Using Lightroom to Develop Aquarium Images

d2mini · Dec 16, 2016

Using Lightroom to Develop Aquarium Images

In my previous photo tips I've gone over equipment choices and the importance of shooting in raw. The final piece of the puzzle is the software that you use to "develop" your raw images. I prefer to use Adobe Lightroom. Unfortunately Adobe has now moved their software to the cloud in the form of a subscription based service. Although, for whatever reason, you can get the Photoshop and Lightroom bundle for "only" $10/month which may seem like a lot but it's a steal compared to their other software packages which cost 3x as much. I use Lightroom so much, even just for personal stuff, that the $10 is worth it to me. There are some other options out there. In fact, here is a link to an article that lists a few... Light Room Alternatives.

That said, what I'm about to show you is pretty basic and should be similar across all software packages. We are basically just importing the image and then making adjustments to basic things like contrast, saturation, sharpening, etc. Instead of writing it all out and trying to illustrate the process with photos, I figured it would be easier to understand if watching a video. So sit back and enjoy this little off-the-cuff tutorial that shows my typical steps for processing images of my tank. Hopefully this can help you take your images to the next level.

melypr1985 · Dec 16, 2016

Oh wow!! This was fantastic! I can't wait to see even more.... I sold my olympus camera not long ago (it was something like 17 years old, maybe more) and have been looking into a new one. I know I want to do lightroom.... it seems much easier to use for somebody like me to use. I'm so glad you made this tutorial for it. I look forward to anything else (i mean anything!) you can teach us in photography land.

dragon99 · Dec 16, 2016

Thanks for this. I'm still trying to make Nikon's ViewNX2 do what I want. I have a hard time justifying $10/month for the rest of my life, but I know Lightroom is better. I also tried RawTherapee, but it's a bit too much to learn so far.

TheEngineer · Dec 17, 2016

Nice tutorial! I'm a big fan of Lightroom too. Wish I had Photoshop to do those final touches

Do you ever do focus stacking?

One thing, you maybe already know but didn't want to use in the video, if you hit 'y' you can toggle between the original and the edited version of the file quickly.

d2mini · Dec 17, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Oh wow!! This was fantastic! I can't wait to see even more.... I sold my olympus camera not long ago (it was something like 17 years old, maybe more) and have been looking into a new one. I know I want to do lightroom.... it seems much easier to use for somebody like me to use. I'm so glad you made this tutorial for it. I look forward to anything else (i mean anything!) you can teach us in photography land.

Thanks, and you're welcome.

dragon99 said:
Thanks for this. I'm still trying to make Nikon's ViewNX2 do what I want. I have a hard time justifying $10/month for the rest of my life, but I know Lightroom is better. I also tried RawTherapee, but it's a bit too much to learn so far.

Yep, that should work too. Lots of decent and free options out there and they should all do what I showed, either exactly the same or similarly.

I just wanted to show what some basic tweaks can do your images.

TheEngineer said:
Nice tutorial! I'm a big fan of Lightroom too. Wish I had Photoshop to do those final touches Do you ever do focus stacking?

One thing, you maybe already know but didn't want to use in the video, if you hit 'y' you can toggle between the original and the edited version of the file quickly.

I have done focus stacking but I don't do it with the tank since I usually want the more shallow focus.
And yes..... the Y key... forgot about that. I don't tend to go back and forth myself so I never use it! Thanks for mentioning that.

TheEngineer · Dec 17, 2016

Do you shoot freehand? If so, do you just rapid fire a bunch of shots and hope one is in focus? I find at those high focal lengths I have a hard time getting things in focus when I'm holding the camera if I'm up close.

d2mini · Dec 17, 2016

TheEngineer said:
Do you shoot freehand? If so, do you just rapid fire a bunch of shots and hope one is in focus? I find at those high focal lengths I have a hard time getting things in focus when I'm holding the camera if I'm up close.

No tripod. I shoot hand held so I can move around quickly and follow fish around.
Shooting coral, I always take single shots.
Shooting fish, I sometimes switch to multi-shot. I move my focus point around a lot in the viewfinder and always try to get the eyes of the fish in focus.
Sometimes I might take 2o shots or more of the same fish until I get something I'm happy with. Sometimes I nail it in just a few shots.

Rory's Reef · Dec 17, 2016

This is perfect!

I just picked up a Nikon D3400 and have been having the hardest time trying to figure Lightroom out.

Thanks for the video! Now just to figure out the right settings on the camera lol.

revhtree · Dec 19, 2016

This is great stuff man!

jsker · Dec 19, 2016

Wow this is better than watching an Adobe video
Before

After

paul_britt_garcia · Dec 19, 2016

The Adobe Plan for Photography is only $9.99 / month for both Lightroom and Photoshop and can be cancelled at anytime! It is a fantastic value and I use it practically everyday!

(Awesome tutorial!)

jsker · Dec 19, 2016

paul_britt_garcia said:
The Adobe Plan for Photography is only $9.99 / month for both Lightroom and Photoshop and can be cancelled at anytime! It is a fantastic value and I use it practically everyday!

(Awesome tutorial!)

It great, Adobe got smart and made it affordable now.

d2mini · Dec 19, 2016

They've had that PS/LR deal since the beginning. I thought it was going to be a temp promo but it stuck.
If only their other software was priced that low.

Let's see some more before and after pics!

Here's one of the Jeep I just took yesterday.
Stopped real quick to take a shot, had terrible backlighting.
LR made it easy for me to lift the shadows and then add some bling.

WhiskeyCoffee · Dec 19, 2016

Good tips overall but if you don't start out with a solid camera + lens you're going to be disappointed. I bet the camera you used to take the example pic was $900+...

You can only "doctor up" a cell phone pic so much...

Futuretotm · Dec 20, 2016

Nice!
Needs to be a sticky!

d2mini · Dec 20, 2016

WhiskeyCoffee said:
Good tips overall but if you don't start out with a solid camera + lens you're going to be disappointed. I bet the camera you used to take the example pic was $900+...

You can only "doctor up" a cell phone pic so much...

Correct. We're not talking about cell phones here since cell phones don't shoot raw. See the first sentence in my initial post above.
LR is a raw processing software. Your cell phone, or any camera that shoots jpg, has already processed the photo in-camera, applying all the settings for you.
JPG doesn't have much room left for adjustment being that has been highly compressed with much of the pixel information already destroyed.
You can get a nice nikon or canon DSLR for around $450 new, cheaper if you buy used.

samparker · Dec 20, 2016

Sensational, finally a Lightroom tutorial that was reef related. Appreciate the time and effort you took to put that together. Will be switching to RAW and stepping up my photo game!

WhiskeyCoffee · Dec 20, 2016

d2mini said:
Correct. We're not talking about cell phones here since cell phones don't shoot raw. See the first sentence in my initial post above.
LR is a raw processing software. Your cell phone, or any camera that shoots jpg, has already processed the photo in-camera, applying all the settings for you.
JPG doesn't have much room left for adjustment being that has been highly compressed with much of the pixel information already destroyed.
You can get a nice nikon or canon DSLR for around $450 new, cheaper if you buy used.

Incorrect, iPhone can shoot RAW.

Source: http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-shoot-raw-photos-on-ios-10-iphone-and-ipad/

TheEngineer · Dec 20, 2016

WhiskeyCoffee said:
Incorrect, iPhone can shoot RAW.

Source: http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-shoot-raw-photos-on-ios-10-iphone-and-ipad/

To be fair, you need a separate app to do so. The native camera app won't take raw images.

d2mini · Dec 20, 2016

WhiskeyCoffee said:
Incorrect, iPhone can shoot RAW.

Source: http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-shoot-raw-photos-on-ios-10-iphone-and-ipad/

LOL, ok if you want to go download the third party app to take advantage of that, give it a shot. The video will then apply.
Like you said though, you may still be a little disappointed with the quality since the phone has such a tiny sensor.
Doesn't mean you can't play though!

As to your original post... the video and most of what I talk about doesn't apply to cell phone or point and shoot users.
I go over that quite a bit. For anyone looking to get the most out of photography I always recommend learning how to use a real camera with manual controls.