With Lightroom 1.4.1 and working with a RAW shot (then imported as DNG), you can solve many little technical issues. First of all select the photo and switch to DEVELOP using the top menu.

White balance

To do it really fast, select the white balance tool or press W on your keyboard and click on a white tone or half tone (like a medium grey) on the image. It’s important not to select an overburn white, like the sun, a direct light or a reflex on the water. In this example I choose an area on the shirt of the girl on the left. We can, of course, make as many selection as we want until we are satisfied with the result. Next, fixt the tone, using the sliders named TEMP and TINT.

Improve the contrast

Instead of using BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST that are really aproximative, let’s use FILL LIGHT and BLACK, right under the exposure slider. These values help us to get a better shadow and light over the image, increasing light and dark areas where these are most present. Just try and see by yourself. I don’t like to use BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST because the result is an all over image average modification, instead of a more accurate increase/decrease ammount of light in most exposed/underexposed areas. Let’s go on and make some little adjustments to curves too. Let’s lower gently the lower part, and increase gently the highest part of the curve. It’s easyer to do than to explain… The result will be a more sinus like line.

Please don’t forget to work with your eyes, as you act over the values, pay attention to the changes, WATCH THE PHOTO!

More rich colours

To push our photo out of the screen, let’s increase colours using the values under PRESENCE: CLARITY, VIBRANCE and SATURATION. CLARITY offers a better contrast on the edges and lines, VIBRANCE gains the load of colour for each single channel and SATURATION increases the average color density. Use them carefully or you’ll get an unreal effect.

Cut to make it interesting

We need to cut the image, it will be more interesting. To do it just select the cut tool on the lower left. Let’s try to keep the right proportion between the horizontal and vertical dimensions. Of course, do not consider this if you need to make a vertical cut, for example.

Decrease noise

We are trying to make a not perfect shot, a good one. One of the must steps is to reduce the noise or grain effect that we can find with high ISO shots or wrong exposure. There is a very powerful command in Lightroom that, unfortunately also have a big limit. When we apply it, it’s applied to the entire image, not only on the portion of the photo that we would like to heal. First of all let’s zoom on the image then, acting on the NOISE REDUCTION, start to modify the value. In this situation too is better to move slowly and don’t get too much… The relut could be a blured image. Here you can see the two moment, before and after. As you can see the improvment is great.

Let’s emphasize…

Ok, almost done. Let’s try to catch the attention of the audience a little more on our subjects. To do it we use the tool called: LENS VIGNETTING. Using the two sliders, AMOUNT and MIDPOINT, we can insert light or dark areas on the corners of our image. With MIDPOINT we decide how much, with AMOUNT we choose if the zones are light or dark. In this example I choosed to have darker sides and I calibrated the MIDPOINT with attention, I don’t want a fast change of light on the image.

TIP: when you don’t know the effect of a value, slider or parameter, I suggest you to try it pushing it to maximum and minimum, watching the image changing.

Using LENS VIGNETTING, check out how the photo change, from one value to another. This will teach you the usage better that any explanation

You can download a 30 days trial of Adobe Lightroom from HERE.