How to Fix Flat, Lifeless Nature & Wildlife Photos in Lightroom (VIDEO)

We have all stumble upon a wonderful scene solely to uncover that our pictures look flat and lifeless. Generally that is as a result of the sunshine wasn’t fairly proper, whereas different occasions the wrongdoer was operator failure, i.e. we used the improper camera settings or methods.

Regardless of the cause for disappointing outcomes, there is a simple technique for dramatically bettering uninspiring pictures in Lightroom by utilizing the three professional methods that you’re going to study in the tutorial beneath. By following this recommendation you will be extra inclined to rescue bland pictures than dump them in the trash.

Simon d’Entremont is a professional wildlife photographer based mostly in Nova Scotia, and he is one in every of Shutterbug’s hottest instructors. On this episode he demonstrates his three favourite Lightroom instruments for turning boring pictures into those who actually command consideration.

Simon says that, “even in the event you do not use Lightroom, these tips are relevant to any processing software program,” though the controls could also be barely totally different. He additionally explains that you would be able to make use of his recommendation in in varied methods. You may take a refined strategy for a pure look or go additional to create inventive pictures with further vibrance.

His first trick has to do with changes to the path of sunshine. What he means by that is to add an impact that signifies the path from which the sunshine originated, after which enhancing it for further influence. As you will see, this system gives a 3-D impact and works significantly properly for pictures shot with a protracted telephoto lens that eliminates a lot of the world surrounding your topic.

Simon’s second tip has to do with the inventive use of White Steadiness to considerably improve photographs which can be attention-grabbing however quite lifeless. Right here he treats totally different parts of a scene selectively with Lightroom’s Temperature slider quite than by making world changes to your entire picture.

He makes use of a photograph of a surfer to reveal how this works. On this case there is a good orange sky in the background, however the foreground with the surfer and waves are actually boring and devoid of shade as a result of they’re in the shade. Therefore, he warms the sky, and provides cool tones to the foreground whereas pumping up element.

Simon’s third tip employs what he calls a “sandwich method.” This entails darkening the highest and backside of a picture to create extra distinction and focus the viewer’s consideration on the topic in the center. The best approach to do that is by including gradients to the highest and backside of the picture and dropping publicity in each areas.

After watching this video head over to d’Entremont’s instructional YouTube channel the place there’s way more to study.

We additionally recommend testing a tutorial we posted earlier, explaining one of the simplest ways to create and refine masks in Lightroom by including or subtracting objects.