My photography loves Adobe Lightroom
I’m a self proclaimed n00b when it comes to not only photography, but also to the awesomeness of Adobe’s Lightroom software.The above image is a great example of how Lightroom can combine the picture that your camera captured with the image that you saw in your mind. I took this picture of a large elephant ear plant at the Memphis Zoo and Lightroom, with the help of a preset, turned this otherwise too contrast-y image into an image that I’d hang on my wall.
This image was taken in the middle of the day, in full afternoon sun, and is chock full of deep shadows and bright highlights. With a little tweaking of the tonal curve and a “300” inspired preset I was able to really bring out the texture, lines and the feel of this plant that captured my attention in the first place. Without the software, this image probably would have been relegated to one of my many folders full of so-so images.
David DuChemin coined the phrase, “Gear is good, vision is better” and to me, Lightroom bridges the gap between the two. It’s not exactly gear but it’s not exactly vision. However, it does help take what my gear captured and turn it into what I envisioned in the first place.
The more I learn about Lightroom the more I’m able to quickly process a scene in front of me and know if I can achieve my desired result with the tools at hand. Yet, I try not to let Lightroom become a crutch for shoddy photography; For as much good as Lightroom can do to an image, it can’t make a crappy picture into a Pulitzer prize winner. No matter what, Garbage In = Garbage Out.
