Shadows and Dynamic Range

[John_SD]

I shot this the other day with a T6 and tried to pull as much detail out of the shadows as I could with Lightroom. Mainly I twiddled with the shadow slider. I remain dissatisfied.Would a camera with better DR have made much of a difference in this case?

[RobertTheFat]

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@John_SD wrote:

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

If you have PS, do you know how to use masks and layers? LR has its limits and that is when you go tp PS.

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No, I don't have the subscription that includes PS, but I can cange my subscription to include it. I may do so at some point. For nature and wildlife I can see that I might need it. But for now, I'll likely stick with LR, despite some limits, until I become more fluent in its use. ; and tere's no sense pretending that you don't.

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Contrary to what you may hear in this forum and elsewhere, Photoshop is not a program that everyone needs. Even many professionals don't need it. But when you do need it, there it is. I'm not necessarily suggesting that you need it here; overcoming contrast issues is sort of at the lower end of Photoshop's capabilities. But for many a photographer, there comes a time when (s)he has to take that step. I have not had to take that step, but there are some (possibly including me?) who will someday.

[ebiggs1]

"Contrary to what you may hear in this forum and elsewhere, Photoshop" ... is as simple or as complex as you want it.

In reality if not in the "need' world, PS can be set up to operate just like LR. Yet will go much further in its ability to edit photos. Folks that claim PS is unnecessary are generally the ones that don't know how to use it.

[Waddizzle]

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@John_SD wrote:

This is after some edits with the black/white/contrast/exposure sliders. Still not where I want it, but this is more an exercise in trying to get better with Lightroom. Thanks for all the tips, gents!

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Did you experiment with the [Highlights] and [Shadows] sliders, at all?  It looks like the shadows have brightened.  I am not a fan of how LR automatically sets black and white levels often times, so I do it manually by holding down the [ALT] key.  You should try holding down [ALT] when you use certain sliders.

What is missing from the photo?  

[John_SD]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

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@John_SD wrote:

This is after some edits with the black/white/contrast/exposure sliders. Still not where I want it, but this is more an exercise in trying to get better with Lightroom. Thanks for all the tips, gents!

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Did you experiment with the [Highlights] and [Shadows] sliders, at all?  It looks like the shadows have brightened.  I am not a fan of how LR automatically sets black and white levels often times, so I do it manually by holding down the [ALT] key.  You should try holding down [ALT] when you use certain sliders.

What is missing from the photo?  

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I did adjust the HIghlights and Shadows and that certainly helped. I am now using the Temperature and Vibrance controls (gently) which is producing surprisingly better results, in my view. I did use the Alt key, with some jarring results LOL. I'll have to play with that some more.