White Rose

[edG]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/4792971828_42889fc3f3_b.jpg

downloaded a new preset called a Holga Dark Spot and tried it out on this image of a white rose taken a few days ago

[Bambi]

beautiful Ed. I love how do you process these roses. Care to share your technique? :fingerscr

[edG]

Thanks Bambi and yes I will try to outline my way of working through an image from raw to finished jpeg - hopefully later tonight as I am on my way to work in a few minutes.

[JAS_Photo]

Pretty image, Ed! Love the colours here.

[edG]

Here are the basic steps I use to process an image:

1) shoot only in raw/nef

2) convert raw files to uncompressed TIF using Nikon's ViewNX to a folder for that day - no image manipulaton. Save raw/nef files to separate folder. Delete any files that are poor quality, composition at this time.

3) Import TIF file(s) into Lightroom 3

4) Pick an image to work on and run mouse slowly over presets and watch effect in navigator window - when I see something I like I bring it into the main workspace. If nothing catches my eye using a preset the process/flow still remains the same

5) In the develop section the first area I address is Tone, beginning with the Black slider (usually bump this 5 to 10). Then I will move the recovery slider about double the black move. I might add a little fill light.

6) Next I adjust the Clarity slider in Presence section - usually 15 -35, then Vibrance- usually drop it to -3 and the finally Saturation - usually drop this anywhere from -5 to -65 (depending on what I am seeing).

7) Then I adjust Tone Curve - usually begin with Shadow (drop a few points), then darks (down a bit), then Light (can go either way) and finally Highlights (again can go either way).

8) I normally do not touch the HSL/Luminance/Saturation slider - unless a preset has done it already.

9) Can't recall ever using the split tone sliders, Sharpening or noise reduction

10) Usually drop the Post Crop Vignette slider -5 to -25 depending on what looks good to my eye.

11) Rarely fool with exposure or colour temperature.

12) Export as an uncompressed TIF, import into Photoshop to resize and output as JPEG for uploading to the net.

That in a nutshell is my basic workflow from camera to post.