edit it to get the mood I wanted. But it began by getting the set up right, then the lens. I tried by 24-105mm and my 100mm macro, but my 50mm ended up giving me the result I had in my head. 

The mug is filled with a false bottom of paper towels covered by plastic wrap. I took a photo of that first, then turned on the fire. Once everything as right, I added the whipped cream and candy. 

I took a lot of photos moving my feet, sitting up and back. Once I uploaded them into Lightroom, I decided I liked the portrait orientation and I settled on this one. 

This is what I was looking for:

• Both my feet in the frame.

• The flame in the fireplace flaring up high so it looked like a flame.

• Edges that I could manually darken for a moody, nighttime look.

But, remember, this is the final photo. This is how I wanted the photo to look ➡️

So I had some work to do. Given that our fireplace is in a big open room it would take a load of work to block the light and I also wanted to highlight the hot chocolate. It’s much easier, and remains a better photo technically, to darken the background versus shooting the photo in a darker environment. 

These are the steps I took in my preferred editing platform, Lightroom Classic.

• Crop the photo.

• Exposure +.45

• Contrast +35

• Texture +17

• Clarity +12

• Dehaze +11

• Shadows +23

• Highlights -20

• Blacks -53

• Brush Mask over the white on the edges - decreased exposure and blacks

Here’s a short video that shows you how the image changed:

I realize that editing isn’t everyone’s favorite thing, but I hope this example shows you how it can become a more fun part of your workflow when it allows you to create what you envision.

Should I Use Photography Presets?

I often get asked if new photographers should use Presets? Or I’m asked if I use Presets? 

No time to read? Click the play button below to listen!

I’m not a fan of using presets and I don’t use presets from others on my photos.

And if you ask me if you should, I will tell you no as well. 

This is all a very personal decision. I know and admire many photographers use and sell presets. 

All I can offer is my reason for not using them. Actually there are two reasons. 

Let me back-up, though, in case you are unfamiliar with the term. You might be wondering - what is a photography preset?

When editing an image in a tool such as LightRoom you can change or enhance many characteristics of the photo to help it better reflect what you see as you snap the image. Brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness. 

Once you make all these changes to one photo, you can save these changes as a preset. Then you can take that preset and apply these edits all the other images in your set. 

This is actually how I do use presets - I use those that I create myself.

So if I have a shoot of a pasta dish for a client and I have 10 images of different orientations and angles. I can edit one and then apply those same edits (since my lighting and environment was the same for all) to all the 10 images. It saves time and creates a consistent look. 

But a Preset is also something you can buy from other photographers who have created them. Then you upload them to Lightroom and apply them to your own photos. 

This is where my personal big NO comes in. 

Okay, the reasons. 

1. One, I am a big advocate of creating images that are signature to you and your style. Even if you don’t feel like you have a style yet, you will get there. Trust me. I did not think I had a style. At all. And now people tell me they know exactly which photos are mine. It can happen naturally. Do not let it stress you out (like it did me for so long!).

   When you buy another person’s Presets and apply them to your own photos you rob yourself of the opportunity of being your own artist with your own unique likes and dislikes in terms of saturation, brightness, and all the things that make your photos YOUR photos. 
   
   
   

2. Two, you miss the opportunity to learn basic editing skills that will help you grow as a photographer. You don’t have to be a full blown photo editor, but knowing the little tweaks to make to improve an image and improve it in a way that makes you like it more is invaluable. It builds your confidence and it’s something you can take back to your photo shoots. For example, if you are always brightening a photo in editing, you learn how to brighten your set or use your camera settings to do so. It translates to time saved in editing overall. 

I don’t think using Presets makes anyone less of a photographer. I just believe there are skills you don’t learn when you rely on them. Skills that will make you better at the craft over time.

If you use them for speed and ease of editing, try creating some yourself that reflect your style. Really play with all those buttons in LightRoom and see what they do. To this day (after 10 years at this) there are still things I discover in LightRoom from YouTube videos and instructional courses. You don’t have to be an expert. Just experiment. 

When you create your own presets, it can accomplish the speed you seek and create images signature to you, but you also become educated in necessary photo editing skills. A big win-win.

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