Pro vs Beginner Lightroom Editing! (everyone should try this)
VloĆŸit
- Äas pĆidĂĄn 15. 11. 2022
- Go to squarespace.com/markdenney to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
đGet My FREE 30 Minute Lightroom Essentials Courseđ
markdenneyphotography.com/fre...
In this weekâs episode, we discuss the differences between pro and beginner photo editing in Lightroom. If you happen to be in a rut with your photography, unhappy with your rate of improvement, I'd highly recommend going through this exercise. It's difficult to see how much we've progressed when all you see is where you're currently at with your photography. And, in this video, I re-edit one of my favorite landscape photos from when I was a beginner and compare the results at the end in order to determine how far I've come with my own photo editing skill set. I hope you enjoyed this week's video and as always thanks so much for watching! - Mark D.
đ2022 & 2023 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
đgeni.us/markdenneyworkshops
RECOMMENDED GEAR PAGE
đgeni.us/myfavoritegear
đž MY CAMERAS & LENSES
đBig Camera: geni.us/B0sKNO
đVideo Camera: geni.us/x-t4
đPoint & Shoot: bhpho.to/3wWKri9
đAction Cam: geni.us/oRhupMT
đDJI Mavic 3: geni.us/nKRMkt
đFujifilm 23mm: geni.us/23mmprime
đFujifilm 32-64mm: geni.us/midrangelens
đFujifilm 100-200mm: geni.us/longishlens
đWide Lens: geni.us/fuji10-24
đSuper Long Lens: geni.us/longtelephoto
𧰠MY FILTERS & ACCESSORIES
đBest Filter Kit: geni.us/filterkit
đBlack Mist Filters: geni.us/blackmist
đTop Camera Bag: geni.us/favoritecamerabag
đFavorite Tripod: geni.us/rrstripod
đ2nd Tripod: geni.us/fotopro
đTop Ballhead: geni.us/aspenballhead
đFull Photo Kit: geni.us/photokit
đș WATCH THESE PLAYLISTS NEXT
đComposition Tips: geni.us/composition
đBeginners Guide: geni.us/BeginnersGuide
đEditing Tutorials: geni.us/Editing
đTips & Tricks: geni.us/TipsandTricksâ
As an affiliate marketer & Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small commission on the above links if you decide to purchase the item at no additional charge to you.
#landscapephotographyââ #lightroom
*LETS CONNECT*
Newsletter: markdenneyphotography.com/join
Instagram: / markdenneyphoto
Facebook: / markdenneyphoto
Twitter: / markdenneyphoto
TikTok: / markdenneyphoto
đQUICK QUESTION: Are you a Lightroom user?
yes, not very good though
@@liamditchburn Well we all start out that way:)
Yep
@@gregorboyd đ
Yes Mark , every day pretty much , improving all the time I hope ! Help from your good self and some others on CZcams have greatly accelerated my learning . Many thanks đ
I found this video extremely educational. I loved how you showed us your step-by-step process and why you make certain edits. It was VERY eye opening! Great job!
Fantastic video Mark! It has been a while since you've done one of these types of videos. I really liked it. It's amazing to see your progress. Keep it up man! I learned several things in this video. I love how you retouched it the 2nd time.
I'm about 2.5 years into photography and I did this exercise sometime last year and I was blown away with the difference with some of the photos I used. More local adjustments has been the biggest game changer for myself. Love your videos and they have been a huge help! Thanks Mark!
Thanks for let us know about this idea and a big well done for this great video
This is a great way to see where you are going not only with editing but also photography. Part of the changes we see in our editing process can also be related to current trends and editing program capabilities.
Wow! That's a huge difference! I've only started to play with local changes here and there but I'm beginning to find that they have become more and more essential as I get into trying to do more realistic and artistic editing. This was incredibly informative as I don't really know how to intersect masks and I have never seen anybody actually do a workflow like this. Very very interesting, and I intend to try this myself the next time that I can sit down to edit! And yes, I use Lightroom almost exclusively. So Lightroom tutorials are very important!
I love this idea! I did learn a couple of things watching you edit, I never thought to do all my local edits first. I will try this approach and see how it goes. Thanks for the great tips Mark!
Excellent video Mark and what a great comparison. There is always so much to learn and thanks for sharing.
Love this video-one of my favorites so far! Keep up the awesome work!
Fantastic tips, thanks Mark.
Great exercise Mark. Always good to learn from our past mistakes and gauge our growth over time! Thanks.
It's always fun to go back and re-read edit old photos after you've learned new techniques or after the software has been updated to make editing better.
I just wanted to say thank you for all your informative videos. I appreciate all your effort. You have helped me tremendously over the years with my editing as well as composition. I always liked photography but I didn't fully commit to learning the craft until 4 years ago. It was intimidating until I found people like yourself on youtube willing to help the new guy along. I've spent the last several hours going through old edits from years ago when I didn't even know what it meant to do a local adjustment. WOW! You have sent me down a rabbit hole I my never climb out of LOL. Thanks Mark, keep up the great work!
Wow! Your edit is simply amazing! Loved to watch this and listen to your thinking as you decide on each choice. Thanks for sharing your process! And, yep, I'm a Lightroom user.
Such a good reminder, and dandy little LR tutorial. Thanks.
Excellent video. Thank you.
Thanks for this, very useful
Thanks for this Mark :) I have not had the motivation to do any photography for the past 3 months due to chronic back pain, which has led into depression. Just watching this video has motivated me to charge my batteries and I shall be going tomorrow. I find you to be the one photographer that I can actually sit and watch without skipping to parts, full of knowledge and charisma and a joy to watch. Thank you again :) I'm off to watch your other tutorials now.
Chronic back pain sucks! It is inspiring to read that you are fighting back and picking up your camera again. Hope you had a good shoot.
Awesome idea!
Mark, your videos inspire me each week. I almost *always* like the result better when I rework old images!
Love this thanks
Thank you, great content. Just started to use the mask tool more intensive and this helped a lot.
you were right your edits now are way better all down to your experience over time and how much you have improved over the years Super video Mark. Thank you
I'm really glad I found your channel!!
Excellent. Really learned a lot,
This is a fabulous lesson, Mark. I have committed all of those post-processing sins in the not so distant past. You have given me the tools to look again and improve my masking techniques. Heartfelt thanks!
Another really interesting and useful video Mark. Thanks!
Brilliant work indeed đ
This tutorial is fantastic. Thank you
You explain the process with clarity and I can actually follow and understand. I saved this for reference. Thank you for sharing.
Yes I use Lightroom but a self taught through the helpful instruction of users like you. Your input has been most extremely helpful!đ
What an amazing difference. I can't wait to try this on a few of my old pictures, I have just the shot in mind! Thanks for another great video!
Thanks for checking it out Frank!
Great suggestion to go back to an old photo for editing comparison. And super editing tips, very clear explanation!
Final comparison was just wow!
Wow, I love this. Comparing yourself to your old self. Itâs also inspired me to change my photo editing methods to more local edits. Iâve never done much local edits unless I had a specific reason for it. This is great Mark!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Same!!
why English is around being old?
basically you compare yourself to young self, not to 'old' self )
Thanks Mark for a great video. I have used local adjustment quite a bit but after global adjustments. Iâm going to try your approach on some older photos. One thing I have noticed is that I use much less sharpening and saturation than I used to....I guess everyone overdoes those in the beginning.
Amazing video Mark, thank you.
Glad you think so David!
Hi Mark, I watched your latest video this morning and I felt that I'd had a similar issue with masking on a few occasions. I just used the Intersect Mask with Luminance Range technique and I was impressed with the results - I'll definitely use that again! Thanks for the great video.
Obviously everyone edits in different ways but it's also fascinating to see how one's approach may change over the years. Thank you for neatly highlighting so many features in Lightroom.
Holy moly, that's a huge difference! Great video!
Great to hear you enjoyed it!
this was really helpful for me sir
Greta idea for a good exercise... I will try this tomorrow and I will let you know how it goes.
Yes Iâve been a long time LR user. Still is my go to. Love the new version with the masking and content aware improvements!
Thanks Mark, great suggestion of checking where you are on the editing timeline.
Great one
đšđŠ/đșđž... Hey there Mark. I am a VERY LONG TIME photographer. I had a full-colour darkroom back in the film days. Over the years I have come to realize that... the subtley realistic AND the overt contrasty, super-saturated, with obvious "local tone mapping" applied are BOTH "valid". If you go to a street art fair, like in Ann Arbor, MI, you will see people CROWDING around the GAUDY booths and fewer around the realistic, subtle, large-format camera booths. I used to think, those people DON'T have a clue about what is good. NOPE, just a different sense. EXCELLENT TUTORIAL though, bro! CHEERS!!! đ
Excellent video. Less is more for sure! I loved the luminance tip dodging with colour too.
Great information
That luminance range tip is incredible. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
I think you can see what kind of content we (your public) are seeking for. Great upload!
A very good advise to revisit for insight of photos of previous years. Appreciate Mark for wonderful thought provoking tutorial. Thanks. đ
Thanks so much!
negative clarity with positive texture is ALWAYS the way to go. I usually do a x2 - clarity to x1 + texture. So if I -20 clarity, i'll do a +10 texture. It just really helps soft the image without losing your sharpness and texture, so beautiful!
Wow wow wow. What a difference! I loved watching how you did this new edit. Again, I always learn so much during these exercises. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks so much Andrea!
@@MarkDenneyPhoto yeah, I think I'm a little heavy handed with increasing details and must learn restraint. It doesn't help that I'm using a smartphone, so I don't have that crispness and clarity that your camera puts out. Your editing examples are always so helpful for me.
Thank you Mark. Your tutorial opened my eyes how to edit like pro
I usually start in Lightroom, often go to Photoshop and then finish in Lightroom. Your videos have been a great help in demonstrating the capabilities of the Lightroom and Photoshop tools. One question though: would you always do targetted adjustments before global adjustments? Thanks for another thoughtful video, Mark.
first 5 minutes i'm learning stuff i had no idea about, thanks man. I realise lightroom got a massive upgrade this year...tbh i've been super lazy about bothering to learn the new tricks. New stuff looks well worth delving into though!
Nice progression đ
Great vid!
Just beside the improved own skills the LR editing capabilities really boosted the last years.
great job sir
Thanks!
Lightroom has come a long way during that time as well. I have photos on Flickr from 2010 through now and I also look back and see how I have changed over the years. One thing about the photo that I would have done is to add some warmth to the swing and the tree to emulate the setting sunlight.
This made me subscribe. So many edit for social media with trendy styles and colors that at the end thatâs what the original edit feels like. I really value the tips you introduced here, have never heard of or seen anyone mention it. Was blown away that you were able to get all the detail of that tree and truly storage it. Sure itâs built in to the software, but itâs those things one picks up with many years of use. Hope to continue to indulge in your content and apply what you show!
The final edit feels more editorial, not true to life which I try not to go too crazy with my edits but have also fallen to noob tendencies (cough) -100 holts & 100 shadowsđ
Fantastic video Mark. I learned several techniques plus I really enjoyed seeing how you applied some of the radial filters. Please donât hesitate showing earlier work and how you would do it now.
Thanks a million Chuck!
This is very good and somewhat obvious advice :) I look at my instagram posts and the older photos remind me to edit them again because like you said all of them are high on contrast clarity texture and saturation :))
But the thing is, I haven't got time to re-edit my old photos even if I want to do so. Nevertheless, I can imagine it's a very fruitful and satisfactory exercise when we see the old and new end product side by side. Thanks Mark!
That tip for masking the tree was a big help! I have a lot of photos like that.
One issue I saw with the complimentary pair of luminance masks is that the border between them ends up looking strange - you can see this in the trees on the horizon when zooming in at 09:55. Just something to keep an eye on - I really liked the techniques shown here otherwise!
That's precisely the reason why nobody uses luminance masks anymore to tackle such high contrast scenes since LR got it's powerful blacks/shadows/hightlights/whites sliders.
Nice work, will try on Affinity I use
Excellent idea to intersect an overall mask with a luminance mask to pick out a subject from a sky. Thanks for that tip.
Starting to be one. I've just recently moved up from the iphone camera. This video is transformative for me. What you did with the hillocks was awesome! I've never considered using more than 2 or 3 masks.
Not been playing with lightroom long, few months, but so far I've found subtle is best.
Chalk and Cheese. Itâs a great suggestion to grade yourself. Thanks Mark. Another excellent video.
Love this đđœ
HonestlyâŠ.kind of afraid to go back and look at some of my older photo work :). Great video. You and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Thanks Mickey! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Great video Mark. I actually liked your original photo too, although, as you said, it is a bit "strong" in places. I'd be tempted to take both images into PS as layers and play around with the opacity and blend modes to see how a mix of the two images might look ! Thanks again.
Wowâ€â€
brilliant video. What version of Lightroom are you using...? thanks
useful 18mins of adobe Lightroom related content.
Cool technique; thanks for the tip, Mark! Were you using your old Sony at this time? Have you ever done any Sony/Fuji image compares using roughly the same subject?
Yes
Wonderful video. I am getting back in after a few years and one thing I struggle with now is sharpness, clarity and grain. I take more "landscape" photos and wildlife, vague question, is it better to + or - sharpness or clarity to get a cripser smooth matte like photo rather than up the sharpness if that makes sense?
This. This is what I want to see more of. I know how to use a radial filter, linear gradient, etc. I also know how to put paint on a paintbrush and put paint to canvas. That doesn't mean I can paint the Mona Lisa. I want to see more about the creative choices you make when editing your photos. It's that creativity that separates the wheat from the chaff.
When you said turn the highlights down and crank the shadows up, I laughed đ I thought we were having a 1 on 1 consultation đ
Thanks for the video. Did you use the software as it was 8 years ago or the current version.? Thatâs important I think.
Nice cassette player!
I was the same as you. At first I would use too much texture, contrast, clarity and saturation. But overtime I looked at some of my older photos and I cringed. I went back and tinkered and tweaked the same images and I started using more tools like radial and linear gradients. The difference is night and day
omg, is that a sport walkman? I LOVED mine!
Great for masking the tree. Been there and struggled.
I don't know what you did at the beginning to be able to better select the tree, but I have a feeling I need to know. It looked pretty mind blowing.
Mark, great video. Do you happen to know how to do these masks with LR cc for iOS? I only have an iPad Pro, and suspect it can be done, but wondered if you had tried it on iOS.
Some difference alright, looks a lot better. I have done in the past, looking back on old photos and hate the editing on them đ I need to do it more often
Thanks Trevor!
When I say my jaw droppedâŠâŠ I mean I was like YOOOO!!!! He got everything captured in that mask without a manual brush!!!! đđđ
Awesome content. Do you think you would have shot it differently? If so, I'd love to learn what you would change. Newer cameras dynamic range notwithstanding...
I don't use Lr but I do use Adobe Camera Raw, same difference. However, that's just to get started. I do the fine details in Ps. I find that I have great control over subtle edits. To each his/her own. By the way, I've been asked to do a presentation for a local park department on Nature Photography. I went back through my images to make selections. I didn't feel comfortable sharing any of my images that were more than two years old.
Thanks for that, Mark. It opened my eyes to the potential of using 'masks' in Lightroom; I have much to learn.
Mike in Oz
Your Squarespace ad at the beginning looks familiar :) It's a popular place in the Polish Tatra mountains :)
You did a very nice job on what you did however itâs now not a photograph itâs an art piece with the assistance of light room which you demonstrated exceedingly well!
Hello Mark, as a Fujifilm user who just started editing in lightroom, is there anything that can be done to change the way lightroom processes .raf files? I have seen there is some sort of success with the lightroom enhance details feature, but sometimes, I do get worms / softer images than what I see in capture one express. What do you personally do to prevent this?
Very helpful!!!
A nice photo from IL....it didnt quite capture our top 2 things in IL life.....corn and taxes! Haha
One day I'll escape.....
"Don't judge" Photo wasn't bad my man. I'm getting back into photography after years of not shooting and i started around the same time as you.
Old LR was a different beast as i usually turned highlights all down and shadows all up (this was actually recommended to me by a pro doing photo tutorials). However when i did that on my first edit with new LR, i was horrified at the result.
Thanks for the video as i plan on re editing a few old images once i get more comfortable with new LR.