Thread: Processing question

So I'm working on a new set (family/maternity) and these were taken closer to sunset. This is the first time I used Lightroom instead of ACR, so I'm hoping that I got the colors all good.

But I don't know if I want to process them all the same or vary them. Here's an example that I hope to get some thoughts on.

Here's my SOOC adjusted for WB in LR




And then here's one with an action I used on it ... I'm leaning towards this one, but I thought I'd ask for additional eyes on it.



For the record, they want more lifestyle so a lot of the pictures are less posed. I had a lot of fun with this family (however, it would have been nice if the kids had eaten first, because towards the end they weren't happy)

I prefer the second one, it is less "red", but seems to have blown some of your whites. Can you run the action on a duplicate layer, rasterize them and then erase back the whites?

Yeah, it's hard with all of that white going on. I don't know if I can easily mask out all of the white. I have a lot to edit ... I think that I'll only do that with the ones she orders.

here's my first favorite of the set:



and a quick attempt to mask out only the areas on the verge of being blown by the action (was much simpler than I thought!)

I like the second one too.

I am seeing a lot of contrast on them either that it's overly sharpened. May I see the SOOC?

Gwen, I know you didn't ask about this, but I'm not sure I'd work too hard on this particular image. I love lifestyle, but this one doesn't work for me. There are two very important faces missing in this image. I'm also not thrilled about the light here...harsh shadows and squinty eyes.

I prefer the original color too...except for Mom, she looks better with a tiny bit less red.

I prefer the 1st image colour wise as the second one seems to have made the hot spots worse and blown the whites.

Originally Posted by AmberBella

Gwen, I know you didn't ask about this, but I'm not sure I'd work too hard on this particular image. I love lifestyle, but this one doesn't work for me. There are two very important faces missing in this image. I'm also not thrilled about the light here...harsh shadows and squinty eyes.

I prefer the original color too...except for Mom, she looks better with a tiny bit less red.

no, that's totally cool that you said that. it was only the first that I was working on, as you can see I posted another one after that. and I get that about the shadows. this was very early in the session and we moved from that direct light after that.

Originally Posted by EL2

I am seeing a lot of contrast on them either that it's overly sharpened. May I see the SOOC?

the first one is SOOC but sharpened for web. here's resized but unsharpened (of the second image posted, as that's the one I'm focusing on). I haven't edited anything (in the others, I took out the yellow sign in the background)

oh, and the mom is that red in all of them ... her skintone is so different than the rest of the family. I'm not sure how to handle that in my PPing, but I want to be true to all of their coloring.

If you really love the last one you posted, I think I would go with a sunshine-vintage type PP to lessen the shadows and bright whites.

I'd love to see more from the session.