Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2: Salvaging Underexposed Photos

[Refer to this post for information about Adobe Lightroom 2 software and to apply for the academic discount you qualify for as a homeschooler.]

I have a really bad habit of not checking the settings when I start shooting, which means my white balance, ISO, etc. are usually all wrong on the first pictures I take.

Unfortunately, sometimes I don’t notice until I download the photos and discover they’re all bad! The good news is that my camera and Lightroom are much smarter than I am, and between the two of them I’ve been able to save a lot of images that would have otherwise been deleted.

We took a field trip to a historic gold rush museum this fall. Amazingly enough, we arrived early and had fun walking around the town square. The kids sat on a rock wall to wait, and I took their picture. As usual, my settings were all wrong on the first two shots. When I looked at the display, they looked completely black.

After downloading to my computer, they didnt look much better. The thing is, I know my camera is smarter than I am. This photo was taken in the morning, not the middle of the night, so the camera would have captured something in spite of my ineptitude.

Now let’s move into Lightroom, which can reveal underexposed photos like mine. To edit you will need to be in Develop (on my Mac, typing “D” takes me to the Develop module).

We’re going to look particularly at the “Tone” section on the right.

See those sliders? If you drag the Exposure slider to the right, it will increase the exposure of your photo; go to the left and you’ll decrease it. My photo needed increased exposure. I also increased brightness and then bumped the contrast slightly. [We'll talk about those lovely Recovery, Fill Light, and Blacks sliders later, some of the most-used Lightroom tricks up my sleeve.] Here’s how the slider looked when I finished.

My photo wasn’t frame-on-the-wall worthy, but at least I had the satisfaction of actually seeing it. This isn’t going to work if your photo was actually taken in the dark, because your camera probably didn’t capture anything. If you’re like me, though, you may have some salvageable photos just waiting to be revealed.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Suggestions for future columns? Email me at dawn@heartofthemattermagazine.com

Recommended Resources:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby
(http://www.kelbytraining.com/product/adobe-photoshop-lightroom-20-book-fordigital-
photographers.html)

Check out my article on page 30 of the funky flipbook edition of Heart of the Matter Magazine.

Dawn has been homeschooling her eight children–ages pre-K to college–since 1993. Her interests include photography, and both graphic and web design. She is the owner of Barefoot Blog Designs, and also blogs at My Home Sweet Home, her photoblog and The Homeschool Post.

Tags: Adobe, Adobe Lightroom 2, fixing underexposed photos, ISO, photography, salvaging photos

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