Lightroom Transformations

Book excerpt: Photographer and digital imaging expert Martin Evening's guiding philosophy when editing images is to ask, “What is the point? Does what I am doing enhance the picture, or is it just artifice for artifice’s sake?” In Lightroom Transformations, Martin applies this approach to a broad collection of images, showing you how to turn ordinary-looking photos into hero shots—without using fancy montage techniques or wacky effects. By giving each image his own interpretation and explaining the rationale behind the choices he makes, he shows how you can do the same when processing your photos. Focusing primarily on techniques using Lightroom and Camera Raw—but also with Photoshop—Martin demonstrates how to manipulate the tones and composition of images to create photographs that correspond to your personal photographic vision. Filled with before-and-after shots with detailed explanations of how to go from an ordinary image to an extraordinary one, the book illustrates what you can achieve using Lightroom or Photoshop as a creative tool to enhance the natural beauty that lies within your images. Helps you pre-visualize the end result you would like for your photos, and provides easy-to-follow steps for simple edits to polish almost any image Includes tips on shooting technique to improve your images in-camera Demonstrates how to recompose existing shots to illustrate how a photograph could have been shot and composed better Includes short videos that demonstrate some of the techniques discussed in the book