For tonight’s master class, he used a number of images he’d captured that, due to the prevailing conditions at the time was unable to set exposure, white balance etc. to his satisfaction.
Has these images been taken saved as Jpeg files, they would have been consigned to the Recycle Bin, however, as they were saved in camera as RAW files, much more information was contained in the files to allow the image to be rescued.
John used 4 images to demonstrate his techniques, a photograph of Hadrian’s wall shot straight into a partially obscured sun, a twilight image of St Mary’s Lighthouse with a bright colourful sky but a rocky foreground in shadow, a hand held image of one of the Farne Isles taken from a moving boat and finally a Snowdonian puddle (or as we call it, a lake) taken during a brief lull between heavy rain showers (see image below).
He explained the use of the basic tools that are available to adjust white balance, exposure, contrast, temperature etc, demonstrating the effect their use can have on the image.
On each image, he detailed the tools available to process it and demonstrated a number of different ways the practitioner can use to produce a similar result according to his or her personal preference be it the adjustment brush, graduating filter, the elliptical tool etc.
John reminded everyone that the rule that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear still applies, however with a little thought and patience, it is possible use Lightroom to give a little tender loving care to an "under the weather" photograph and restore it to health.
Sadly once again, the clock was against us, and although John was able to touch on his intended subject of monochrome, it was decided that this area would be revisited on another occasion.