Muting the lights with LR

[Seriche]

On a rare trip into Town I went into a church (circa 11th C with bits added over the years) and fell in love with an old door that was rather quirky. The trouble was that the sun was shining on it through a huge stained glass window behind me, and I couldn't catch the beautiful oaken sheen because of the reflected white light.

In the end, I didn't manage to make a good photo of it anyway, but would like to know if there's any way I can use LR to get rid of more of the reflections if I take a better photo another time, or is it just a case of returning to the church when the natural light is more sympathetic?

I played around with the LR sliders for ages, but couldn't dim the lights without spoiling some other part of the photo. I'd be very grateful for any advice, as I like old wooden subjects very much, and would like to be able to capture them at their best.

Seri



Canon 450D, 18-55 kit lens, hand held (exif intact).

[Mick]

Hey Seri

I gave it a go.



There's the central part of the reflection, I can't get rid of.

You will have to go back again, at a different time of day, or when the Sun is obscured by clouds. Like it is in E. Yorks

[Seriche]

Hey Seri

I gave it a go.



There's the central part of the reflection, I can't get rid of.

Thanks, Mick, that looks a lot better. Did you do it all in LR? How did you do it? I like what you've done to the arch too

You will have to go back again, at a different time of day, or when the Sun is obscured by clouds. Like it is in E. Yorks

Thought as much, but as I only come in from the sticks a couple of times a year, I'll have to keep an eye on the weather. It's a lot balmier down here in the south, but not like it is in the US and Canada - bet that strong reflections are the last thing folks over there are worrying about right now

Thanks again,

Seri

[Mick]

[QUOTEDid you do it all in LR? How did you do it?][/QUOTE]

Yes i did, wish I knew how to take a snap of the screen!

Exp. -1.39
Recov = 29
Fill lt = 23
Blacks = 10

Clarity = +75

Tonal curve

Highlights = -50
Lights -13
Darks = -8
shadows +5

greens (saturation) -61
Aqua -54
Blues -100

Detail

Amount - 27
radius - 1.8
detail - 90


Camera Calibration

red Prim
Sat - -10

green
sat - -3

Blue
sat - +12


I don't use LR that often, so this was a good exercise. Thank you

Bracketing your exposures may help = correct, + & - by a stop, if you do that now, sorry. If not, give it a whirl. And take your light reading from a middle zone tone

I bet there are lots of interesting objects to capture around old buildings like this one.

Mistakes are the way forward!

Have fun

[Seriche]

[QUOTEDid you do it all in LR? How did you do it?]

Yes i did, wish I knew how to take a snap of the screen!

Exp. -1.39
Recov = 29
Fill lt = 23
Blacks = 10

Clarity = +75

Tonal curve

Highlights = -50
Lights -13
Darks = -8
shadows +5

greens (saturation) -61
Aqua -54
Blues -100

Detail

Amount - 27
radius - 1.8
detail - 90


Camera Calibration

red Prim
Sat - -10

green
sat - -3

Blue
sat - +12

Mick, it really was very kind of you to do it the longer way round. I wish I could tell you how to do a screen capture, but I haven't got round to it myself yet.

I don't use LR that often, so this was a good exercise. Thank you

You're welcome Although new to the whole PP thing, I'm very impressed with how much LR3 can achieve. Won't touch CS5 until I've exhausted Lightroom's possibilities.

Bracketing your exposures may help = correct, + & - by a stop, if you do that now, sorry. If not, give it a whirl. And take your light reading from a middle zone tone

Thank you. I'll try that tomorrow, but today Domesticity rules, and since she's usually an absent ruler, I obey her on her rare visits to the Kingdom

I bet there are lots of interesting objects to capture around old buildings like this one.

I wish there was an abbey or two nearby, like you have, but our local churches are ancient and full of all kinds of beautiful surprises. I shall probably spend even more time in them come winter.

Mistakes are the way forward!

Have fun

The great thing about learning photography is that it's even fun when you're making mistakes

Seri

[DaveWilky]

Seri

I took one look at your pic and i thought that would make a great b/w shot, here`s what i came up with in photoshop, hope you dont mind.

[FrankMi]

Hi Mick, I'm not sure how to do a screen shot on the MAC, but on the PC, most keyboards have a 'Print Screen' button that puts a copy of the screen image in the Windows Clipboard. You can then open Accessories/Paint and do a Control V (or Edit/Paste) to open the image in Paint. Then just save the image as a JPG. Hope this Helps!

[Mick]

Hey Frank

Thanks mate, I'll give that a go.

Cheers dude

[ScoutR]

Or if you are using windows7 do a search and find and set up the snipping tool.

Wendy

[Mick]

Snipping tool, sounds fun!

Thanks Wendy, I'll look for that too

[Mick]

Wendy, just found it, great... thanks

[Seriche]

Seri

I took one look at your pic and i thought that would make a great b/w shot, here`s what i came up with in photoshop, hope you dont mind.

Hi Dave,

I hadn't thought of that. It looks great The door now looks more solid and 3D too. When I start using CS5 I'll be coming to you for tips; I hope you know that

I don't mind anyone working on my photos. I'm always grateful when they've taken the time to illustrate their advice. Maybe I should try to squeeze that into my signature

Many thanks, Dave.

Seri

[Macmahon]

Hey Seri
Looking at the black and whites prompted me to have a 2 minute go in Lightroom.
Here's what I got. Key thing for lowering your door highlights was a reduction in the blue contribution to the b&w mix.
Cheers
Tim

[Seriche]

Hey Seri
Looking at the black and whites prompted me to have a 2 minute go in Lightroom.
Here's what I got. Key thing for lowering your door highlights was a reduction in the blue contribution to the b&w mix.
Cheers
Tim

Thanks a bunch for that, Tim

It's amazing how much we can overlook when we don't think hard enough about a problem. Due to having done a bit of watercolour painting in the past I knew that both reflections and shadows have individual colours, but when trying to work out which sliders to use in LR, I only thought in terms of black and white and never considered lowering the blues.

Mick took the blues right down too, but when reading his settings first time round, I missed the significance of that move.

Thanks to you both I won't make the assumption that reflections are white ever again

Seri