LIGHTROOM
Sean McCormack shows how to combine these controls to great effect in Lightroom Classic
BEFORE
AFTER
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Lightroom Classic CC’s Basic panel sliders work well in pairs, and their interaction can lead to some interesting effects. The often-used -100 Highlights and +100 Shadows give a faux HDR look, while blacks and whites can set the contrast.
Each of those interact with exposure, and the combination of those can have different looks to what you’d expect.
These can be used for cityscapes, night scenes and rainy photos, but here we’re thinking about portraits. Let’s take advantage of these edits in making a male portrait look really moody. Here’s a single light portrait shot in an underground car park, using a flashgun in a 16in softbox, so it’s as basic as it gets with lighting.
Clean-up work has been done to heal spots, so this is only about the look. To create the mood, go to the Basic panel in Develop and start by combining a high blacks level with reduced exposure. This darkens everything. Adding highlights and whites brings back the face. To finish the look, you can fade the appearance of the shadows and add colour using the Point Curve.
STEP BY STEP SET THE TONE FOR DRAMATIC PORTRAITS
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