Lightroom Playground Week 15

[rhynetc]

Gene tagged me for this week's Playground, so here is my submission:
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The purpose of this weekly challenge is to encourage creative experimentation with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. All Lightroom users are welcome to join in and for those who don't have Lightroom but wish to play, here is the link to the 30-day trial version.

Please make any adjustments you choose to the following image and post your results in this thread. Share how you processed the image and provide information on any develop presets used. All modifications on the image should be made in Lightroom.

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Fall foliage on the Blue Ridge Parkway as it crosses Grandfather Mountain on the Lynn Cove Viaduct. I previously posted a similar shot in my gallery.



The DNG RAW file with no previous editing:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8zh16q

Have fun!

[robpendragon]

Great shot Tom,
I pretty much just worked on the main adjustment sliders...exposure, darks, clarity, vibrance & tone adjustments. Cropped it to emphasize the horizon & added some vignetting.

[Chuck S.]

Really well exposed right out of the camera!

Test drive on Matt's Vividity Preset Level 3:

[Edmund]

Here is my shot at this great image.
Eddie

[rhynetc]

Thanks Rob, Chuck, and Eddie for your treatment of this image using Lightroom.

I thought we might have more participation than this, but maybe I've botched it by posting a raw file which is, as Chuck says above, "really well exposed right out of the camera." That doesn't allow Lightroom to show its stuff, so a file that needs more help would be a better challenge and perhaps would generate more interest.

I'm going to take the liberty of posting "Lightroom Playground Week 15.5" with an image that will be a greater test of Lightroom processing (and of our skills in processing with this great tool).

This time let's see what we can do with this mountain sunrise:



The DNG RAW file with no previous editing:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/i5ziy6

[JulieM]

Hey, Tom, that's nice of you to post a second image. I'm downloading both right now. Have had a busy week so far with not much time to play...

[rhynetc]

Thanks, Julie.

I'm looking forward to seeing your interpretation of these images.

Tom

[JulieM]

This is such a lovely image. The only time I ever drove the Parkway, there were a lot more cars. Practically bumper to bumper if I recall!



I reset the white point (but I think I got that wrong), boosted clarity and saturation, gave the tones a bit of a "s", and increased saturation of the blues and aquas in HSL. Also increased the luminance in the oranges. I rather like the outcome but the original was great to start.

Thanks for posting this, Tom!

[JulieM]

This is a very dramatic sky. I loved it the way it was but here is my edit.



I cropped and applied a preset called 400 V2 by Gavin Seim. Got it here if anyone is interested in a set of cool effects.

[GaryK]

I had trouble with this one..you guys did such a great job, mine looks somewhat anemic.